Prompt: "Tell me the cost of boredom"

An opinion piece by Kat Kellogg

I hate AI with a burning passion. I have no shame in admitting my bias against it. I understand AI has its place in life-changing research like medicine and engineering; however, for the average person using it, generative AI does nothing an adult human cannot do. AI is unstimulating, boring, unimaginative, and lifeless. I go to college to study marketing, which I am passionate about. At 10am on a Monday, I filled my bloodstream with caffeine to stay awake and

to learn in my college classes. My brain cells are jumping around my brain like a DVD logo, ready to absorb new knowledge in my senior level courses. I have always been eager to learn, and am very vocal in class. I come into the classroom excited about the coursework, but then my professor and classmates type something in ChatGPT. We wait for a few minutes for it to generate something, and that is it. No socratic method, no discussion, just text on a screen. The caffeine dissipates in my system, and so has my excitement. Sadly, my disappointment is the least consequential result of AI. Looking beyond my boredom, these large language models have caused western societies so many issues. These issues extend beyond just the user, and have tangible impacts–with research and within communities. People using AI for common tasks

comes at the cost of our time, brain, and environment.

The purpose of going to college is to increase my chances in the job market. Engineering majors learn technical skills to work in the field. Communication majors learn to become strong writers to stand out from other job applicants. Marketing majors, who I am one of, learn to develop profitable strategies to sustain companies’ competitive advantages. One would think that in my four years as a business student, I would feel confident in being an up-and-coming marketing strategist; I am not. I am required, or extremely encouraged, to use AI for many of my assignments. In turn, I am not truly learning how to do these tasks. Generating a handful of sentences does not prepare me for succeeding in my career. How is one supposed to move beyond entry-level positions using AI if one cannot understand the impact these AI-based decisions make? Not only would I not understand the full extent of the opportunity costs, I also would not understand the effect it has on stakeholders—both investors and the local community. Would you trust a company with your investment money if they asked a robot what to do for everything? When companies that have a direct impact on human healthcare (UnitedHealthcare or Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield) get their hands on AI, would you trust a robot to process your insurance claims for life-saving procedures?

While I understand the importance of knowing how to use AI–as the major workforce disruptor in this decade–I feel dull, sad, melancholic. For my senior year, I was supposed to be excited to finally apply my skills to a real project, but the culmination of my knowledge is reduced to typing prompts to a non-sentient thing. Then another non-sentient thing will read it, if my professor chooses to use AI to grade. I already learned to write complete sentences in elementary school! I already tell people instructions for tasks in real life! In combination with other events this semester, my time should have been spent better outside of higher education. If I did not have a passion for law and made the decision to go to law school, I would not know what to do with myself. Not only does the wasted time spent in my undergrad classes make me sad about the devaluing of my time, it also can affect brain power.

An MIT team recently published a study looking at the cognitive costs of using a large language model (LLM), the most common type of AI used by everyday people, by looking at brain activity. The research team looked at neural connectivity and had three groups: brain-only, search engine, and LLM. The brain-only and search engine groups had different patterns, with brain-only showed the strongest connectivity, and search engine was intermediate. The LLM

group showed the weakest connectivity [1]. While the study states that this research did not look at long term usage, one can assume the constant usage of LLM assistance will affect one’s brain overtime [1]. The beauty of the human brain compared to other species is that our brain can create ideas on its own and execute them. Using AI for trivial matters is a disservice to not just

your brain, but yourself and your community.

One of the worst things AI does is impact our standard of living. Regardless of one’s opinion towards AI, the data centers affect everyone living nearby them. More Perfect Union, a non-profit newsroom, interviewed a couple living nearby a Meta data center in rural Georgia. The couple bought this home to live a quiet and peaceful life, where they can grow old together. However, their picturesque life changed when Zuckerberg’s data center moved into the neighborhood. Data centers, especially AI ones, require an extraordinary amount of electricity and water (to cool down the servers) [4]. The couple suffer from light pollution with constant

bright lights pointing towards their house. They have to frequently replace their appliances because their well water is polluted with sediment [4].

This is not just happening in remote locations. It is happening in my Midwestern backyard. Recently, residents of Michigan City, Indiana, have been protesting against an Amazon data center, which is taking up their drinking water supply [3]. Residents of Indianapolis also unionized against a Google data center. Their efforts were successful, as Google withdrew their proposal before the city council voted on it [3]. The increased demand on resources that data centers require will also skyrocket electricity bills. Even if one does not live directly next to a data center, their cost of living will increase if they are on the same electricity grid [2]. According to a Bloomberg article, electricity can cost over double the amount in one month than it did five years ago in the areas nearby data centers [2]. The cumulative cost of using AI for insubstantial tasks is making it difficult for everyone to live.

Using AI for common, everyday tasks is detrimental to humankind’s way of life. The constant usage makes education purposeless in terms of gaining new knowledge. Over time, using AI consistently can impact one’s brain. Finally, AI data centers wreck the standard of living of surrounding residents. As stated, AI has its benefits to humanity; however, the drawbacks it poses to people when used for trivial matters will make it even more difficult to live a comfortable life. In order to push the development of AI in the right, safe direction, one must take action in their own homes. Talk about the negative effects of using AI to your friends and

family. Unionize with your neighbors to protest data centers in your community at city council meetings. These growing pains with AI should not come at the cost of your time, the discreditation of your brain, and destruction of your standard of living.

References

[1] Kos’myna, N. (2025). Your brain on ChatGPT. MIT.

https://www.media.mit.edu/projects/your-brain-on-chatgpt/overview/

[2] More Perfect Union. (2025a). I Live 400 Yards From Mark Zuckerberg’s Massive Data

Center

[video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGjj7wDYaiI

[3] More Perfect Union. (2025b). I Live Next To Amazon's Largest Data Center. They're Stealing

Our Water [video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjkaYyysYhA

[4] Saul, J., Nicoletti, L., Pogkas, D., Bass, D., Mailk, N. (2025). AI Data Centers are Sending

Power Bills Soaring. Bloomberg.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-ai-data-centers-electricity-prices/