The Future of Everything is Lies, I Guess: Where Do We Go From Here?

A concluding essay in a series examining the societal impact of machine learning, written by a skeptical software engineer. The author argues that LLMs are already causing widespread harm — degrading search results, displacing workers, consuming energy, enabling fraud and CSAM, and eroding human skills. Drawing an analogy to how the automobile reshaped cities in ways both convenient and catastrophic, the author urges developers to stop using AI tools personally, push back against corporate mandates to adopt them, advocate for regulation, and consider quitting jobs at AI labs. The piece ends with an honest admission that LLMs are tempting even for the author, acknowledging the tension between principled resistance and practical convenience.