AI + Me: A Lovers to Enemies Arc

Blog #4:

Relationship to AI (Ferlazzo)

Jul 2, 2025

Two years ago if you had asked me my thoughts about AI, I would have told you that I was one of its biggest supporters. Much like Ferlazzo, I could acknowledge its benefits, both in its current capabilities and its possible iterations in the future. Ferlazzo is correct that AI is a powerful tool, particularly in its ability to save time and mental energy to complete seemingly mundane tasks. But to accept a viewpoint like Ferlazzo's would be to deny the wider implications of AI's tangible impacts on society—socially, politically, economically, environmentally, and educationally. 

Ferlazzo's positioning of AI as a net-neutral tool is particularly problematic. In using the metaphor of switching from a wooden to a steel plow, Ferlazzo creates a false equivalency in comparing upgraded tools with completely new ones. A more accurate comparison would be the digitization of books; a shift from visiting the library in person to find information to reading academic journals online. Ferlazzo would like us to believe that AI is just a step further—a new toy to help you get from point A to point B. Yet anyone familiar with the tech world would know that this ideological framing of AI is simply untrue. Artificial Intelligence is not a modern implementation of digital technology. AI is not playing by the same rulebook; it is completely inventing a new game. On the surface, AI is made to seem easy and effortless, but the truth is that more goes on behind the scenes than the average consumer is aware of. 

While working in digital advertising, I personally saw how the intersection of media and technology can result in impactful changes in human thinking and communication.

Here are some things that Ferlazzo conveniently left out:

• He mentions the diversity issues of AI, but undermines their intensity. LLM models are coded based on data sets fed by software developers, largely white, straight, men. This leads to AI responses that reinforce dominant systems of oppression in our society. 
• This lack of diversity in AI training sets have real-world impacts. For example, studies have shown that AI tools used by company HR departments unfairly prefer job applicants with names that indicate that an applicant is a white man. The AI algorithms choose applicants who they think may be white men over other applicants, despite having the same qualifications.
• AI Hallucinations - AI is not (yet) sentient. It is a coded computer system. Its job is to answer your question, and it will do so at any cost. AI often makes up false information to fulfill your request, and can provide information that has no evidence to support it. These false answers are known as "AI Hallucinations."
• AI is literally making us more stupid. Studies show that our neural pathways and cognitive functioning are harmed through the use of AI. This harm is even worse for teens and younger ages. 
• MIT Study
• Environmental Impacts - While AI may seem like an invisible product, it's not. AI computing takes place in huge warehouses, filled with large machines and computers. These warehouses use tons of water to keep the machines cool, resulting in large uses of water and electricity. Unsurprisingly, environmental effects disproportionately affect low-income communities.
• Harvard Business Review

This is not to say that I am completely against the use of AI for teachers. In fact, one of my favorite teaching tools is Diffit, which uses AI to assist teachers in differentiation for MLL levels and IEP requirements. What we must keep in mind, however, is that the tools we use are not neutral. An over-dependence on Artificial Intelligence will ultimately lead to a degradation of the very skills in critical thinking, resilience, and effort that we work to inculcate in our students.