Have you become an AI-critic yet?
Curious where others stand when it comes to the outlook on AI tools
With every wave of hype, critics aren’t far behind — and AI is no exception. I’ve realized I embody every type along the tech belief spectrum below. Does that make me a hypocrite for using AI? I’m not sure.
Technophile: Loves and embraces tech; excited by innovation. Attitude? Enthusiastic, positive. “Tech makes life better and cooler!”
Techno-optimist: Believes tech can solve major global problems. Attitude? Hopeful, sometimes idealistic. “Tech is the key to human progress.”
Techno-pragmatist: Sees tech as useful if applied wisely and ethically. Attitude? Cautious, balanced. “Tech helps—when thoughtfully managed.”
Techno-skeptic: Distrusts hype; concerned about harm or overreach. Attitude? Wary, critical. “Not all tech is good—proceed with caution.”
Techno-critic: Opposes much of modern tech as dehumanizing or exploitative. Attitude? Resistant, sometimes radical. “We were better off before all this.”
Me as a technophile, the eternal optimist
Like many of you, I’ve been diving deep into AI tools now that they’re more accessible than ever. I’ve always imagined a future where tech would make my life easier and used to joke about making a Slackbot clone of myself that could pull context, ask questions, and reply in my likeness. That reality isn’t far off, as long as I’ve fed an LLM enough data. I could outsource all the repetitive, mundane tasks to it, right? As a TPM, I could save so much time writing narratives in my voice… also, let’s create MCP servers for all the things! In fact, at this point, I would probably think twice about taking a role where they didn’t already have the infrastructure in place such that I could use them on a day-to-day basis to help with my job. Studio Ghibli me away, there are worse things in this world that is happening.
The realist
But… are these tools actually effective, compared to the investments we are putting in? How much energy and resources have we wasted for marginal gains? How much of the ocean have we burned? The speed of adoption is outpacing education and regulation. It’s like the recycling program – where the burden is generally pushed down to the consumers instead of solving it at scale at the manufacturing level. My stance on whether the use of AI is a net benefit does not outweigh my need for a paycheck and healthcare. If food is only being made available in non-recyclable containers, then yes I would still buy it to survive. That’s why it’s important for the companies creating this tech to think about and create mitigations for these risks that they are creating.
Throw the internet into the fire
Maybe this comes from working in Trust & Safety, but there are days where I want to unplug the internet entirely, especially for the sake of protecting children and vulnerable communities. AI tools aren’t just trained on “stolen” work, they’re stripping away human connection at scale. Instead of asking a friend a question, now you just Google it. Instead of building relationships with other humans, we now have AI companions. If you resist these tools at work, you may risk becoming a pariah. As companies become AI-first and there is a push for AI tool adoption, I think AI skeptics will become more prevalent, even if we started out starry-eyed.
So which type do you relate to the most on the spectrum, and why? Whether you’re still in the honeymoon stage with AI tools or want a divorce, I think it’s important to try to understand each other without aiming to shut down the conversation. So yeah, maybe I didn’t need to generate an AI action figure… but it’s cute.
This post was originally on LinkedIn.