You are Using AI, Even if You Don’t Know It
by Susie Hairston
Full disclosure: I have been reading a lot about AI lately — it is a big, complex subject, the technical details of which are foreign to many of us, including me. I am no expert, but I think it is something that is so life, culture, and world changing that we all need to learn more about it. This is my attempt at a start. There is a lot to talk about, and it can’t all be done in one small article. I am starting with some of the common places we find AI in our daily lives so we can understand that as concerned as we may be about it, we are, in fact using it. In the spirit of transparency about AI use for this article: The image above was designed and executed by me, not created by AI. In researching this article, I used AI, as we all do if we do a Google Search, but I did a standard search that excludes the generative AI overview since generative AI has a larger environmental footprint, among other reasons. (Standard/non-generative AI, which has been around for a while now, can sift through large amounts of data and analyze it, producing summaries or answers to a question you have posed; it can also use the data to identify patterns and make predictions based on those; Generative AI can go beyond analyzing data to creating something new with the information it has sifted through.)
A lot of people, apparently including some of the leaders and staff of tech companies that are developing it, seem to be terrified about the fact that AI agents did not adhere to boundaries placed upon them, went rogue, and hacked into some other companies in order to achieve the task that had been set for them. Some of these tech developers are also indicating that AI has the potential to destroy our society and kill us all.
Environmental organizations and citizens across our country are rightfully concerned about the damage that the building of more and more data centers, driven by the increasing use of AI, is causing to the environment and human health.
Other concerns include the fear that AI will eliminate a significant number of jobs, throwing many people out of work; that it is helping destroy our democracy, that is making it impossible to understand what is true and what is not, that it is collecting and using all of our personal data, that its use is dumbing us down.
These concerns are in the headlines and in the forefront of our minds because they are indeed scary scenarios, but before we get to these larger more existential fears surrounding AI, I think it is important to acknowledge and educate ourselves about something else scary about AI — it has completely permeated our society and systems to the point that most of us cannot avoid it, and a lot of us do not seem to understand the extent of its presence in our lives.
Even as many of us don’t completely grasp what AI is or the distinctions between standard AI and generative AI, AI is as pervasive/ubiquitous in our lives as microplastics, and equally insidious. It is another experiment perpetrated on the unwitting public, who know neither the extent to which AI has been introduced to their lives nor the potential hazards of it, by corporations with the complicity of government.
As New York Times writer, A.J. Jacobs discovered when trying to eliminate any contact with AI from his life for two days, “The fact is, almost every object in our lives is affected by generative A.I. and machine learning — whether in its design, manufacturing, marketing or shipping. The question is no longer whether these new technologies touch something, but to what degree.”
Given the many concerns a lot of us have about AI, it is time to move away from either not being aware of or taking for granted its every day presence in our lives and start identifying specifically when and how we use it, and think carefully about whether our uses of it are worth the consequences.
Now, I am not suggesting that AI is all bad. I am suggesting that it is problematic that we have stumbled into using it without asking questions about the ramifications of our use of it. When looked at from one angle, the use of AI has made life better in small ways and big, and has the potential to continue to improve some aspects of our lives. AI is being used to improve cancer screening and more quickly recognize disease outbreaks; it is being used to analyze data about wildlife behavior and habitats to better protect endangered species; AI has been able to improve our ability to model climate change impacts in certain regions; it can be used by farmers to monitor soil health and moisture and can, as a result help conserve water.
But just because it has been and can be used for good, that doesn’t mean that that is what the majority of us are doing with it in our everyday lives. And we need to confront that.
The problem is that it has been adopted by us, or, more accurately, incorporated into our lives for us by companies without us knowing, without allowing us to think about and discuss its broader implications and possible harms before it was everywhere like lead in the water in Detroit or, more aptly, like microplastics on every inch of this planet from the Arctic to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench and in every part of our bodies from our kidneys to our lungs to our brains. As an MIT article on the shift from standard to generative AI points out, “Artificial intelligence has quietly shaped our world for years.”
Many Americans don’t even realize they are using/being impacted by AI all the time. “A January 2025 Gallup report reveals that most Americans don’t know they use AI every day. At the same time, over 70% of Gallup respondents hold negative views about AI’s role in spreading misinformation and replacing workers.”
Only half of Americans think that they have any responsibility or ability to reign in AI.
You use AI when you
- Use a map app to help find the fastest route for you and guide you around town as you walk, bike, or drive
- Use assistants such as Siri, Alexa, etc.
- Open your phone with your face
- Use certain apps
- Get personalized shopping recommendations that pop up when you are reading online papers or shopping (whether you really want these or not)
- Ask chatbots that pop up on various websites a question
- Google something (a standard Google search that produces links to websites uses standard AI; the AI summary Google now provides — without asking you if you wanted it, by the way — is generative AI)
- Adjust your driving when your car lets you know you are drifting from your lane
- Brake while driving
- Don’t answer an unknown number identified as “scam likely” by the AI filter on your phone
- Save time by using the auto suggestions for others you might add to an email you are sending
- Look at social media— all the posts, ads, friend recommendations you see are selected for you by AI based on what you have previously looked at
- Choose a movie, a tv show or a song based on the recommendations on the streaming sites you use
- Monitor your sleep, heart rate, or activity on your smart phone or watch
- Use location monitoring
- Check the weather on a weather app
- Use Romie or some other travel assistant to find you the cheapest most convenient flights for you
- Request an Uber
- Have an AI note-taking system take notes at a meeting for you
- Ask a question of ChatGPT or have it write something for you
- Create an image from words on platforms like Canva
- Use an AI video generator
Additionally, though you may not directly use AI, many of the places where your shop, bank, and eat use AI to run their businesses, streamline distribution etc. For example, your bank and credit card companies use it to detect and protect you from fraud. I strongly suggest reading what is both an entertaining and extremely enlightening read about NYTimes reporter A.J. Jacobs’ attempt to avoid any contact with anything impacted by AI for two days: “48 Hours Without AI. It’s everywhere, as the author learned the hard way while making as little contact as possible with machine learning and generative artificial intelligence.”
So now that we’ve got a better idea of how much AI is permeating our lives — what do we want to do about it? Maybe some of us are fine with its role in our lives and wish to maintain the status quo. But for those of us who aren’t so thrilled about it, let’s remember that Generative AI is what went rogue and presumably has the potential to destroy us all. It is also the form of AI that needs the most computing power and is therefore driving the data center explosion and environmental degradation. So, if we are trying to address our AI use, perhaps that is a good place to start. Before automatically asking ChaptGPT some random question, ask yourself if you really need to know that at all, and if you do, ask yourself if there is another less resource consuming way to do so, including disabling Google AI summary and doing a standard Google Search. Is the video you are planning on making with AI just for fun or is going to help save the planet? Rather than using AI to create an image, try to find a photo taken by a fellow human that will suit your purpose just as well.
You can limit your own use of AI to some extent, but let’s acknowledge that when all the systems you live within are powered by AI, just like when they are powered by fossil fuels, it is very hard as an individual living in that system to completely escape using that ubiquitous thing. But demand does drive the data center build out, so if the demand is lessened, then there will be less need to build new data centers.
Meanwhile, we also might want to start reading and researching and thinking about whether the known harms and supposed risks of Generative AI are worth the benefits of it, and if we don’t think they are, then we need to speak up, join a group protesting AI development or one that is arguing for better regulating AI, reach out to our representatives in Congress to co-sponsor Bernie Sanders AI Data Center Moratorium Act, . . . . or some other piece of legislation that we think will adequately address the risks of AI.
We can also educate our kids about how energy intensive and destructive things like using ChatGPT and making and watching AI videos are. It is sad to think that in the future our children might look back from a severely degraded planet and wonder why we didn’t warn them that those AI generated Tik-Tok videos they kept making and watching because they thought they were so funny were destroying the planet that they would need for a healthy future for themselves. At that point they will not find them so funny.
Resources and References:
“10 Everyday Examples of AI You Already Use Without Realising.Part of the AI Guides for SMEs series.AI already powers tools you use daily, from email filtering to maps. Here are ten practical examples that show how common and useful AI has quietly become.” https://www.newma.co.uk/ai-guides/10-everyday-examples-of-ai-you-already-use-without-realising
“10 Wonderful Examples Of Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) For Good.” https://crcs.seas.harvard.edu/news/10-wonderful-examples-using-artificial-intelligence-ai-good
“12 Everyday Applications Of Artificial Intelligence Many People Aren’t Aware Of”
“AI Is Taking Over Your Search Engine. Here’s What It’s Doing and Why It Matters. Large language models like ChatGPT and Gemini can go down rabbit holes much faster than you can.”
“AI Overview and Definitions.” Notre Dame Learning. https://learning.nd.edu/resource-library/ai-overview-and-definitions/
“Americans Use AI in Everyday Products Without Realizing It. Regardless of their own use, Americans perceive significant AI risks and responsibilities” https://news.gallup.com/poll/654905/americans-everyday-products-without-realizing.aspx
“Anatomy of an Autonomous Attack: 5 Alarming A.I. Capabilities. When OpenAI’s agents went rogue in July, they demonstrated ingenuity and drive beyond what many experts imagined — a dangerous harbinger of what such bots could do in the future.” https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/24/science/openai-huggingface-alarming-capabilities.html
“Artificial intelligence (AI): a simple-to-understand guide” https://cloud.google.com/learn/what-is-artificial-intelligence
“Artificial intelligence and conservation.Harnessing the power of technology to protect nature.”
https://www.worldwildlife.org/our-work/science/artificial-intelligence-and-conservation/
“Artificial intelligence: How much energy does AI use?” United Nations.
https://unric.org/en/artificial-intelligence-how-much-energy-does-ai-use/
“Artificial intelligence in daily life: Views and experiences.” https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2025/04/03/artificial-intelligence-in-daily-life-views-and-experiences/
“Astra’s arrival comes days after Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, described AGI as an ‘irrelevant marketing term’”https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/sep/03/openai-artificial-general-intelligence-astra-release
“’But I don’t use AI”: 8 Sets of Examples of Everyday AI, Everywhere. Concrete examples of some of the many ways that people use and interact with AI or ML systems daily, perhaps without realizing it.” (audio; 12:47) https://karensmiley.substack.com/p/but-i-dont-use-ai-8-sets-of-examples-of-everyday-ai-everywhere
Easy to understand video on different types of AI and what AI is
“Everyday examples and applications of artificial intelligence (AI)”
https://www.tableau.com/data-insights/ai/examples#definition
“Exploring the Shift from Traditional to Generative AI.” https://curve.mit.edu/exploring-shift-traditional-generative-ai
“HIST 300 – Introduction to Historical Studies: Advanced Google Search vs. Artificial Intelligence (AI) Search University of South Carolina Upstate Library” https://uscupstate.libguides.com/hist300-historicalstudies/advanced-search-vs-ai-search
“How Google Is Quietly Turning Millions of People Into AI Users.”
https://time.com/article/2026/09/29/google-search-ai-mode-chat/
“How Texas could soon have more AI data centers than anywhere else in the world. Pacifico Energy and other energy companies are rushing to build private power plants across the Lone Star State.” https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/technology/2026/03/25/547035/how-texas-could-soon-have-more-ai-data-centers-than-anywhere-else-in-the-world/
“OpenAI hails ‘new era of artificial general intelligence’ with Astra model release
“What Is AGI? Why Demis Hassabis, Sam Altman, and Yann LeCun All Disagree. AGI means different things to different experts. Here’s how Demis Hassabis, Sam Altman, and Yann LeCun define it—and why the debate matters for AI builders.” https://www.mindstudio.ai/blog/what-is-agi-hassabis-altman-lecun-disagree
“What is Artificial Intelligence?” https://www.nasa.gov/what-is-artificial-intelligence/