7 Ways to Minimise GenAI in Your Life

Allyson Shaw

10 Jul 2025 — 3 min read

—and why this matters—

In this Missive:

Soul searching about the ecological & spiritual cost of Generative AI
7 Ways to Minimise the Presence of Generative AI in Your Life
Links to other posts I have written about GenAI.

This was a much longer post, but I lost several files when I upgraded to the new iOS. (I also lost the outline of a novel.) Let this be some kind of object lesson. Perhaps if I can summon it, the rest will come next month.

I’m old enough to know better, to have lived life another way—without algorithmic feeds and Generative AI. I’m looking back, not to claim some kind of nostalgic escape but for tools to move forward. My generation built the internet into a tool everyone could use. I remember those early days, learning to code in HTML, hosting listservs, and starting a web log. I was filled with optimism, and the World Wide Web promised an open, egalitarian space.

That vision has been corrupted by venture capitalists and billionaires who now push Generative AI onto us in every digital activity. This unregulated, cannibalistic technology has become immediately and irrevocably present in our lives.

It's a small, daily way of refusing a reality imposed on us--a rehearsal for larger disobedience.

For eight years I taught Argumentation and Research at the university level, and I asked my students to always think critically, to evaluate the greater context of any idea. I would say a source is only as good as its citation. Generative AI threatens to obliterate our ability to effectively evaluate sources and think critically. This infiltration is happening so quickly that our souls have whiplash from the cultural collision with this technology.

Meta has stolen the work of my colleagues. This cultural theft is unprecedented in the history of the written word. Musicians, artists and writers now must compete with their own pirated works in an already algorithmically challenging landscape.

The novelty of Generative AI comes at an enormous price. Generative AI consumes vast amounts of energy and clean water. Greenhouse gas emissions from Big Tech’s AI are over 660% larger than reported. Microsoft and ChatGPT are now turning to nuclear energy to fuel their language learning systems. The environmental cost of AI is disastrous, and this alone should make us question its use.

7 ways to minimize the presence of AI in your life

We are way past a boycotting stage; these are things I’m doing to minimise the presence of Generative AI in my life. It's s a small, daily way of refusing a reality imposed on us--a rehearsal for larger disobedience.

Unplug from devices and online life as much as possible. Read a book. Sing. Play or Learn a musical instrument. Draw, paint, write long hand on paper. Knit. Brew. Meander. Garden. Dance. Go clean a beach/park/woodland of plastic detritus.
Invent other offline endeavours and share them with others--leave them here in the comments.
Turn off all devices when not using them—this saves energy & helps make your use of tech more intentional.
Maximise time spent online. When you log on, consider what you want to do. Set an intention. Be focused about what you hope to find out, who you want to connect with, what you will see/watch/do.
Consider offers of Generative AI help carefully—can what I’m doing be accomplished without this ‘help’?
Do some soul searching—is there a helpful use of Artificial Intelligence in my life right now? What parts of my life am I willing to give over to this in exchange?
Ask yourself what you're unwilling to give up to Generative AI. Your voice? Your writing or art? Photographs you have taken? Your creative process? Has this already been taken from you or those you love, respect or admire? How does that reality feel, and how can those emotions guide you in moving forward?