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Over the holiday season, my wife and I each had two weeks off at home to reflect after a challenging year. She’s a school teacher, so the holiday break is a usual component of her schedule; however, as someone who worked rotating shifts—including holidays, overnights, and everywhere in-between—prior to this year, this was uncharted territory for me. Even when I do have time off, I usually fill it with travel, providing little opportunity for true relaxation and introspection. Aside from a couple of local day trips around the Black Hills, this was a legitimate staycation.
No formal professional obligations over a two-week period permitted the psychological bandwidth to explore. My wife and I conducted a “12 Days of Affirmations” over the holidays, laying out themes and values for the year ahead. I implemented a new daily routine, prioritizing free writing and meditation as non-negotiable morning practices. And, as I’m sure many others are finding themselves doing, I noticed myself leveraging AI in more and more ways.
An Old Technology, but a Boom Brings New Concerns
AI, or artificial intelligence, is nothing new. The term has roots extending to the 1950s, when it was coined by John McCarthy in a proposal for a workshop at Dartmouth College. Despite occasional so-called “AI winters” since, AI has nonetheless been commonly used for research and technology advancements in each decade of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Now, AI is ubiquitous, with related tools and applications increasing in number and complexity daily. AI drives everything from mundane searches on Google to personalized medical diagnoses and care to, potentially, even popular soul music.
With the rise of AI comes concerns about its rampant use, both from environmental and ethical perspectives. The potential environmental ramifications of AI are monumental, as the energy required for its supporting data centers and other infrastructure could lead to significant greenhouse gas emissions and water use. AI could worsen the already glaring problem of e-waste, with estimates suggesting AI could contribute up to an additional 5 million metric tons of e-waste per year by 2030. Further, the AI buildout is increasing demand for numerous minerals, including rare earth elements. The required mining operations produce toxic waste and pollution, including the potential for the contamination of groundwater and waterways.
Ethically, AI raises concerns of bias, transparency, privacy, and societal impacts—such as job displacement and the resulting inequality. AI is increasingly being used by criminals, with hundreds of cases of “deepfakes” and fraud reported in 2025. Hallucinations can result in AI producing seemingly accurate information, down to specific references for its claims, which ends up entirely bogus. Additionally, AI chatbots are responsible for spreading misinformation, with popular platforms such as ChatGPT, Grok, and Meta more likely to perpetuate falsehoods in 2025 when compared to a similar test in 2024.
The Bots are Alright
Let’s take a deep breath at this point and accept that AI has its flaws, as explored above. With the observed, seemingly exponential, increase in AI use, these can be hard to reconcile—especially for individuals who are especially environmentally or socially conscious.
So what’s the good news?
Despite the bleak outlook just explored, if used responsibly, AI has the potential to transform the world for the better. As noted above, AI is leveraged by doctors for image analysis to aid in diagnoses and can be used for preventive health recommendations based on individual factors. Tools created by AI can also serve as personal assistants, improving productivity in the workplace or offering individualized educational plans for students. Though it can be used to conduct fraud in the wrong hands, AI can also be leveraged to detect fraud, safeguarding you from phishing, identity theft, and other forms of fraud. AI-driven precision farming is leading to more productive and efficient agriculture while reducing water waste. These are just a handful of the innumerable potential benefits of AI.
Balancing the Scales
Whether you see the scales tipping toward “largely good” or “mostly bad” in terms of AI’s impact on the world and society, the reality is: it’s here; it’s not going away, and it will affect most of us. The likelihood is that most careers could be irrevocably changed as a result of AI implementation and adoption.
In response, our charge is to get familiar with AI tools and capabilities now to determine how to leverage it as a tool. By effectively incorporating AI in our lives, we can establish security and resiliency in the face of an otherwise uncertain future. AI is just another tool and variable for you—the human constant—to leverage as you pursue a more efficient workflow, more valuable skill set, and a more flexible personal life.
The Journey Ahead
With that in mind, through the remainder of the year, I will be authoring a series of blog posts highlighting innovative uses of AI in both personal and professional contexts. Some of these applications I’ve already incorporated in my daily life or workflow, whereas others will be just as new to me as they are to you, and we’ll explore those together. Here’s a brief sneak peak at what’s in store.
Know Thyself: How could you leverage AI tools to more thoroughly recognize your strengths and limitations, thus setting yourself up for success?
Last summer, I used AI to synthesize results from strengths-based and personality tests that I have taken in recent years. Iterating with the chatbot, I was able to explore professional roles that would be ideal given my strengths and unique skill sets, while also identifying potential blind spots at work and at home.
RELATED ARTICLE: I asked AI About Myself. The results were shocking!
Skill Building and Vibe Coding: How can AI work for you to help expand your skillsets and create tools?
Over winter break, I spent some hours converting existing computer programming code and scripts into interactive, web-based applications that could be viewed publicly. Though I had prior experience with coding, this endeavor bordered on the new phenomenon of vibe coding, in which an innovative individual with little or no programming experience but an excellent idea can produce a working application in as little as a few hours. Whether you want to develop a new tool, build upon an existing personal attribute, or expand your professional skillset, AI can help you do it.
Optimizing: How can AI do the dirty work and free up time for you to thrive?
One of the quickest ways to leverage AI in your routine—personal or professional—is to automate routine tasks to unlock time for creativity. Need to summarize several documents to prepare for an upcoming meeting? Looking to develop a meal plan for the week given a specific diet, including drafting up a grocery list? Want to automatically draft and send emails to clients for your trivia service when new content is available? Look no further than AI.
Moving Forward Together
Throughout this journey, I encourage your input and feedback:
- What are your general thoughts about AI?
- Are you mostly concerned or excited about AI and its applications?
- How are you using AI now?
- What other applications of AI would you like to explore?
AI is transforming the world. Together, we can ensure it’s for the better.
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