A growing number of individuals across various sectors are purposefully resisting the adoption of artificial intelligence in their daily lives and work. Some high school students, federal workers, creatives, and software engineers have chosen to minimize or forgo AI altogether, citing concerns over data privacy, accuracy, skill‐erosion, and its environmental footprint.
Despite widespread corporate and institutional encouragement to integrate AI tools like chatbots and automated software, these “AI abstainers” are pushing back. For instance, a 16-year-old student in Arlington, Virginia opts not to use AI for her schoolwork, preferring to rely on her own thinking and expressing worry about biases and errors in AI outputs.
Workers in multiple industries told the The Washington Post they try to use AI as little as possible—disabling features in search engines, avoiding internal AI tools—and some fear that reliance on AI could undercut their professional credibility if a system makes a mistake in a sensitive context like a federal dataset.
However, opting out is becoming increasingly difficult. Many workplaces and tools embed AI features by default; not using them can signal reluctance or risk being labeled outdated. Still, for some the choice is worth the trade‐off, prioritizing autonomy, accuracy, and maintaining human skill over following the surge toward automation.
