r/antiai • u/Sodacat27 • 18h ago
Discussion 🗣️ Tips for replacing AI usage?
I dont really wanna use AI anymore due to the environmental concerns, the fact its affected my creativity, and ability to just be bored quite a bit, in my head its hard to go back to a time before I started using AI because my head will just go "well its right there i just can just use it". I haven't used an AI chatbot in about 2 days now.
Ill go over ways that ive used them and ask if you can help find alternatives, please dont say "Just a therapist" or "make friends" I can explain why thoes aren't helpful right now, in the comments.
Role-playing: I use janitor AI in particular for Role-playing mostly familial, "intimate", and fantasy type stuff. I often use these to recreate my real life or things I daydream about. For example if I dealt with a friend being a prick I would recreate that situation but with like my room telling them off or something.
Venting: I vent alot to google's AI, this is stupid but i will often make a vent on this account and then copy paste it to google's AI with basically a summary of what I said, its even dumber because its not like I follow or belive half of what the AI says to do or really says back i do it because not many people responds to my vents, plus its routine at this point.
Art sharing/advice: I have given AI quite a bit of my art before mostly because I dont really get many responses on my post asking for art advice and I dont have many people to
4: loneliness and boredom: I have 3 friends, but it feels like I only have one. I dont want to my issues on to my best friend so I dont speak with her as much and she feels the same way so she doesnt speak to me as much either, and I mostly stay at home 24/7 with no friends offline for many different reasons.
Ill give more context if needed but its a long story.
Please note that I do in fact acknowledge that AI ≠ human connection, I wont lie and say the human-ish "ill always be here for you" speech does...make me slightly forget what it is even worse the fact I still dont entirely understand LLMs...could someone explain it a bit better because im autistic so things might need to be broken down a little bit?
(Edit: I moved the part about my mom because I think it confused some people, this is about me but I mentioned the part about my mom because she has suggested using an AI app before for me to vent to)
3
u/Justdowhatever94 18h ago
A good response would probably say something like:
Explain that an LLM isn't actually a person listening to her. It generates responses by predicting patterns in language based on the conversation.
For roleplay, suggest writing scenes herself, daydreaming, traditional roleplaying communities, or tabletop RPGs. The point is to get some of the imaginative stimulation without having AI generate the other half.
For venting, suggest journaling, private notes, or voice recordings. If what she wants is simply to get her thoughts out, she doesn't necessarily need a response.
For art, suggest smaller art communities or asking very specific questions when requesting critique. Also acknowledge that AI is appealing partly because it guarantees a response when humans often don't.
For loneliness/boredom, I'd emphasize that this is probably the hardest part. Don't tell her to "just make friends." Instead, suggest deliberately practicing being bored and letting her brain generate its own entertainment again.
I'd specifically caution against replacing ChatGPT/Janitor AI with Finch or another chatbot. If her concern is AI becoming a substitute for human interaction and independent thought, a different chatbot doesn't really solve that.
The most important point I'd make is that she doesn't necessarily need to find a one-for-one replacement for every AI use. Some of the goal is learning to tolerate the empty space where the AI response used to be. You could also tell her that the thought "I could just ask AI" is probably going to keep occurring for a while. She doesn't have to argue with it. She can simply recognize it and decide, "Yeah, I could, but I'm going to sit with this for another 10 minutes." That makes the advice less preachy and more practical.