Does AI solve a real problem in your life, or is it just another digital burden?

Last week I met Alex. She's anxious about AI. Not because she doesn't understand it, but because she believes it's going to ruin the earth. And she's being forced to use it anyway in her work.

I didn't push back on her concerns. They're valid. AI does have a real environmental footprint. But sitting with her worry, I realised it wasn't really about AI itself. It was about feeling powerless.

And she's not alone. Most of us are caught between a world moving toward something we don't want, and pressure to go along with it anyway.

You're hearing it everywhere. AI will save us. AI will destroy us. Learn it or get left behind. The noise is deafening.

But underneath the noise sits a simpler question. Not because you're behind the times. Not because you're afraid of change. But because you're already overwhelmed. You're already on your devices too much. You're already juggling enough.

So let's be honest about what's actually happening here in Australia.

The data centre sector is booming. In 2024, Australia attracted around $10.1 billion in data centre investment, the second largest in the world after the US. Major facilities are approved or under construction, including what will be the southern hemisphere's largest data centre at Marsden Park in Sydney, and a 550 megawatt AI campus from OpenAI and NextDC.

And the pace has only accelerated. A$8.7 billion was spent in just the first quarter of this year.

These facilities use enormous amounts of energy and water. In a country already dealing with drought and grid pressure, that's not a small thing. The federal government has set formal expectations requiring new operators to fund renewable energy, use water sustainably, and invest in local skills and jobs.

So yes, there's real cost. And it's not happening in the dark.

And here's where it gets uncomfortable. The infrastructure exists either way. Choosing not to use AI is meaningful as a stance, but honestly, can any of us fully opt out? I try to avoid AI the way I try to avoid all the other consuming things in modern life. I don't manage that either. We're all entangled, whether we agreed to be or not.

So the question gets practical. Does the AI you do use solve a real problem in your work, or is it just one more thing pulling you toward your screen?

I'll be honest about where I sit. As an ecoBiz Star Partner with Business Chamber Queensland, I take my energy use and environmental impact seriously. It's not theoretical for me. I measure it and I work to reduce it.

But the train has left the station. If I don't use AI, I'm pretty much out of business, and the same goes for a lot of other small operators. Many of you won't have a choice either, because your work just requires it. I'm choosing to use it as efficiently as I can, because the alternative is being left behind. I'm not pretending the cost isn't real.

The least we can do as citizens is pay attention. Read the announcements. Notice whether data centre operators actually meet the renewable energy, water, and skills commitments they signed up to. Push back when they don't. The expectations are written down. Whether they hold up is on us.

For me right now, AI shows up in the small stuff. Descript for editing. Touch ups here and there. The bigger questions about where AI fits in real human storytelling are ones I'm still working through. Authenticity matters as much to me as speed.

I don't have the answers. What I know for sure is that I have to go along for the ride while I'm trying to find them.

Claude for almost all of my business operations. Drafting, planning, research, the back end of how I run things. I chose it because Anthropic is run by Dario and Daniela Amodei, a brother and sister team who started the company because they could see how powerful AI was going to be. They felt someone had to build it with humanity in mind first, not as an afterthought once the profits had been counted. Humans first, profit second.

That's not the move-fast-and-break-things crowd, and it's not the big-tech commercial side. It's closer to where I land than most of the industry right now.

Gemini for the visual side. Images, mockups, anything that needs a picture.

More on the why behind those choices, and how I've stitched them together, in another newsletter. That's a story for another day.

If you've been working through this yourself, hit reply and tell me where you've landed. Opting out, leaning in, or somewhere muddier in between. I'd genuinely love to know how you're thinking about it. I read every email.

Cheers,
Suzie