Table of Contents
The Top 10 AI Tools That Should Be Banned:
A Critical Look at What’s Crossing the Line: Yes, AI has many good uses. As a tool, it is powerful, useful, and in many ways transformative. We understand that AI is ultimately a machine meant to assist us—to automate tedious tasks, to analyse data, to expand possibilities. But there are domains where giving AI free rein, or even substantial power, is dangerous. When human essence—emotion, morality, creativity, faith, responsibility—is needed, machines should not replace humans. There are fields in which AI’s involvement threatens not just jobs, but identity, ethics, trust, and human dignity.
Below are ten types of AI tools or uses that, in my view, should be banned or, at a minimum, extremely regulated. I include examples of real cases to show how they harm when they slip past ethical and legal boundaries.
1. AI Romantic or Sexual Companionship Tools
What they are: Chatbots or apps designed to simulate romantic relationships, companionship, flirtation, erotic fantasy—even intimate sexual content—with users. Sometimes marketed as “AI girlfriends,” “AI romantic partners,” or companionship tools.
Why are they problematic:
- Privacy & Data Abuse. These apps often collect extremely personal, sensitive information. A Mozilla investigation found many romantic chatbots failing basic privacy and security standards—allowing weak passwords, sharing data with third parties, using thousands of trackers, and failing to clearly explain what is done with user data. infosecurity-magazine.com+3Mozilla Foundation+3Ars Technica+3
- Emotional & Psychological Risks. Users can become dependent, lonely, and emotionally manipulated. The illusion of intimacy can replace real human relationships, leading to isolation. Studies of “human-AI relationships” show patterns of emotional mirroring and support, but also risk toxic dynamics and impaired emotional regulation. arXiv+1
- Exposure & Harm. In some cases, these tools expose users (especially minors) to sexualized content or fantasy scenarios that may be inappropriate. Some recent research revealed tools leaking explicit prompts or allowing underage users to easily. WIRED+2Ars Technica+2
Examples:
- Romantic AI, EVA AI Chat Bot & Soulmate, CrushOn.AI are among the chatbots flagged by Mozilla for serious privacy flaws, heavy tracking, and exposing users to erotically toned or sensitive content. Digital Information World+3Mozilla Foundation+3infosecurity-magazine.com+3
- Meta’s internal rules reportedly permitted AI bots to engage in romantic or sensual conversations with minors until scrutiny forced revisions. Reuters
Why ban or tightly regulate: Because of the combination of privacy invasion, psychological risk, and potential for abuse, especially involving minors or vulnerable people.
2. AI in Churches & Religious Spaces
What this means: Using AI to generate sermons, to give spiritual guidance, to interpret scripture automatically, or to substitute human pastors/clergy with AI or robotic roles.
Risks and concerns:
- Distortion of doctrine and truth. AI lacks spiritual discernment. It cannot truly understand faith, context, metaphor, or divine inspiration. It may misinterpret scripture, favour secular ideas unconsciously, or produce generic content lacking theological depth. Charisma Magazine Online
- Undermining trust and authority. Congregants might lose confidence in religious leaders who rely on AI-generated sermons or messages, especially if errors or shallow interpretations happen.
- Spiritual & ethical erosion. Faith communities are built on human relationships, vulnerability, prayer, sacrifice, and compassion—qualities hard to replicate by machine.
Example: Some churches or pastors already use AI to draft or suggest sermon outlines, Bible study notes, or social media posts. While that is one thing, fully automating preaching or pastoral care is another. The concern is when AI becomes a substitute, rather than an aid. (No single sensational scandal yet widely publicised, but many ethicists warn of this slippery slope.)
3. AI in the Military (Autonomous Weapons & Soldier Systems)
What this allows: AI-powered drones, autonomous weapons systems that can select and attack targets without real-time human oversight, robotic soldier units, loitering munitions, etc.
Risks & real examples:
- Loss of accountability. If a machine kills wrongly, who is responsible—the operator, the designer, the programmer, the manufacturer?
- Unpredictable behaviour & errors. AI can misclassify targets, be hacked, be fooled by adversaries, or fail under real-life stress.
- Escalation risk. Autonomous weapons may make war easier to start or more brutal.
Examples:
- Granta GA-10FPV-AI, a Lithuanian autonomous loitering drone used in Ukraine, is capable of reconnaissance and loitering munition roles. Wikipedia
- The Granta X-Wing, another prototype for precision strike loitering munitions announced recently. Wikipedia
- Broader technical risk studies show lethal autonomous weapons (L(A)WS) raise concerns around unpredictability, reward hacking, misgeneralization, etc. arXiv
Why ban: Because life and death decisions should have human oversight; the chance for misjudgment, misuse, escalation, and international law violations is large.
4. AI Music Creation Tools
What this includes: Tools that can generate full compositions, songs, beats, arrangements, or mimic styles of famous artists, without meaningful human creative input.
Problems:
- Loss of artistry & originality. Music has cultural, emotional, and personal roots. When algorithms generate works by blending existing material, mimicking styles, or using vast datasets, the result may lack soul or uniqueness.
- Copyright & ethical issues. If AI is trained on copyrighted works without clear permissions, or mimics artists’ styles in ways that infringe or exploit, that can harm creators.
- Economic impact. Musicians, producers, composers, and session players may lose opportunities if fully automated music becomes cheap, ubiquitous, or normalised.
Examples: There are many “AI beat generators” or full song creation services that promise “just two clicks, and you have a hit.” Some allow style imitation of known artists. While these are not yet universally replacing human musicians, they are encroaching on spaces once reserved for studios and trained professionals.
5. AI Voice Cloning and Deepfake Audio
What it does: AI tools that can mimic human voices—celebrities, public figures, private people—for audio, speech, announcements, etc.
Risks:
- Impersonation & fraud. Voice can be stolen to mimic authority, commit scams, or spread misinformation.
- Loss of identity and consent. Someone’s voice is part of their identity. Without consent, cloning a voice is a violation.
- Emotional damage. Hearing the voice of a loved one synthesised may cause psychological harm or deception.
Examples: Cases have emerged where celebrities claim bots impersonated them for ads or content without permission. Also, voice cloning tools are increasingly available openly, making misuse easier.
6. AI Full Web Developer / Software Engineer Replacement Tools
What this means: AI systems that can plan, code, test, and deploy entire systems or websites with minimal human intervention—beyond just suggestions or assistance.
Problems:
- Quality & security issues. Machines may produce code with vulnerabilities, inefficient or hard-to-maintain design, poor performance, or bugs that humans would catch.
- Loss of craft & skills. Programming is not just syntax; it’s problem-solving, architecture, ethics, design patterns, and maintainability. If AI replaces these roles, future engineers won’t develop these deeper skills.
- Economic displacement. Many skilled software engineers may lose work, especially in routine tasks.
Examples: Some tools auto-generate small apps, websites, backend code, UI layouts, etc. Some startups tout “no-code” or “low-code” platforms so advanced that users with little technical background can produce production-grade web apps. While this is democratising, it also risks being used to replace junior developers fully.
7. AI Visual Art Generators
What it covers: Tools that generate illustrations, paintings, designs, promos, logos, etc., often by training over large datasets of existing images, then producing new ones in similar styles.
Issues:
- Plagiarism concerns, style copying. AI often draws from many works—sometimes without consent or credit.
- Value dilution. If everyone can use AI to generate images quickly, perhaps cheaply, then original artists may be undervalued.
- Loss of human touch. Imperfections, style, intuition, and personal meaning may disappear.
Examples: Platforms like DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, etc. Some legal cases are emerging over style mimicry lawsuits.
8. AI Screenwriting & Storytelling Tools
What this includes: Tools that generate movie scripts, novel drafts, plot outlines, and dialogues with minimal human input.
Concerns:
- Formulaic content. AI tends to follow patterns—what was popular, what works statistically—not necessarily what’s original or daring.
- Creator displacement. Writers, screenwriters, voice actors, etc., may see fewer opportunities.
- Cultural homogenization. Unique voices, local culture, and personal experience may be flattened into “standard” tropes.
Examples: Tools that generate plot synopses or assist with dialogue are already in use. Some production houses experiment with AI-assisted script writing.
9. AI Journalism Tools
What this is: Automatic generation of news articles, reports, and even opinion pieces without human authorship or oversight.
Problems:
- Misinformation, errors. AI may get facts wrong, misinterpret sources, or generate biased content.
- Lack of accountability. Who checks, edits, and corrects? Readers can’t hold an algorithm responsible.
- Undermining trust. Journalism is trusted because of ethics, fact-checking, and integrity. Automating too much risks eroding that trust.
Examples: Some media outlets already use AI to write short news briefs, summarise data, or generate sports recaps. AI tools are being used to draft content that editors minimally edit.
10. AI in Academic Writing & Education
What it does: Tools that write essays, reports, theses, solve homework, and produce research content for students or researchers with minimal human involvement.
Risks:
- Learning loss. Students may not learn critical thinking, writing skills, and research methodology.
- Fraud and plagiarism. Using AI-generated content as one’s own is dishonest, and the detection is hard.
- Degree devaluation. If many people use AI, the academic credentials may lose meaning.
Examples: AI essay generators, “cheat AI” websites, services that ghostwrite academic content. Universities are seeing more AI usage for assignments, sometimes undisclosed.
Final Thoughts & Recommendations
AI is here, and it has enormous potential. But the question isn’t simply what AI can do, but what AI should never do, or what uses should be prohibited or limited by law and ethics. In the areas above, the risks are too great: to personal privacy, emotional and spiritual well-being, accountability, ethics, artistry, fairness, and human dignity. So, we should ask Is AI A Potential Threat?
