Wire report
Don’t be fooled. The AI that was supposed to save us time is doing just the opposite | Gaby Hinsliff
The government says it can transform the state with AI, but it is no match for the resulting stream of machine-generated slop. And we all pay the cost Another morning, another avalanche of emails. Even after a guilty cull, my inbox is sitting at well over 7,000, but lately I’ve started subscribing to the Quentin Crisp theory of housework: why bother, when after four years or so you stop noticing the accumulating dust? Empty inboxes just fill up again anyway. In theory, email was supposed to save hours of meetings, phone calls and standing over photocopiers. Instead, we just spend hours deleting stuff people wouldn’t have bothered telling us if it had meant picking up the phone, but which they can now spam to their entire database at the click of a button. The glorious ease and convenience of being able to reach the world in seconds came, we now know, with the inconvenience of them being
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The government says it can transform the state with AI, but it is no match for the resulting stream of machine-generated slop. And we all pay the cost Another morning, another avalanche of emails. Even after a guilty cull, my inbox is sitting at well over 7,000, but lately I’ve started subscribing to the Quentin Crisp theory of housework: why bother, when after four years or so you stop noticing the accumulating dust? Empty inboxes just fill up again anyway. In theory, email was supposed to save hours of meetings, phone calls and standing over photocopiers. Instead, we just spend hours deleting stuff people wouldn’t have bothered telling us if it had meant picking up the phone, but which they can now spam to their entire database at the click of a button. The glorious ease and convenience of being able to reach the world in seconds came, we now know, with the inconvenience of them being
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According to The Guardian’s source item, Don’t be fooled. The AI that was supposed to save us time is doing just the opposite | Gaby Hinsliff, The government says it can transform the state with AI, but it is no match for the resulting stream of machine-generated slop. And we all pay the cost Another morning, another avalanche of emails. Even after a guilty cull, my inbox is sitting at well over 7,000, but lately I’ve started subscribing to the Quentin Crisp theory of housework: why bother, when after four years or so you stop noticing the accumulating dust? Empty inboxes just fill up again anyway. In theory, email was supposed to save hours of meetings, phone calls and standing over photocopiers. Instead, we just spend hours deleting stuff people wouldn’t have bothered telling us if it had meant picking up the phone, but which they can now spam to their entire database at the click of a button. The glorious ease and convenience of being able to reach the world in seconds came, we now know, with the inconvenience of them being
Context
The development sits in VINI’s Technology file for readers following technology, science, product policy, markets, infrastructure, and the public consequences of innovation. The original report is linked so readers can check the source account, follow later updates, and compare new coverage against the first published record. The source item is dated 2026-10-20T05:00:17+00:00.
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Source
Primary source: Don’t be fooled. The AI that was supposed to save us time is doing just the opposite | Gaby Hinsliff via The Guardian. VINI cites and links the source; it does not reproduce the publisher’s full article text without rights clearance.
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- Don’t be fooled. The AI that was supposed to save us time is doing just the opposite | Gaby HinsliffThe Guardian - 2026-10-20T05:00:17+00:00
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