The Dangers of Relying on AI and How to Avoid ChatGPT Dependency

While AI offers incredible potential, relying on it without caution can bring serious risks to individuals, organisations, societies, and even democracies. Recent reports reveal that the growth of AI is outpacing regulation, oversight, and our ability to anticipate its harm. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns that many countries “lack regulatory ethical foundations for AI,” raising concerns about economic instability and equality.

AI cybersecurity and Shadow AI Risks

According to the 2025 CheckPointSoftwareTechnologies, “AI security report, 1 in every 80 GenAI prompts poses a high risk of sensitive data leakage. The World Economic Forum’s white paper on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity 2025 emphasises that as AI is adopted, the technology itself becomes a threat vector from prompt injection to model back-doors.

Organisations that rely heavily on AI without adequate safeguards are opening up new avenues for attacks, data leaks, and misuse. 71% of workers admit using unapproved AI tools at work, researched by Microsoft Workplace Report of 2025, employees secretly using ChatGPT and other shadow AI’s. AI learns from data and data can be biased. From job applications an over-reliance on AI could reinforce discrimination if not monitored properly. This is why it is important that even though AI can make decisions, only humans can ensure justice.

Job displacement and Economic impact

AI will automate repetitive tasks, without re-skilling many South African workers risk being left behind. AI-driven automation increases efficiency in banking and finance. These are automated credit scoring, fraud detection, and customer chatbots that reduce operational costs. Retail and E-commerce predicts demand, manages inventory, and personalises recommendations, boosting profits with the help of AI. In manufacturing and logistics, robotics and AI scheduling reduce human errors and speed up production. These sectors will grow faster, contributing to GDP expansion. McKinsey and Company firm estimates that by 2030, AI could add over $136 billion USD to the country’s GDP. That’s approximately R2.72 trillion, a massive boost if AI adoption scales across sectors.

Societal impact of inequality and digital divide

South Africa already struggles with inequality. If AI education and tools remain limited to urban, privileged schools or corporations, the townships and rural areas will still fall behind. AI adoption risks amplifying these gaps if access to technology, high-speed internet, and AI education remains concentrated in urban areas or private institutions. AI has the potential to be the great equaliser, but only if access reaches every township and village, not just cities, then the dangers of AI division will no longer exist. The digital divide can widen income and opportunity gaps, like the jobs in retail, administration, and agriculture, as discussed earlier.

These automations in AI will grow the GDP. AI innovation and wealth are likely to cluster in cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Pretoria, leaving the smaller towns and rural areas behind. Without deliberate policy, AI-driven inequality could fuel social tensions, such as youth unemployment and frustration, with AI replacing low-skill jobs while high-value roles are inaccessible to disadvantaged youth.

This concerns the over-reliance on AI in public services may alienate communities who cannot access or understand these tools. AI is not only transforming industries, it is also transforming people’s daily habits. When people rely heavily on AI tools to perform everyday tasks, they slowly lose the ability to perform those tasks independently, like writing a simple email. These habits,like writing for example, are skills that improve when used frequently. Relying on AI takes away the form of learning and improving this way.

How to Avoid ChatGPT Dependency

• Strengthen your offline skills: Critical thinking, writing, problem-solving, and communication are more valuable than ever. The stronger your human skill set, the less likely you are to default to ChatGPT for everything.

  
  

• Use AI as support, not substitution: Let ChatGPT assist with ideas and drafts, but keep final decisions rooted in your own judgment, voice, and expertise.

  
  

• Cross-check everything: Treat ChatGPT outputs like any other tool, verify facts, refine ideas, and make sure the final product meets your standard. Over-trusting AI is where most mistakes happen.

  
  

• Automate the repetitive work: Offload time-consuming tasks like scheduling, outlines, and admin to AI, while keeping strategic and creative thinking in your hands.

  
  

• Keep practicing without it: Regularly write, think, and plan without ChatGPT assistance. Maintaining your ability to create from scratch ensures you never lose the muscle.

  
  

• Set boundaries for use: Decide when you’ll use AI and when you won’t. Clear rules like “AI for research, not for final messaging” keep reliance in check.

  
  

• Build real AI fluency: Strengthen your skills through accessible courses from companies like Nvidia and others. AI literacy is now a differentiator across industries.

  
  

• Stay aware of the limits: ChatGPT can prepare you, but it can’t perform for you. In moments that require presence; interviews, negotiations, client conversations your delivery and personal insight matter more than any prompt.

  
  

• Know where to draw the line: Identify the areas where AI gives you a boost and the ones where your own perspective needs to lead.

AI adoption in South Africa is not inherently equalising or divisive. Its societal impact depends on policy choices, investment in education, and infrastructure development. On the alternative side, AI could reduce inequality, improve public services, and create economic opportunities in communities that need them most. Ignored, it could widen existing divides, deepening social and economic fractures. The real challenge of AI in South Africa will not be how fast we adopt it, but how widely we share its benefits.