AI is supposed to make our lives easier by taking the drudgery out of everything and yet years into this new future, more time than ever is being wasted with legal nonsense that keeps gumming up the internet. It’s easier than ever to save humanity a billion and a half hours, and it won’t take a single technological breakthrough — just common sense.
The digital gunk was introduced mostly by lawyers and politicians. Every company facing a lawsuit or a fine independently landed on the same defensive move — senseless consent banners and agreement paragraphs. Nobody asked for it. They just appeared on every website, app, and digital interface, forcing everyone to waste time clicking through useless buttons. Over time, regulations have piled up with no end in sight, leading to more buttons, more banners, and more waste.
Now with ChatGPT and Claude integrating into our daily lives, we run the risk of even more waste. Before lawyers start taking out their red pens, here are five fixes we should address to clear the clutter.
- To cookie or not to Cookie. Two years ago, you could at least pretend this was a European problem. Now, every site on Earth greets you with a pop-up that takes up your whole phone screen with 15 toggle switches and a “Confirm choices” button. Regulations multiplied, and now consent banners are everywhere. We should just have one universal consent dashboard for different kinds of sites on each device – set it once, apply it to every site, and move on with your life.
- Two-factor authentication everywhere. Security is important and it used to mean one extra step. Now there’s a six-digit code, an email confirmation, and a push notification connected to a device in the other room. There are so many new cybersecurity features that there’s a whole market full of authenticator apps who generate codes for you every 30 seconds, every day. Even streaming an episode of your favorite show in an airport requires 2FA. Apple has it right with Passkeys — we need to move to a full biometric system and end the billions of daily passcodes that gum up our texts and emails.
- Click the images with a fire hydrant. CAPTCHAs are another singularly annoying form of digital torment. Miss one blurry edge of the fire hydrant in a grey corner? You’re not human! Cars, trucks, crosswalks, grainy bicycles, you name it – we’re stuck playing games to prove we’re human as AI gets smarter by the hour and likely will do a better job at answering these questions. Extend passkey to these checks and move on.
- Make a new account with us before you can see our content. Once upon a time, you could search something up and read an article about it. Now you have to register, verify your account in an email, set up a password following very inconsistent and specific rules about capitalization and symbols – and after all that, check the mandatory red box to consent to spam updates or five other newsletters that have nothing to do with you. There should be an AI plugin that autofills everything for you; we shouldn’t be wasting time plugging away our email and shipping addresses 10 times a day. And yet we are.
- Unlimited terms and conditions. There’s always a smaller font for lawyers. I used to think they were long, but now they’re sprawling constitutional updates that you have to scroll to the bottom of in order to proceed to your app or webpage. This happens with every app update, every new product you’re connecting to your phone, every digital integration across your platforms. And it’s only gotten worse with AI, crypto, and new privacy laws. There should just be a plain English summary. Maybe an independent group should read all of these things in detail and provide a rating from “go ahead” to “don’t even think about signing” as average people really can’t possibly give meaningful consent.
Notice how ChatGPT and Claude don’t waste your time with all of this silly stuff as of today. But how long before lawyers get to a question like “What is the best remedy for a sprained ankle?” Instead of getting a simple answer, your chat will respond with: “I would love to answer your question, but first can you sign in? And then next, can you please agree to my terms and conditions, and would you like to hear them? And can we use your information to help others or not? And by the way, ChatGPT is not a healthcare professional and is not liable for any actions of the user following generated advice.” Zip-lining or bungee jumping will seem easier.
It sounds ridiculous but it is just a few lawyers and one class action case away. Underlying these measures are real issues on tracking, security, and legal liability but the way they are being solved today on the open web is simply a waste of humanity’s time.
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