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8 hours ago
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There is a seductive fantasy being floated by AI executives that all the efficiency their products will bring us will lead to humans finally returning to their essential, best selves. Picture it: when this day arrives, we’ll spring from our chairs, push aside our keyboards and, supposedly, do all things we’ve been meaning to do: hike, cook and finally take a pilates class.
It’s true – AI has already taken some workday drudgery, such as reading and writing contracts, presentations and quarterly reports, off some people’s plates. Within a few years, we’re told, a team of invisible digital assistants will take over mundane domestic chores too: making medical appointments, renewing our car insurance and planning. The vision is enticing: finally, the moment when we can stop switching-switching-switching between screens and devices, put our health first and flourish. Unfortunately, if the history of innovation teaches us anything, it’s that labor-saving technology has rarely, if ever, triggered healthier habits.
Drive-throughs and microwaves did not lead to more time spent walking in nature. When escalators replaced stairs, email took over from walking over to talk to a colleague, and wandering through the video store was swapped out for streaming from the couch, few of us considered how these tiny conveniences would chip away at our physical health, year after more efficient year. A task that took almost no effort used to be described with the saying: “You hardly need to lift a finger.” Now, we literally lift a finger and – tap – the chore is done.
Amazon vans and electric bikes glide through neighborhoods, dropping off toilet paper at all hours. And so far, the era of AI has only intensified our impulse to be inert. Today, information workers are pushed to produce more and adapt faster as they manage multiple AI agents working on their behalf. When new efficiencies lead to shorter shifts or downsized departments, hopeful job-seekers flood the zone with hundreds, if not thousands, of AI-crafted resumes. After work, AI intensifies the hold that games, social media and chatbots can have our attention, keeping us seated and glued to screens: Americans spend, on average, 187 full days of the year sitting and 12.5 hours per day interacting with media.
Soon, we’re told, humanoid robots will march into our homes, ready to do the dishes and handle the laundry. We’ll have little reason to get up and move at all.
A world with fewer tedious tasks, errands and chores sounds like liberation, but it’s actually a trap. The human body does not thrive on all this convenience. We need daylight, exertion, boredom, social contact and constant small physical demands throughout the day. When those things disappear, the costs accumulate.
Less movement can lead to worse blood sugar control, poorer cardiovascular health, more back pain and stiffness, weaker muscles, bad balance, poor sleep and accelerated ageing. Too much time indoors and on screens can flatten our sense of time, dull attention, erode mood and make us feel both wired and tired. The American Heart Association projected that by 2050, more than 60% of US adults will have obesity, more than a quarter will have diabetes, and more than 60% will have high blood pressure. In 2023, the CDC found that more than three-quarters of US adults already had at least one chronic condition.
Without enough movement, over months and years, the consequences are more disease, physical discomfort, exhaustion and a population that is living longer but not living well.
One effective (and free) antidote is to take gentle movement breaks throughout the day. Regular physical interruptions give our bodies what they require: circulation that is regularly challenged, muscles and bones that are loaded, joints that move through a full range of motion, and minds that aren’t stimulated non-stop.
Our 2023 global study of 20,000 people showed that taking short, regular walking breaks – again, just five minutes – significantly reduced fatigue by up to 30%, boosted mood and increased energy levels. A 2025 study found that adding just five minutes of brisk movement per day to the least active people’s lives could prevent about 10% of all deaths worldwide.
This is not to say that just adding more movement to your day can replace a well-funded and accessible healthcare system. But if we do not deliberately build movement, friction and physical life into our AI future, we will mistake convenience for progress and, once again, trade it for our health.
When billion-dollar companies seem to control our fate, it can be difficult to know how to respond. What does agency look like in this era of invisible algorithms?
Don’t overthink it. Start with a gentle stroll. Progress to taking a quiet daily walk. Set yourself no goal at all, other than to feel the breeze, wave to your neighbor and enjoy the strangeness that it is to have a body and be alive right now.
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Manoush Zomorodi is host of NPR’s TED Radio Hour and author of Body Electric: The Hidden Health Costs of the Digital Age and New Science to Reclaim Your Well-Being. Keith Diaz, PhD, of Columbia University Irving Medical Center co-created the global study the book is based on and wrote the book’s foreword
