TJ Nealy's case for "deliberate inefficiency" in the age of AI

On screen, his TEDxCharlotte talk carries a sharper title: "The Upgrade That Downgraded Me."

Channel: TEDx Talks Story of October 17, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 44,604 views a day, 103 times a normal first day on this channel (434).

How to tell if you’re using AI too much | Terrence "TJ" Nealy | TEDxCharlotte

Terrence "TJ" Nealy had a bold design idea for a client's website and never pitched it. AI offered something more conventional, and he went along. The description of his talk puts it plainly: the idea was abandoned before it was ever tested.

That small surrender is the core of "How to tell if you're using AI too much," his TEDxCharlotte talk on TEDx Talks. Nealy runs MODD Creative Agency in Charlotte, has led creative teams for organizations including The Walt Disney Company, and builds AI systems for clients. He opens by admitting he had joined what he calls an AI "loyalty program" without noticing. "This conversation will not be anti-AI," he says a minute in.

He means it. One of his examples is a script that sorted more than 400 family videos in about 90 seconds. The worry comes afterward: whether choosing speed over intention slowly hands the decisions to an algorithm. He also points out that the tools are not neutral: "Every prompt you send, that's data."

His answer is what he calls creative sovereignty. Know which parts of your work you will not hand over. Ask why before accepting a suggestion. Understand the difference between cloud services and models that run on your own device, since "not every task requires giving up your data." And, last, "practice deliberate inefficiency." He closes with the line the talk was built to land: "Conscious collaboration will make you more capable. Dependent outsourcing makes you more fragile."

The talk passed 29,000 views in its first 11 hours, while the other talks posted alongside it the same day, on pediatric cancer, colour and 3D-printed medicine, sat in the hundreds. Its comments arrived at about twice the pace of a usual first day. Someone who was in the Charlotte audience left a note, one viewer jokes about asking a chatbot how to feel about the talk, and another, who is blind, describes leaning on AI tools every day while still making a point of questioning their answers.

It arrives a few days after Melissa Hutchins' talk on guarding your face from deepfakes, as we reported here: a run of TEDx speakers asking not whether to use AI, but how to keep something of yourself while you do.

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The numbers

A talk about slowing down got off to an unusually fast start, well beyond what a new regular video on this channel usually draws in a whole day.

the video's first day

usual first day here

434

this video

44,604

subscribers

44,700,000

no significant change in the last 7 days

total views

9,145,976,222

views per day

2,578,969

typical day: 1,784,580

the video

views

29,363

likes

120

comments

16

days online

1

subscribers: this channel and similar channels

TEDx Talks

44,700,000

TED

27,900,000

TED-Ed

23,000,000

CrashCourse

17,200,000

The Infographics Show

15,500,000

Learn English With TV Ser…

12,100,000

As of October 17, 2026 · Data source: Trari Social News, Trari Traffic Trends and Ranking Platform, Google YouTube

Subscriber, view, like and comment counts are YouTube's. Rates, usual days, rankings, comparisons and categories are Trari's own calculations.