Men in Holmes County, Ohio’s Amish community use generative AI to support family-run businesses in manufacturing, construction, and agriculture. AI is used to write emails, draft contracts, create spreadsheets, and manage day-to-day work. Ian Wengerd, who runs a metal-fabrication company with about 30 employees, began using AI soon after it became available and found it useful for handling business demands involving state, federal, and private work. Limited internet access exists, with fewer than half online and under 10 percent trying AI. No one uses smartphones; they rely on basic flip or “dumb” phones, and digital activity is largely restricted to workplace use, creating boundaries that reduce personal vulnerability.
"“I started using it soon after it came out, more or less testing it,” Ian Wengerd, an Amish father-of-six who owns a metal-fabrication company, told NY Mag. “The more I used it, the more I thought this could actually be a good thing.”"
"Wengerd, whose business employs about 30 staffers, explained to the magazine that his business gets “involved in some state work, federal work, private work.” In other words, he's busy - and he says that without tech, chatbots included, he and his many employees would be out of a job. “For us to try to do business with just a fax machine and a voicemail,” said Ian, “I'd have to shut my doors.”"
"Not all Amish folk enjoy access to the internet, and when they do, it's generally quite limited. (One expert, historian Marcus Yoder, told NY Mag that he believes that fewer than half of Holmes County's Amish population is online, and of that population, he estimates that under 10 percent have given AI a whirl.) Not a single person NY Mag spoke with uses a smartphone; they either use zhuzh-ed up “dumb phones” or flip phones."
"Their digital life is also heavily filtered through Christian censoring services and almost entirely restricted to the workplace. But media censorship aside, that stark line between the workplace and the home, interestingly, seems to make for some healthy technological boundaries. “I can't lay in bed for half an hour asking Chat stuff. So the times when I'm vulnerable it's not at my”"
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