I was looking back at a post I made about this a few years ago and decided it was time to update it.
Fuck AI. It is burning down the environment at terrifying speeds, it is ruining the economy and every tech it touches, and it is a plagiarism machine built to steal the works of creators without consent or compensation and turn it into profit for billionaires. It causes psychosis and degrades the mental faculties of those who use it regularly, and it provides nothing of value to the world: it’s wrong almost as often as it’s right, and its outputs are soulless recreations and repurposes of the actually good works of humans.
No AI has been used in any of my work, nor will it ever be used. I commission human artists wherever possible and use stock from human artists when I can’t, and all my writing is my own. On the occasion I use stock art or music, I go out of my way to avoid AI–something that is becoming increasingly difficult and time-consuming due to the flood of slop everywhere, and how difficult it is becoming to identify. Typically, I use things posted from human accounts with consistent style and a humanly-possible number of works from long-standing accounts, or else I just only search things made before 2020. None of that is easy, and if any stock I use ever turns out to be AI (it hasn’t yet), I will replace it immediately.
I do not believe that, in its current state, there is ethical use of AI. The costs to the environment and to creators is too high. It’s theft and it’s destructive. You don’t need it; if you want concept art for a human artist to work from, provide references from other artists, photographers, and descriptions, just as we did before AI. If you want to bounce ideas around, join a creative forum or talk to other humans.
Without legislation, consent, compensation, and environmental protections, AI is nothing but a huge and unwelcome drain on society, killing creators AND the environment, dulling critical thinking, and spreading misinformation. A drastic change would be needed before I would ever consider using it, or consuming anything that uses it.
My AI Policy is: Fuck AI.