/ai

I don’t like “AI”.

…at least not what we’ve come to know as “AI” thus far. Em (via Mastodon) summed up many of the reasons why I don’t like AI. She said…

I’m not using any LLM or “AI” for anything that I write or draw. Never had, and never will.

I’m making this choice because:

• This technology was built by unethically stealing the hard work of millions without any consent or compensation.

• This technology has and is still constantly scraping data, including personal data, from people without their knowledge or consent, in complete disregard of the privacy laws we have to protect us.

• This technology unnecessarily uses vast amounts of energy in a world where using more energy sadly usually means more pollution.

• This technology is working on devaluating labor in order to enrich even more the already rich, aggravating poverty everywhere.

• This technology is misleadingly being sold as a solution to problems it cannot solve.

• This technology is supercharging disinformation and manipulation online, centralizing an incredible power of influence in the hands of a few controlling billionaires.

• This technology is increasingly being used by authoritarian governments in order to surveil and control the people.

• This technology atrophies our creativity and capability to think, as well as harming our social relationships.

• This technology makes my writing voice feel flat and boring. I’d rather learn to live with my human tipos.

• This technology…

I’m inclined to agree with all of these. But let me add…

• This technology is being used to directly harm people, especially kids/minors by way of super-charging deep-fake videos.

• The name “AI” is incredibly disingenuous as there has been 0 evidence this technology has any path to real sentience.

• This technology is being sold as something that will help mankind, but in actuality it has only done everything above. At what point does it enable universal basic income, or cure cancer, or stop war, or feed the hungry, or any of the wondrous things it has been billed as the advent to?

• It’s embarassing, destructive, and looks like shit—the perfect aesthetic form for the far right.

• AI makes me sad. 😞

So there I’ve said it—I don't like AI. Look, I’m not saying this technology has no utility. I’ve used it for things at work and honestly it did an OK job (after some finagling) surfacing some information that might have been hard to find otherwise (though if Google was still the old Google, y’know before AI ruined it, maybe I could have found what I needed through a web search?). I also think it’s decent for spitting out code or even writing a half-functioning security exploit. It isn’t useless, but I do think it is an overall net negative, at least in terms of how it has completely consumed the mindshare and resources of the world.

Do I think we should abandon the technology? No. Again, I think it’s early days and the tech has proven to excel at certain things. For everything else though, it’s just not ready for prime time. So rip it out everywhere it doesn’t belong and regulate it to decrease the harm it continues to cause.

If you like to use AI, whatever. I hope that you understand or consider the points I’ve made above and be mindful of said usage. As I said, I have and do use AI for some select things in a job context—an unavoidable byproduct of the tech landscape in which I am situated professionally. As such, I won’t judge you per se—but if your “blogging” is AI-generated than it is slop (derogatory), and I don’t want to see it.

This site is completely and entirely AI free. I don’t use AI to generate artwork for the site. I don’t use AI to write any of the content. I don’t use AI to do any research either. If for some reason I were to write about or use AI for something that I publish on this site, I would say so up-front in that specific post. Afterall, this site is for me—a human—to share things that I like and find interesting. I don’t need AI to do that.

This is a /ai page.