A good friend recently remarked that “I want you to understand how much I hate AI being used for creative works. Anyone who uses AI loses the right to call themselves an artist of any kind”, and you know what? That’s fair. Using AI to create a comic book or strip you’re going to profit from is bad enough, but you can usually tell it’s AI and depending on the customer, you’re just as likely to lose business as you are to gain any, at least on the internet where everyone has a grudge against it – people still sell wild amounts of merch at fairs that only needed a prompt and a printer to produce, and the internet feels all kinds of ways about it.

But I have a more personal issue with using AI to “help” you write. That’s just cheating plain and simple. Not everyone can draw or paint, but anyone who’s had any kind of education whatsoever should be able to write something compelling without the assistance of a computer, even if it’s just retelling a story that happened to you in the 8th grade that you thought was funny. AI can’t really add to the tale, it can only help you pad it with something that probably didn’t even happen and definitely didn’t come from your own brain. It’s intellectual slop.

What AI should and should not be used for is going to be a contentious subject for at least as many years as I still have left on this planet and probably far longer. There’s no denying that AI is useful. For some industries, it’s a boon, and not just for advertising or computer programming, but for better medical devices and health outcomes. It can do things in seconds what might take a human being hours or days to complete. On the horizon, very large systems will be controlled 100% by AI. It will put people out of work, in fact it already has, but the results will get better and better as human hands are phased out. For a downside, it has a pretty big upside. In addition, if people were provided a universal basic income, society could be completely automated and no one would care. Maybe. But that won’t happen until I’m long gone.

What is significant here is that I use AI for this site. It’s not a visually creative venture, but images help tell the story. It’s a blog first, a forum second and a profitable enterprise never. I write often and I wasn’t about to try to find an artist to draw a furry being chased by a Texas sheriff or a weasel in a suit signing legislature in the span of a couple days. I’m sure there are plenty of people willing to field those commissions, but I’m not in this to lose money. I can draw, but I don’t think it’s worth the considerable amount of time it would take to make an image for every post. But since I started this site about a month ago, I’ve already found more free resources that I can use instead, it’s just that some of the ideas I have rattling around up here are too niche to exist pretty much anywhere. That’s my stance on it.

The real enemy is the person that tries to make a living off of prompts, like those people at the county fair who are hawking AI-illustrated T-shirts that could actually be someone’s stolen art for $30. They’re not using it to correct grammar or make a header image, they’re committing intellectual theft. And they went that-a-way.

So here’s how I break it down. Some uses of AI are fine and others are worse than not fine.

Some examples for which I believe AI is a valuable, ethical tool:

• Making website/template/header images for an unpaid blog or Facebook group.
• Correcting grammar and spelling.
• Completing tasks on a rushed deadline.
• Coding and medical uses.

Furthermore, some examples for which I believe AI can be corrupted and used for ill-gotten gains:

• “Creating” detailed images for use on merch with the intent to profit. $$$
• “Creating” a business logo.
• Replacing an editor on written works by using AI to pad writing or “help” with tone and consistency.
• “Creating” fictional characters for paid projects.
• Transcribing instead of hiring a transcriber.
• Therapy and relationships. Just talk to an actual person, you freak.

Some people may agree with some or all of my stances on AI, it’s neither here nor there, but I think it’s the responsibility of us all to embrace the future and take a stance in the first place. I think people are using AI for both good and bad reasons in the world right now, and it’s a thrilling time to be interested in technology. Every day, something new and crazy seems to be happening in the tech space, but what will be good and what will be bad? That’s for humans to decide.

Exo