AI is on everyone’s lips these days; it seems like you can’t open a web page or use your phone without stumbling across some kind of “intelligent” feature suggesting this and that, like Clippy on juice, whether you want it or not it’s shoehorned into everything, just let the bot do the thinking – save time! Save effort! Disregared the personal cost, certainly don’t concern yourself with the cost to the environment, the cost to the communities hosting massive data centres, the cost to artists and creatives of all stripes that aren’t only losing work to these monstrous things, but having their previous work mined and scraped to teach them, with no permission granted or compensation given.
I’ve recently been informed that to keep up I must “learn AI.” What, learn how to ask questions? I can do that. Find answers? I’ve been doing that professionally for years, six of those prior to the first LLM being released for public use. Even longer taking into account my time as a student. One could go as far to say that my entire life has been a process of learning how to ask questions, and how to answer them.
I can do so: accurately, truthfully, relatively swiftly (for a human) at a reasonable cost & without destroying the planet or social fabric of the species.
I have in fact sworn off actively engaging with anything related to generative AI. I have a brain, I like to use it & I have no desire to hasten my cognitive decline by outsourcing my ability to think.
This isn’t about time-saving or efficiency; it’s about removing skill from the equation & cutting another cost. Damn the consequences.
I will not use it, not now, not ever.
#AI #work #ethics #environment #antiAI #humanfirst
