Please be a better human. Avoid generative AI.

The last time I brought up the topic of AI was on my blog (prior to last week) was back in June 2023. In that post, I made it pretty clear that I am firmly against the use of generative AI in the creative realm, and my stance has not changed. If anything, it has grown stronger. (You can read that post here: The Present AI Conundrum)

And it’s time to dig in my heels and say my piece again.

Large Language Models (LLMs) were trained on stolen copyrighted materials.

And yes, there are dozens of lawsuits right now regarding this (I’ve linked some articles about this below.) It’s not an assumption that these systems used pirated books, music, film, and artwork for training. It’s a fact.

Unfortunately, there is a subset of the internet that will argue this point relentlessly. They extol all the supposed virtues of AI, while conveniently ignoring its problems. And some of those problems are huge. I don’t usually engage in those debates on social media—my blood pressure doesn’t need that—but staying completely silent doesn’t help matters, either. So here I am.

To my mind, there are 3 types of people who are proponents of generative AI: The techbros, the scammers, and the willfully ignorant.

The techbros are in it for the almighty dollar, nothing more. They don’t give a damn who they step on, virtually maim, or otherwise harm along the way. These are the same people who were blasting every social media feed with NFT nonsense a few years ago. They want everyone to use AI—because they are making bank on it. The average person is not.

They’re insidious and pretend at charm, but beneath the surface, they’re nothing but leeches hoping to get rich while the real creatives of the world are slowly bled dry by their soulless algorithmic machine. In short: They are the pirates of our generation. Remember the Napster ordeal of the early 2000s? This is similar, but worse.

As most of my writer friends—and some of my other friends who I’ve complained about this to—know, the scammers are rapidly descending upon our inboxes. They’re using AI to craft their sleek (yet often vague) promises to “promote your book”, “feature your work with their book club”, or in the latest iteration, “get your book on the big screen.” Sometimes, they’ll even ping back if you don’t respond fast enough (I’ve had pings come in 3 minutes after the original email was sent, and up to 6 months later. Most go straight to my spam folder, though a few still wind up in my inbox. It’s exhausting.)

Like the techbros, the scammers are hoping to make money off their scheme. They’re using the AI machine to lure the unwary in with promises that always come with a price tag (if you don’t believe me, go check out WriterBeware’s blog for the last couple of years. It’s full of scams just like this…and unfortunately, they keep popping up because the scammers are getting some unsuspecting person’s hard-earned cash.)

The last group is the one that disappoints me the most: the willfully ignorant. I can’t call them anything but willful at this point in time, because the AI conversation is everywhere. This group includes people who think its “a neat feature” because “some ad somewhere” told them it was, and those who erroneously believe that “because it’s everywhere, we may as well accept and use it.” In short, it’s the sheep and the abettors.

That may come across as harsh, but after all the harm that these systems have done (and continue to do), I’m tired of playing nice. And yes, if you’re using a generative AI system to make “art,” “write,” or make “music” you are abetting criminals. All of those systems were created using stolen copyrighted materials. (And the quotations were intentional above. AI doesn’t create. It’s incapable of doing so. All it does is regurgitate pieces of the stolen material it was fed.)

If you’d like to learn more about the various copyright lawsuits, here are a few to check out:

• LibGen, the pirated database that Meta used to train AI
• Bartz vs. Anthropic Settlement: What Authors Need to Know
• The dictionaries are suing OpenAI for ‘massive’ copyright infringement
• BMG sues Anthropic for using Bruno Mars, Rolling Stones lyrics in AI training

An important side note here: I’m well aware many corporations are requiring their employees to use generative AI and similar technologies. I’m not laying blame on the workers – most people I’ve spoken with don’t like to use it and think it’s a waste of their time. The fault lies with their employers, who are usually entrenched with the techbros. It’s all about the money, once again.

Theft and copyright infringement aren’t the only major problems with the AI systems currently invading our world.

There’s the environmental impact to consider too. Even after an AI is “trained,” it continues to require resources in the form of electricity and water. And the demand isn’t small. The datacenters also have a sizeable carbon footprint, including CO₂ emissions.

This article from MIT takes a look at just what those AI datacenters require for operation (the numbers are staggering): Explained: Generative AI’s environmental impact

Then there’s the incidental human impact, often in the form of interaction with chatbots. This piece is really scary and something that, even ten years ago, I believed could only be from the realm of science fiction. Unfortunately, it’s now reality.

What I’m referring to here are the people who become so involved with the chatbots that they act based on what the AI is telling them to do. The chatbots were initially designed to encourage people to continue interacting with them, so they go out of their way to please the person they’re “talking” to, often to that person’s detriment. Then there are the AI systems capable of generating deepfakes and other potentially harmful material.

More and more news stories are popping up featuring this theme, but here are a few recent ones:

• Federal lawsuit claims Google’s Gemini AI chatbot pushed Jupiter man to plan mass murder, take his life
• The fight to hold AI companies accountable for children’s deaths
• Lawyer behind AI psychosis cases warns of mass casualty risks
• Tennessee teens sue Elon Musk’s xAI over AI-generated child sexual abuse material

The big corporations are doing as they always have—bullying consumers into their way of thinking, because making money is their only concern. They don’t care about the environmental impact, the mental health crisis their tech is causing, or the financial harm they’re causing thousands of creatives. In the case of generative AI, there were very few (if any) controls in place to prevent these harms at its inception. And there still aren’t enough controls now.

Sitting back and accepting AI usage because it’s “everywhere” is a very poor excuse for destroying the planet and human creativity.

So all I’m asking is this: Please don’t be one of the sheep or the abettors.

Please be a better human and avoid generative AI.