Generative AI has become such a talking point in everyday life now, and I don’t think I’ve ever properly spoken about my stance on it – so here you go.
I do not support Generative AI in any way in its current form and I will never use it in any of my work, whether it’s professionally or personally.
I could easily just end it here, but with it becoming impossible to escape in my life (and everybody’s) I feel like I need to get some form of definitive statement out online, so hopefully people will stop pestering me about it.
I have been writing stories and working in marketing long before Generative AI existed and I will continue to. Partly out of absolute sheer spite, but mainly because it’s common sense and something I feel is missing nowadays.
This is not for me to say that I don’t see any benefits that Generative AI (and regular AI in general) can bring; I think it has a lot of potential to help with important tasks like finding a cure for cancer and helping to speed up administrative work. But using it to write emails, create videos, images, any form of art? Absolutely not – get it out of my face. Not to mention it’s killing the environment, it’s trained on stolen work (put a pin in this), it’s making society dumber and is funding absolutely horrible people. But yes, let me see what you look like as a cartoon and use it to advertise your business.
Over the past three years, I have gotten so fed up of the fact that so many people are using GenAI to do basic tasks they had easily done years before. It is scary how so many people rely on it and every time I see it, I want to rip my own skin off.
It’s inevitably gotten to the point where I’ve been accused of using Generative AI – not just in my own books, but in my work life as well. And in a society that is constantly promoting it, I can see why it’s gone this way. Despite being very vocal about how I’m against GenAI and having a part of it in my website’s bio, apparently some people still aren’t getting the message.
I’ve been self-publishing my books since 2018. All of my work has been written by myself and been refined by human editors (shoutout to Rowanvale Books, the real MVP’s). The only pieces of my work that haven’t been professionally edited are my short stories, those are ones that I’ve carefully gone over myself. Every single part of my books is created by myself; from the front covers, to the marketing, to every single word written on the page. I will admit that there are certain tools that I use to help refine my writing that have AI tools embedded into them, but I avoid them like the plague. You can even go back into the archives of my blog posts here on my website and see behind the scenes photos of me creating the covers for my books.
To be accused of using Generative AI in everything I do is something I find incredibly insulting, but sadly not surprising. So many people use it now, that it isn’t hard to spot it and lots of people are naturally second guessing everything they see online now. It’s gotten to the point where I have stopped using local businesses in my area because they are so happy to use Generative AI. I’ve even called a few out on their usage; I’ve had comments removed, and been actively threatened. But do you know what makes it even worse? The majority of the comments on AI generated work are positive. And honestly, it makes me want to throw up.
I’ve even cut former friends off because I‘ve found out they’re using AI to edit their photos and plan their house renovations. Every single time I get a YouTube ad promoting an AI system, I block it immediately. It pisses me off that much.
When Generative AI was in its infancy, I will admit that I did use it. I was curious about this new tech like a lot of people, but the results I got weren’t great, so I stopped using it. Then I learned about the real consequences that it’s having on our planet and society and vowed never to touch it again.
While I could understand at the very beginning people not knowing how bad it is, it’s been almost four years now. If you’re happily using Generative AI now knowing what harm it causes, there are NO excuses.
Not to mention, I found out a couple of months ago that Facebook’s Generative AI system was trained on a bunch of books that authors did not give consent to. And guess what? My own book Cross Stitching (my LGBT+ romance, how ironic) was fed into the system. I did not give any consent to have any of my work fed into these systems and I am so angry that it has happened to me and so many others.
So to those who accuse me of using Generative AI, I ask you this…why would I happily use a system that took my work without my consent?
So, I’m putting this out there in the hopes that if people are genuinely stupid enough to accuse me of using these hideous tools, they will think twice about doing so.
I see Generative AI everywhere I look and it’s getting harder to not let it affect me. I constantly worry about my job becoming non-existent because of these systems. Luckily because of the industry I work in, that isn’t something I have to contend with too much. But I see it everywhere now and I often wonder why I even bother to do what I do.
It’s also another reason why I haven’t released a full-length book since 2022; while my main reason is funds for editing, it’s also because I must grapple with the possibility of my work getting fed to an AI training system and have people accuse me of using it.
But even in the face of all of that, I still show up and create. I still write books, market what needs to be marketed, create art (which I will happily admit is not the best, but the fact the art is there still matters) and be openly vocal against these systems. I am extremely proud of the fact that I don’t use Generative AI in my work, and I hope that with this post, this will put those naysayers to bed.
I know that this won’t magically stop all Gen AI content, despite desperately wishing it would. But with the way our futures are heading, it’s something I feel I need to share a definitive stance on.
So, TLDR; I don’t use Generative AI. And I will never use it. So please don’t make such ridiculous accusations. And if you use Generative AI systems in any capacity, you are an absolute fucking loser, and I hope you sleep well at night knowing exactly what monstrosities you’re helping to keep in business.