You know, every time I write something about the AI culture war, I tell myself it’s the last time. I’ve said my piece. Don’t need to go into it any further.

Then about ten seconds after I post it, I come across some new form of twisted worldview or poor argument that demands more of my time.

In this case, it was a long conversation I had with someone else in the industry last Friday. By the time we were done talking, I was up in arms. Here are some of the things we discussed:

Bullying and Boycotting

Apparently, various players (in this case it was authors) are angrily and aggressively putting pressure on other people to not use AI. Not only that, they’re doing weird things like making companies sign little agreements and publicly decrying AI.

Why do I have a problem with this? Because this means people who have an unverified level of intelligence or insight into the discussion are using bullying tactics to tell other people how to run their businesses.

And they’re doing this not as a mindful strategic play, but as knee-jerk reactionary nonsense. I’m talking about the kind of thing where they scrutinize a potential ally and business partner, find a few AI generated images on their website, and then throw a tantrum.

The attitude of “if you use AI in any way at all, I’m not going to work with you” made my head spin.

This is mind-bogglingly shortsighted. Allow me to state the obvious. People who are so fearful of AI taking their jobs should not be willingly passing on jobs because of AI. In doing so, they are exacerbating their own problem.

Let me clarify. They’re not saying “you can’t use AI on my work.” They’re not saying “You can’t combine AI with my work.” These would be reasonable positions. 

But what they’re saying is “because you have a couple of AI generated images on your blog, I am going to turn against you and treat you like you’re the enemy.”

Dumb, is it not?

That’s why I call this a culture war. It’s not about logic or common sense. It’s about taking a position and being pissy about it.

Some People Will Never Get It

Look, I understand we’re dealing with people who may have zero understanding of what AI is or how it’s used. I get that.

These are people who still think generative AI “steals” IP. They still think that an AI prompt produces a larger carbon footprint in ninety seconds than a human being does in six hours.

Remember: Generative is literally incapable of stealing. It’s not kitbashing or photochopping someone else’s images or text. Gen AI doesn’t sit on top of a photo editing suite or word processor. It’s pure math. Want proof? It’s terrible at spelling words in images, and it sucks at understanding what “word count” means. That’s because it operates in a silo of predictive algorithms that actually prevents it from the levels of basic understanding that are required to copy-paste someone else’s work.

And for those who still believe that AI is destroying the world with its environmental impact, ranting about it on social media is making the problem far worse. Social media platforms crank out more carbon emissions than AI thanks to their sheer amount of use. Anything that involves streaming video content is especially harmful to the environment. (It’s also worth noting that the rise of AI is leading to expansion of clean energy initiatives, whereas the corpos have been addressing social media’s impact largely through buying carbon offsets…which means they’re not actually trying to fix the problem.)

If you really care about carbon emissions and aren’t just clinging to an argument, you’ll start fighting against social media, not AI.

What it comes down to is that many people are just repeating the points they’ve heard on YouTube (ironically) or whatever. They’ve chosen the position of fearful victim and that’s the hand they’re playing.

But that’s not the winning hand. I’m sorry, but you don’t have to study history very hard to learn that adaptability is an asset. Seeing something new and figuring out how to bend it to your advantage is the only answer. 

Hiding from it and clutching a little “Anti-AI Agreement” like it’s a magic amulet is not the path to victory. It’s choosing slow death by obscurity by burying your head in the sand.

Why My Opinion Matters

I’m going to piss someone off with this, but here goes…

All opinions are not created equal. There are informed opinions, and uninformed opinions. There are opinions based on real experience, and those that are simply plucked from the internet and internalized as one’s own.

I am someone who’s life was really impacted by the advent of AI. I lost legitimate business, as in clients worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, because of the sudden surge in ChatGPT worship. 

I’m not talking about losing a couple of Fiverr gigs or missing out on $300 because someone didn’t buy a book cover from me. I’m talking about an entire business that I built over years losing clients because people suddenly thought they didn’t need copywriters.

And guess what? I’m still not afraid of AI. I don’t make people sign “I’m scared of AI” agreements. In fact, I support the intelligent and ethical adoption of AI because it’s just a freaking tool like so many others.

Not only do I support it, but I embrace it. Because when a new threat emerges, you want to learn about it, not throw stones at it. I took on AI developers as clients so I could learn from inside the industry. I got on calls with former Google and AWS employees who are working on next-gen AI and WEB3 projects. 

I also started training my own AI models and learning, first hand, what the real threats and opportunities were.

In short, I know more about the practical application of AI than a lot of people.

These are the reasons why my opinions matter. Because I took the time to learn. I’m adapting. I’m understanding the war from both sides. 

I also listen to people who don’t agree with me. And no one yet has been able to affect, much less dismantle, my opinions on AI. Most of the anti-AI crowd just irks me, honestly, because they tend to repeat the same flawed arguments.

Why I Don’t Care What the Anti-AI Crowd Thinks

Here’s the other part of my position that everyone will enjoy.

I’m the type of person who forms my own opinions, does my own research, and seeks out the closest thing to truth that I can find.

As this type of person, I do not blindly jump to one side of an argument and plant a flag. No, I tend to be somewhere in the middle on most topics. And — more importantly — I allow my position to change based on new information.

In the case of AI, I fully support the ethical use of AI. I’m all for it in cases where it does not directly rob someone of their income through nefarious implementation.

That means if someone lies about using AI, I’m against it. That’s wrong because it doesn’t allow the consumer to make an informed decision

But market forces can take care of the rest. If someone wants to sell AI book covers while being fully transparent about it, I have no problem with it. 

Hell, if someone wants to sell AI-written novels, more power to them.

Why doesn’t that bother me? Because only certain people will buy these products. I won’t buy them, but I have no right to tell other people not to.

And it keeps coming back to this idea…that so many people, for whatever reason, feel like they have the right to tell others what tools they can and can’t use. It’s just so asinine. 

Especially when you consider the type of elitism that’s coming out of this whole AI grift. I don’t normally get super emotional about this discourse, but I do when some jackass tells an indie author that if they can’t afford to pay a “real artist” for a $500 cover, they shouldn’t be publishing their book.

That person is being an elitist asshole, plain and simple. Publish your book! You worked hard on it!

I make no apologies for saying these things. Anyone who feels like they can descend on another human being and bully them because of how much money they have to spend pursuing their dream can go straight to hell.

You don’t know that indie author’s situation. Maybe they scraped together for months just to afford paying an editor — which, by the way, is far more important than the cover — and now they just want people to read their book.

Their choices are to draw something in MS Paint, maybe get a free stock image, or use AI. Regardless of what they choose, they were probably never going to give someone $500 for a cover illustration.

In this case, Midjourney or Leonardo.ai didn’t harm anyone. That tool empowered someone. It helped someone pursue their ambition and get their book to the world.

And anyone who has a problem with that needs to examine themselves, seriously.

Should I not use QuickBooks because it means I’m not paying an accountant? 

You better not use your camera phone to take pictures at your next event, because that means a photographer isn’t getting paid!

And you better not cook your own meals, because that restaurant down the road will lose business!

Give me a break. Stop trying to control how other people run their lives and spend the money they’ve earned the right to spend.

If it’s so important to you that it’s worth bullying strangers, then you pay the artist. You put together a fund for cash-strapped authors so they can meet your standards. You start a business selling covers for a royalty stake, where you can gamble with that return on investment the same way the author is expected to.

Does that sound absurd? Well, that’s what happens when a stranger takes a flimsy moral stance, craps on you, and then tells you how to spend your money. Not so fun, is it?

“Supporting AI Isn’t Cyberpunk!” — The Dumbest Thing I’ve Heard Yet

The worst anecdote I’ve heard recently is that I should be against AI because I’m so into cyberpunk. 😆

I laughed. Openly. And then I asked how they arrived at that conclusion.

“Because cyberpunk is about fighting things like AI and corporations!” was their answer.

Okay. Shall we explore the numerous ways why that is the most unenlightened statement I’ve ever heard? 

Cool.

Here’s the first part. Most of the people who are vehemently arguing against AI are not taking their hate out on the corporations. They’re taking it out on people like indie authors and small startups. They’re attacking the punks, not the corpos.

You see, AI is one of those tools that acts as a force multiplier. It allows you to get more done with fewer resources. And who do you think stands to benefit more from having that kind of tool — the big corporation with tons of resources, or the little guy clawing and fighting to make it?

That’s right. AI is the very definition of a cyberpunk’s tool. It allows you to leverage your tiny little self against larger competitors. It’s about using tech to get an advantage over the big publishing houses. It’s punk as hell when the marginalized or economically depressed use it.

So, anyone who argues that a cyberpunk author should be against AI either doesn’t understand cyberpunk or doesn’t understand AI. Or both. Or, most likely, they’re just scared and confused and spouting some nonsense they heard on the internet.

And for those of us who are scrapping our way up the ladder, it’s punk as hell to use AI when we can. (As long as we’re using it ethically.) 

Think about it.

If some big, overpowering army comes at you with a high-tech weapon, that’s bad. If they also make that weapon available to you, that’s much better. 

Only a moron would throw the weapon away and hold up picket signs about how bad the weapon is when they have the damn thing in their hand and could use it to change the tide of battle!

Cyberpunks aren’t that stupid. They turn tech against authority. They get into the grit of that tech and figure out how to use it better than their oppressors.

What really isn’t cyberpunk is seeing the big corporations building a strategy around a technology and then pretending that it doesn’t exist. That’s weak. 

It’s much better to get your hands on it, understand it, and then use it to win.

My AI Agreement

So, several times I’ve mentioned the strange little “anti-AI” statements that individuals are using to bully others into their way of thinking. With that in mind, I figured I’d write my own:

I affirm that I am a free thinking individual who makes my own decisions. At all times, I strive to avoid reactionary positions based on emotion or misinformation.

I affirm that I will not yield to anyone who attempts to bully me into changing my hard-earned and informed opinions about AI. While I’m always open to discussion, I will aggressively turn to intelligence, reason, and my own experiences rather than social pressure from people who know less than I do about the subject.

I affirm that I do not use AI in any of my commercial products. This means I don’t use AI to write my books, create my covers, or design my merch.

I choose to only use AI in situations where doing so does not deprive a human of work. This means that if there is no way in hell I would ever shell out money for a service, I will happily replace that service with AI. (Example: My blog’s feature images, because I don’t care how much you cry, I am never going to pay someone to make those for me. I made them myself for years…now I just make them faster.)

I affirm that I’ve made a living from writing, graphic design, and web design for over 20 years. I enjoy the unique position of being someone who supports AI development but doesn’t depend on it to create my work. I’m trained in these fields, have won many awards, and therefore am not replacing skill or talent with AI. I’ve therefore earned — through the investment of substantial time and money — the right to decide what tools I want to use.

I affirm that I’ve created and run multiple businesses, and through those experiences learned that forsaking a potentially valuable resource without good reason is moronic. I will not shoot myself in the foot or hobble my potential for success because of poorly-made arguments or misplaced guilt.

Finally, I recognize my right to change my mind about anything I’ve said above, at any time, for any reason, as that is the great thing about being a free thinking individual.

There you go! Feel free to use all or part of that statement as your own way to stave off the slavering, mindless masses. 

Don’t Be a Bully

That’s what this whole screed comes down to. I get mad when I find out unqualified, uninformed people are bullying others into their way of thinking. Because that’s all this AI grift is — a way of thinking. 

IT’S PURE OPINION.

It’s not a belief, because AI is really there. You don’t need to believe in it, and if you stop believing in it, it will still exist. 

And it’s not an ethical argument anymore, because anti-AI bullies are eagerly attacking people who are using AI ethically. They don’t care about how you use it, because they just don’t want you to use it.

What that boils down to is that if you’re anti-AI, you can’t sit in smug enjoyment of “being right.” It’s impossible to be right — because opinions can’t be right.

What you can do is calm down and let creators create. Let small businesses use whatever tools they can to get ahead, because that’s better for all of us, including you. Adapt. Figure out the ways to turn this big, scary threat of AI into an opportunity.

Even if it’s just the opportunity to sit back quietly and learn some things.