Life is a balance, don't stress out if you can't be perfect.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the latest monster released into the world and oh boy is it a complicated one. This is complicated by the fact that things like ChatGPT, Gemini, etc., aren't actually intelligent and the "AI" tag is all marketing. It only gets more convoluted from there. For the sake of this post, I'm referring to all things LLM and generative AI related as "AI".

Photo by Tara Winstead

Ignoring all of the social problems AI causes, because there are a lot and I don't have answers for all of them, we'll discuss the 2 problems I consider much bigger for me: moral and environmental. These are 2 problems I can bring balance to for myself. Like everything personal in this world, this is very subjective, but hopefully, it illustrates some things you can adjust to fit your own needs and comfort level.

Now when I say "bring balance to" I mean negate the harm as much as possible and to offset with something positive. This strategy I've started taking is mainly for things in this world I cannot just quit or ignore completely. A lot of things I consider harmful or immoral to me I was able to quit or ignore without a problem. An example of this would be companies like Activision/Blizzard. I wasn't a fan of their corporate values and they did little to correct things, so I stopped using their services and buying/playing their games as a result. It wasn't hard for me and in reality I doubt anybody even noticed, but it was something I could do and I felt better not supporting them so that's all that mattered to me.

An example of something I couldn't just quit or ignore would be companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple, and all of the many other big names that spend millions of dollars so you're basically not allowed to ignore them. I was able to reduce my usage as much as possible, such as moving all of my files out of Google Docs and Google Images, limiting my purchases on Amazon, typing this post with the annoying "Activate Windows" watermark in the corner, and only buying a new iPhone when I absolutely need to (although I do miss Android). For these companies (and other products and services I cannot quit or ignore) I have to find that balance.

I mention all of this to demonstrate that this is not specific to AI, but can be applied almost everywhere. AI is just the easiest because it causes so many massive discussions, massive social divides, and it's being bolted onto every single product or service that doesn't need it. AI is hard to avoid, plain and simple. Now I hesitate to say this because it definitely shows my bias for AI: I enjoy using AI. There, I said it. I can't even imagine the number of readers who just closed this tab like it was a race. But even though I enjoy using it, I recognize it's extremely flawed and needs to be fixed. I don't think it's ever going to die, but I do feel it will slow down drastically once the bubble pops and all of the VC money dries up. I also deal with AI a lot at work, way more than I ever expected to. For various reasons I wish I didn't, even after I get to see the amazing things enterprise AI can do that makes ChatGPT look like a Speak & Spell. But alas I do, and this is one of the multiple reasons I cannot quit or ignore it even if I wanted to.

So how do I feel better about having to use it while fully knowing that AI datasets are based on stolen work from individuals and independent artists and authors? How do I live with knowing that the magic in the box is killing our planet at a rate that nobody is bothered with even calculating? I try to balance it out as best I can, even while knowing that nothing I do can offset the amount of damage corporations are doing to society and the planet.

I donate monthly to OneTreePlanted in an attempt to offset any of the damage I do both with AI and other online services that use servers. I calculated one of my personal servers uses roughly 48.7kg of CO2 per month, or about 3 trees worth of CO2. There's no way to calculate how much CO2 is being produced by a single AI prompt, so I use my best judgment. It's not perfect, but it's the best I can do with the information I have and it's better than not doing anything.

Now for the moral side of things, even when I do my best to avoid using models/datasets that were knowingly trained on stolen work from creators, it's impossible to always know 100% (and there's no way to remove that data if a creator removes consent later) so I have been going out of my way to support independent artists and writers whenever I can. In addition to the normal work I was already commissioning, just donating to them directly via Ko-Fi, CashApp, Venmo, Stripe, and PayPal (all of which I wish I could avoid for various reasons) has also helped me balance things out. Does my $15 compare to the millions of people using their data to generate their homework? No it doesn't, but I can't be responsible for every user. Maybe if more AI users would do the same then it could start to make a small dent.

None of that is perfect, and as I typed it out I realize a lot of it sounds like me trying to justify why I'm a horrible person. I'm sorry for that and I'll continue to apologize for that. One thing I didn't mention is that my "harm reduction" also involves no longer suggesting, recommending, or defending AI. At least as best I can, I'm sure I'll mess this up eventually also. I'm actually shocked I didn't make a list of what I use AI for and why I enjoy it, that seems like something I would have done to try to balance out this post and justify me using it.

To finish up this post I'll just reiterate that this concept can apply to many more things other than just AI. Like if you personally hate Amazon as much as me, but your family uses Amazon Prime like it's going to disappear one day, you can offset your occasional Amazon purchase by backing a new, creative idea from somebody on Kickstarter or do your gift shopping on sites like Etsy (I know, I know... bad example but it's what most people know).

Find your balance and do the best you can with the information you have. Don't beat yourself up if you're not perfect or can't live up to unobtainable standards you've set for yourself. Be human, put in some effort, and love yourself as much as you do others. 🫶

Go out and do good things! 👍 -KuJoe