Do I use AI?
In short, No!
AI is taking the world by storm, especially the design world.
For me there is no place for AI in anything I do and this is for many justified reasons.
I have some research bellow to justify my reasoning that you can feel free to look through.
AI in design.
Small business lean towards generating their logos, posters and adverts using generative AI as it's seen as a free alternative to using a professional designer.
What AI does badly is brand identity (everything it generates looks the same) and good design. Most people aren't designers and miss these, so I have an example below, one AI which is badly designed, and the other by me a someone which a masters in design.
Lets take this design below on the left as an example. It may look inviting and fun from a distance but it breaks some of the most fundamental rules that makes a poster actually functional. I have re-designed the poster on the right in a 1950's styling, I will compare and contrast the two designs bellow.
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First, there is no clear colour scheme, instead a wash of vibrant, in-cohesive colours. The one on the right has a clear colour scheme and is coherent throughout.
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Second, vital information is lost in the havoc of bright graphics making it tricky to understand what is going on at a glance. The details on the right are clear and large at the bottom of the poster.
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Third is overall inconsistencies, the lack of consistent design styles,
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Fourth is the lack of space, for many, empty space on a page is wasted space but good design needs this space to breath. This design looks hectic and that's because there is no space. The space and space use has been considered on the one of the right.
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Finally is character, the one on the left is very generic and has nothing special about it, the one on the right is far more exciting and inspiring to the viewer.
AI and Creatives.
AI has to get its data from somewhere which has lead to huge ethical and legal disputes. Many models such as Open AI's ChatGPT and Meta's Meta-AI use stolen artwork to generate it's images.
There are hundreds of creative individuals work that has been illegally fed into these algorithms to train them. In fact, if you have uploaded your work to the internet it has probably already been uploaded to train AI.
But how do they get away with it? "by citing the Fair Use doctrine, claiming that AI outputs are “transformative” – computational mashups that are fundamentally different from the original works."
For this reason, I do not use AI, and frankly anyone who believes they should have right to their own creative work should also not support, or use, any generative AI.
It's a disgusting industry run by CEO's who want to leech off creative individuals work and remove artistic expression and human creativity from this world.
AI and the
Environment.
Data centers are at the core of any AI network, these are huge warehouses full of computers. There are a few problems with these;
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They consume huge amounts of fresh water which could be given to people who need it the most. In 2024 Google used 24 Million m³ of water in their data centers, that could fill 120 million bath tubs.
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Data centers also use electricity, Microsoft used 23,000 KW of energy in 2024 which is enough to power 49 Disneyland Paris for an entire year.
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Data centers emit a low frequency hum that causes harm to wildlife, and in some farms have caused multiple cases of still births in their animals.
It's not just a, "funny image" or a "Time saver", it's a planet killer and people are just accepting it.
A rendering of Meta’s new 1GW, AI-optimized data center in Alberta, Canada.
Courtesy: Meta
Final Thoughts.
AI is plotted as a "inevitability" and we are told just to "get used to it", unfortunately with an issue as big as this, this is not an option.
Most of this is bad news but I don't like finishing on that.
There is a huge resistance to AI in the younger generations, many have a strong disdain to it being used and shoved in our faces at every opportunity.
The future is not AI as long as we stand up to it.
So what can you do?
Support local and growing businesses, don't support these huge companies who are investing billions in AI and shoving AI features down our throats.
Call out AI when people use it, make sure they know why it's bad and that they have a choice not to.
All it takes is one person, be that person and do the right thing.
Thank you and keep being creative :)
