At first, the answer to this question might be a confident ‘no,’ and we understand. You’re not outright stealing anything when you use generative AI (GenAI), and you’re the master of your own prompts. There is a degree of thought that goes into it.
But consider the millions of words written by professionals, amateurs and everyone in between who have (typically unknowingly) trained the AI model that spins up outputs for you in seconds. They usually weren’t paid or asked permission for any of that work. Is that stealing?
Consider also the artists who have spent countless hours refining their visual styles, their understanding of colour theory and their use of their preferred medium, only to have the fruits of their labour fed to GenAI tools so businesses can churn out gaudy images, for free, to attach to their content. These artists usually weren’t paid or asked permission, either. Is that stealing?
We’re not saying AI is bad. AI can be – and is being – used for all manner of positive applications. From helping to track emissions, to supporting medical diagnoses, to aiding humanitarian work, it’s clear that AI can be applied to important, worthwhile causes. But what we are saying is that using generative AI to bypass the work and the craft of producing text, imagery, video and more is lazy at best, unethical at worst.
Say you wanted a new chest of drawers for your bedroom, and you had a choice of two options. The first option: a solid oak, handcrafted, dovetailed piece of furniture, lovingly sanded, stained and joined by an artisan with years of experience. The second: a flatpack, vinyl-wrapped, flimsy but cheap chest that might last you five years. Yes, you get to feel some satisfaction post-build, but, ultimately, most of the work was either done by machines or by people who are outsourced and undercompensated.
That’s the choice you’re making when you decide whether to pay a writer or designer to help you with your content, or if you’re going to do it yourself with AI. One gives you a quality product informed by experience and expertise, the other gets you a fast result that looks almost the same as everyone else’s. We know which one we would choose. Do you?
