Our policy on AI

‘I am utterly disgusted, I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.’ — Hayao Miyazaki

That pretty much sums it up. We don’t, won’t, and never will touch AI with a hundred-foot pole.

For a while now, AI has been pushed on us. Surreptitiously at first, with meek suggestions and quiet prompts. ‘Would you like to try our AI technology?’ the app asks, complete with a cute name and a little floating ball of glowing light to make it feel more futuristic.

But the information returned is incorrect, the facts jumbled together, with data extracted from random online opinion and social media. The generated copy is a crude imitation of human writing, the art a skin-crawling horror. The expensive toy just doesn’t work very well.

‘Ok, so it needs some training. Just keep using it and it will get better and smarter.’

Yeah, no thanks.

When you use AI, it’s not really helping you. You’re helping it. Or, more specifically, the development companies who sink millions upon millions of dollars (not to mention the 68,100 litres of water a day and enormous quantities of power) into this technology.

You’re working for them.

For free.

You are also, in the process, devaluing most forms of art. Creative artists are suffering as AI programs steal their work, puree it into a raw and glossy mess, and proceed to clog up online art spaces. Writers are being encouraged to use AI to edit their work and, in some cases, actually create it. The results are uniformly awful: weird, disconnected approximations of writing that don’t move, excite, or delight in any way at all.

It is, for want of a better phrase, utterly pointless to create like this. You are not learning a new skill. You are devaluing yourself and your own writing (and editing) practice. To re-quote the eminent animator and artist Miyazaki, ‘This is an insult to life itself.’

If you are a writer (of prose, of poetry, of jokes, of essays or articles – anything really) we beseech you: Use your own words. Come up with your own thoughts and ideas. Transcribe your experiences into human language and tell your story. Not the story of a tech company’s ongoing quest to replace you and to profit off you.

*And, no, we didn’t use Chat GPT to create, edit or proofread any of the above angry-creative rant. Go forth and create and make mistakes and learn and edit and rewrite; add value to your lives.

Then get in touch if you need us to help you with any of it. *