Is it really possible to opt out of AI?

Last week, I mentioned that I’m taking an Instagram break after Meta’s announcement that you would soon be able to create AI-generated images in Instagram.

It’s no secret that I consider AI-generated content a form of blatant theft (of both creative intellectual property and creative labor) and taking a break from Instagram was a chance for me to pause, to figure out if I still wanted to be part of a platform that was so casually enabling that theft.

But someone brought up an interesting question, ironically on Instagram. AI (otherwise known as machine learning) is pretty much part of all technology at this point. It’s what enables us to unlock our phones with our faces and helps doctors analyze medical scans. While some of these uses are potentially positive, at the end of the day, AI is pervasive.

Is it really possible to opt out completely?

I’ve been thinking a lot about this question, especially its shades of “resistance is futile.” If AI is everywhere, what’s the point of trying to resist it anywhere?

And, what good will I, one single person, taking a step back from Instagram, really do, in this unrelenting march towards AI pervasiveness?

I’ll answer that last question first, because the sad truth is, not much. That’s why I’m labeling this as an Instagram break rather than just completely quitting. At the end of the day, whether I stop posting or quit entirely, Instagram sees nothing more than a user who’s fallen off the wagon. My decision to opt out won’t change whether or not they roll out AI tools, because they don’t even know that’s why I stopped using the platform in the first place.

I’ll admit, this is more than a little depressing. But I’m not giving up hope yet. Instead, I’m doing what I always do in times of personal confusion. I’m reading—a lot. I’m looking to both history and present commentary to try and figure out what the best course of action is.

I don’t know what that looks like yet, but full-on refusal to use any technology that in any way incorporates AI is probably not it. Not only is it pretty unrealistic, given the pervasiveness of AI, it would also likely be the end of my business. And while I’m willing to take a stand, as a human living in a capitalist society, I still need to make money to survive.

I think there might be something in collective action, not necessarily in the form of refusals or boycotts, but in demanding what is rightfully ours. For too long, technology companies have profited from our hope labor. It is us who has generated the content that made them rich, and it is us who generated the content that fed the generative AI systems. I believe we deserve a piece of that pie.

But I don’t quite know what that looks like yet, or how to bring that about. (If you have ideas, please feel free to reach out. I’m all ears.) Hence, the reading.

But in the meantime, I’m trying to come up with a personal code for myself, for navigating the new world of AI, as it infiltrates more of the platforms I use on a daily basis to run my business and connect with my customers, colleagues, and friends. This code is meant to solve the problem of the pervasiveness of AI. True, I can’t opt out entirely, but I can set boundaries.

Because technology is evolving so quickly, I might change or add to these as time goes on, but I’m sharing them now in case it helps you in determining your own personal relationship to tools that employ AI.

1. I will not knowingly use AI to generate content, as either a finished product or a step in the process.

This obviously means not using overt AI tools, like ChatGPT, DALL-E, or FaceTune, but it also means opting out of AI within the tools I currently use. That means not using AI to generate headlines in Mailchimp, not using generative AI inside Photoshop or Canva, and certainly not using AI to generate images on Instagram when that feature is rolled out

2. I will unfollow or mute people who actively create or share AI-generated content.

A big reason I haven’t fully quit Instagram is because I still value it as a place to connect with family, friends, and fellow artists. It’s a way for me to keep up with what they’re doing IRL. I’m not interested in AI-generated images, because I want to know what people are really up to, so seeing AI-generated images completely misses the point. But I’m also not interested in associating with people who willfully engage in such blatant theft. (And you’ll never convince me that AI-generated content is anything other than theft.) So if I someone I follow starts actively posting AI-generated content, it’s time to cut ties.

3. I will focus my consumption on places where humans are getting paid for their creative work.

This has long been my issue with Instagram. We do the work of creating the content, while Zuckerberg gets rich. But I don’t believe the response is to stop consuming entirely. I’ve said before that, in order for the arts to thrive, we need to be good consumers in addition to being creators. And being a good consumer means ensuring the people who create what we consume are paid for their work.

For me, that means reading (and buying) books, paying for an online news subscription, and watching things where the people creating it get paid. (For me, that mostly means TV. Now if only Netflix would pay the contestants on Blown Away.) I even found a podcast I really love (if you know me, you know how rare this is) and became a paid subscriber.

At the end of the day, this is my stance against generative AI. I believe that artists, makers, and creators should be paid (and paid well) for their work. In a perfect world, that would mean either opting out of all the platforms that profit from our creativity without sharing those profits (from social media to Google to generative AI companies) or taking a stand so that these companies pay us for the creative labor they’ve stolen. (Or some combination of both.)

But we don’t live in a perfect world. So for now, I’m pointing my moral compass in the best direction I can, while doing the work to figure out the best ways for all of us creatives to profit and flourish from our creative labor.

I hope you’ll join me.