Chaotican Writer LLC and its subsidiaries (Dungeon Delve newsletter, etc.) is a platform inspired by a drive to capture creative ideas and wield them into unique bits content for world-builders, writers, game masters, and others. We understand we are functioning in an ever changing world, and the state of the internet and what we consume and how we consume content is also changing regularly.
While technology has the power to boost our message and improve how we create and deliver content, it can also be a minefield of unethical practices. On the surface, use of certain technologies may seem benign. However, when taking the full extent of its ramifications, some unregulated technologies become problematic. In this policy, we are addressing the current wave of Generative AI, and our stance concerning use and association with this technology.
Our Policy in a Nutshell
Short answer; this site and its writer/editor are against the use of generative AI. This includes generation of text, images, and other byproducts. We strictly forbid the use of these tools to enhance our articles, tools, or other assets!
Gen AI Policy Breakdown
The following is a breakdown of our policy in depth. This policy is ever evolving as does the maturity of our approach, as is the state of Generative AI itself. Be sure to check this page for the latest rendition of this policy.
Concerning Content on this Site
- We pledge to never use generative AI in any of our articles, tools, or products.
- We pledge to continue advocating against generative AI due to its unethical nature.
- We pledge to maintain and support the efforts of human artists, writers, and creators, via word of mouth, promotion, payment, networking, and adoration!
Concerning Images
One of the biggest resources of this site are in stock art, whether royalty-free or paid. We are careful to review, select, and verify the images used in articles and other content. Some of the tools used to help validate are below, though this does not list all of them, and are subject to update/evolution as AI changes:
We aim for a 75% or more human rating of the used images. This is due to the emulative and intrusive nature of generative AI in the development process, which may include false positives, non-AI generative tools, and other means.
NOTICE: With changing image-generation technologies, and changing detection methods, we continue to validate the images we use in the process of writing, editing, and publishing. … Unfortunately, with the increase of AI-generated images on stock sites and otherwise, we may not always be successful. If you suspect a certain image is AI generated, please reach out to us via our contact page, and provide us your own validation results.
Concerning Reviews of Products
We will NOT accept reviews of products that possess clear indications of generative AI.
As always, ChaoticanWriter reserves the right to take offline any article, review, or product for any reason. This includes the revelation of AI involved in the original products creation.
Concerning False Positives
From the editor: One of the ongoing challenges in a world with Gen-AI is that even things written or created by a human can undergo false positives; the case where a tool flags content as AI-generated when it, in truth, has been made by a human.
As both a prose writer and a technical writer, some conventions that are indicative of generative AI may occasionally show up in my writing because of my style of formatting. I understand the best way to get around this is to increasingly find my voice and make small decisions in my sentencing and personal lexicon to work against the run-of-the-mill tech writing mode, while keeping things clear and concise at the same time.
Our Philosophy About Gen AI
To better provide context as to our decision to reject generative AI, we would like to provide our philosophical and environmental reasons for this stance.
Reasons for Opposition
1) Theft of Works
- Outright Theft: These tools train on content found across the internet without the consent of their original creators.
- Stolen Agency: These tools remove the agency of skilled individuals who have worked on their craft for years.
- Plagiarism: Use of gen AI tools greatly increases the risk of plagiarism.
- No Compensation: Products of these tools that independently generate value are never contributed back to the original content creators.
- Zero Attribution: Use of gen AI, even when a generated product is not attributed to the individual who triggered that generation, strips attribution away from the source art.
- Stolen Profit: Furthermore, generating content this way subverts and steals the potential of direct compensation in sales of the creators own work.
2) Obscuring the Facts
- Lack of Transparency: More often than not, these tools do not produce a clear ledger of what material they have trained on, or what a product generated with these tools used in its generation.
- Misinformation: One of the biggest sustainers of truth are the barriers against producing and maintaining misinformation. Lowering those barriers allows bad actors to use those tools to warp perceived reality for the worse.
- Lost Knowledge: Generative AI makes it far easier for knowledge, past human works, and accounts to become hidden and obscured by easy rewriting, AI product over-saturation, manufactured “facts” assuming precedence over actual facts, etc.
- Dishonesty of its Supporters: Insistence on downplaying the theft and damage of broadly used generative AI, while obstructing transparency into the materials trained, is clearly a sign of guilt or blatant disregard of the rights or general welfare of the original creators.
3) Social and Personal Damage
- Oversaturation: Because these tools are widely available without restriction, policy requirement, or regulation, their use has flooded the ecosystem with simulacrums of expression, threatening to drown out the authentic voices of human expression.
- An Unregulated Slippery Slope: Demonstratably, from the level of obfuscation and the range of risks and harms that this technology enables, it is difficult to separate the worst offenders from the least. Regulation and accountability measures are required.
4) Environmental Damage
- Power Consumption: Generative AI technologies and its supporting hardware require an immense amount of power. Generating power requires natural resources. The social value of spending this amount of power correlates directly to how the technology is used, and its opportunity cost in an ever growing climate emergency.
- Water Consumption: Generative AI technologies and its supporting hardware require an immense amount of water for cooling. Generating and circulating water requires natural resources. This is especially troubling when water resources (for power, and consumption) are strained due to the effects of climate change.
How Small Changes Dont Fix The Problem
It is likely you see this list, and may pose that a correction of some of these points would help clear the reputation of generative AI. While it is a proposition that even I took time to brainstorm, there are huge considerations that make such a thought experiment moot.
1) Most "Fixes" Intensify The Problem
- Creating tools that train on public domain or consented works does not prevent oversaturation or lost compensation/attribution of otherwise valid works that are pushed aside by a large inventory of generated content.
- Increasing energy security with better infrastructure for the sake of Generative AI only enables more use, and induces more demand for Generative AI.
- Reverting to cleaner energy does not negate the waste of those resources that would be otherwise used on more meaningful societal endeavors.
2) Transparency is Not Enough
- Opening the “black box” for everyone to see is one thing. Forces large enough and willing to regulate and facilitate justice is another. Naturally, even if such forces emerge, its likely the little guy will continue to get picked on, while well-funded and well-connected entities are preferred.
- This is not just a collection of checkboxes. The forces in our social, economic, and capital/profit centric world are incentivized to ignore and avoid meaningful improvements when able.
3) The Damage Has Been Done (and It Continues)
- Even in the circumstance where the societal issues are resolved, the environmental issues are resolved, and transparency is put into effect, generative AI’s implementation over the 2020’s is a black mark. An unguided and reckless implementation that has built its models on stolen works.
Final Summary
Okay. So,… we get it.
This is a time of rapid change, and ever evolving circumstances. We know that artificial intelligence is an undeniable part of the future, and it is something that will be a part of everyones life in the coming years and decades.
We are not in opposition to the future, nor are we in opposition to artificial intelligence as a world-changing class of technology. We do, however, question and resist the current application and justifications of generative AI as it is being used. Ultimately, products of this technology assume the form of generative text and images trained on material without the sign-off of the creator, avoiding methods like copyright, licensing, trademarking, and original proof-of-authorship.