A Flowchart Of The Ethics Of Generative AI
We have all tried out different generative artificial intelligence tools to some extent over the last few years. A person would have to be utterly devoid of all curiosity not to have tried them out. Generative AI is an impressive and influential new technology, and it's important to be familiar with it, so we can make informed choices about its role in our working lives.
We are no longer within the enchanting initial blush of generative AI, however. It's become clear that, despite the prophecies of Singularity believers, the capabilities of generative AI tools are not going to improve themselves at an exponential rate. The technology has reached a plateau. Advances in the capabilities of generative AI tools are growing increasingly less impressive.
Now is the time for us to take generative AI seriously.
We can’t afford to play around with this technology any longer. The stakes are too high. We need to grapple with the ethical implications of generative AI implementation. The uninhibited use of generative AI by early adopters is already causing serious problems. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the foundations of human society are in danger of collapse.
Generative AI has made it possible to, in just a matter of minutes, create videos of anthropomorphic socks climbing the pyramids in Egypt while singing about their aversion to sugar cereal. Fine. It's time to confront the question of whether this kind of easy outsourced creativity is the right thing to do.
In order to confront the immensity of the ethical challenges presented by generative AI, we need to be organized in our analysis of its impact. Accordingly, the flowchart below presents six essential ethical questions that people should ask themselves before they enter any prompt into a generative AI platform.
One of the key characteristics of generative AI technology is that it places an opaque curtain between our actions and their consequences that allows us to pretend that generative AI comes free of cost. Serious people need to pull that curtain back and think carefully about the ethics of their generative AI use.
1. Are You Okay With Exploitation Of Workers Behind The Scenes?
The term "generative artificial intelligence" is deceptive. Generative AI systems are in fact systems for organizing and accessing human intelligence. The intelligence they present isn't really artificial. It's merely the delivery system of that intelligence that's artificial.
Generative AI platforms have been created through the exploitation of large numbers poorly paid and poorly treated human workers. These workers are in vulnerable populations, and have been pressured into training generative AI systems using cruel levers of social power.
They have been hidden behind the scenes to make generative AI appear more impressive than it really is. The apparent magic of generative AI is a product of their labor.
Unless you have been purposefully avoiding serious discussions about generative AI, you know that these people exist. Now, if you're a decent person, you must confront this question:
Is the project that you're using generative AI for really so vital that it makes the exploitation of hidden workers justifiable?
2. Is Your Prompt Worth Putting People Out Of Work?
Let's dispense with the pretense that massive job loss due to the deployment of generative AI tools is something that might happen some time in the future. It's already happening.
Real people are losing their livelihoods, and are entering a labor marketplace where even people with excellent education and extensive experience are struggling to find professional opportunities. This is happening in part because human work is being replaced with generative AI tools.
The boosters of AI boosters promised us that new jobs would be created to replace the jobs that the technology destroys. Those jobs have yet to materialize. Perhaps they will in the future, but no one in the generative AI industry has been able to articulate a coherent plan for the creation of new jobs. In fact, the very corporations that have been at the forefront of funding and deploying generative AI tools have been eliminating massive numbers of jobs as part of their AI-first strategy.
Even prompt engineers and people who have specialized in AI are losing work now. Young people who thought they were being responsible by putting their personal dreams aside in order to "learn to code" are leaving school to find themselves in tough competition for a rapidly shrinking number of entry level positions.
Every time you enter a prompt into a generative AI tool, you are supporting a system that is blocking the ability of other people to sustain themselves through responsible hard work.
Is your generative AI prompt so important that it's worth making it more difficult for other people to find work?
3. Are You Willing to Criminally Possess And Use Stolen Property?
The pretense that generative AI tools were created using only freely available public data was disproven long ago. Generative AI tools are trained on copyrighted material: Written work, music, visual art and more were copied and commercially used without permission. The creation of generative AI tools could not have taken place without this unprecedented theft.
When you use generative AI tools for your own work, you are knowingly taken stolen property into your own possession, in order to use it for your own benefit. You are an accessory to the crime.
Is what you want to do with generative AI so valuable to society that it makes it okay to participate in this global criminal conspiracy?
4. Is Your Project Worth Accelerating The Wrecking Of The Earth?
Huge amounts of electric power are used to create generative AI systems. After their initial training, every single prompt that is entered into a generative AI tool uses electricity and water at an alarming rate. Most of the electricity used to power generative AI tools comes from dirty sources that pollute the air and release large amounts of carbon dioxide. Every generative AI prompt makes air and water more toxic, and accelerates global climate change.
These environmental consequences kill people and destroy social wealth.
For years, proponents of generative AI have promised that generative AI would provide new insights that would make electricity cleaner and reduce CO2 emissions. That has not happened, because generative AI systems are not intelligent. They don't solve problems. They imitate the products thinking without actually doing any thinking. Generative AI models are not providing new insights to guide the development of sustainable energy, because they are incapable of doing so.
We know how to slow down the acceleration of climate change: The answer is to stop engaging in behaviors that result in unnecessary emissions of greenhouse gases. Using generative AI doesn’t solve the climate crisis. Generative AI is making the climate crisis worse.
Is your generative AI prompt worth poisoning the Earth and accelerating climate change?
5. Do You Want To Strengthen Your Human Team?
One of the under-appreciated benefits of work done by humans is the role of work in building loyal teams of people who become progressively more skilled in their professional roles over time.
In comparison, generative AI tools become less effective over time, in part because the massive amount of garbled imitation of humanity they emit corrupts sources of data used for subsequent development of new generative AI models. Increasing amounts of financial and social investment are required just in order to keep the generative AI working at the same level that it has in the past.
What's more, generative AI is statistically linked with a decline in the ability of its human users to think critically. While generative AI itself stagnates, it weakens the abilities of the people who come to depend on it.
Are you more interested in building thriving human teams or in finding temporary automated shortcuts?
6. Are you comfortable with contributing to a workplace of slop and concentration of wealth?
Let's be honest about the number one motivation behind the integration of generative AI into professional environments: It's about saving money.
It’s easy to forget that that businesses were already powerfully efficient before generative AI tools became available. They were prospering.
The release of generative AI increased competitive pressure by flooding the marketplace with massive amounts of cheaply produced slop that, for those who aren't picky about quality, is good enough. Generative AI content has lowered the market value of human labor, creating a new expectation of nearly-instantaneous media production.
Companies are cutting human jobs, and requiring the remaining workers to accomplish more work in less time, forcing them to use generative AI tools to meet the new expectations. Those workers who are lucky enough to hold onto their jobs aren't making higher salaries, though.
The benefits of reduced labor costs due to AI-provoked layoffs is being enjoyed by a small number of people. Investors and top executives are making a killing, while small and mid-sized AI businesses that are centered around generative AI have a higher rate of failure than conventional businesses. Meanwhile, the quality of work is in rapid decline.
Furthermore, the days of inexpensive generative AI are numbered. We are in the initial stages of what has become a predictable cycle for new digital technologies. In those early stages, a new digital technology is offered free of charge, or at a remarkably low price. This cheap cost disrupts the economy, leading many businesses to become dependent on the new technology. Then, when business can’t do without the new technology, the price is dramatically increased.
Cheap generative AI in the present will result in a heavy economy burden in the future.
Are you using generative AI to squeeze a few more dollars out of work that was already profitable?
Make the Human Choice
When it comes down to it, the decision of whether to use generative AI tools is not ethically complex.
The challenge we face is in withstanding the massive economic and social pressures that are leading people to use generative AI tools despite their ethical concerns.
Are there ethical uses of generative AI? Sure.
If a team of terrorists storms your corporate headquarters and threatens to start killing one hostage every minute until they receive a 20 page essay, written in the style of Mark Twain, comparing the symbolism of windmills in Don Quixote to the imagery of monsters on Pokemon trading cards, then yes, you are absolutely justified in using a generative AI tool to get the job done as quickly as possible.
Your integration of generative AI tools into your work doesn't approach that ethical threshold.
Yes, the human alternative to using generative AI tools can feel like a real pain in the ass.
Work is difficult. Work takes time.
Work also ennobles us.
Generative AI degrades us.
You know this. You don't need to go through the flowchart presented here. You already know what the ethical choice is.
All that remains is for you is to summon the courage required to get back to work.
Choosing to use generative AI is the easy choice.
Let’s make the human choice instead.