Ethics

So, it has come this huh?

Really, I didn’t think the need of a “Do I use AI?” page was gonna come so soon. But here we are.

Are the articles written by AI?

Is the website 100% AI free?

Now that I likely got the two burning questions out of the way, let’s dive a bit into the topic.
I started writing these articles in mid-2022 as an effort to kickstart a YouTube series teaching everything there is to know about Unity VFX and Tech Art. Since then, I’ve been collecting nuggets of information and compiling them in a personal Obsidian Vault, where I gradually turned the notes into more fully fleshed-out articles.

I’m not, per se, an AI enthusiast. I believe it has its place, but not necessarily as it’s being used today. I crave “real” content created by real people. It has a certain charm, a vibe. To me, AI is the ultimate personal assistant. I use AI liberally as a search engine when conducting research, as a spell-checker, and as an SEO creator. I use it for tasks I don’t enjoy doing myself.

Throughout this website, you’ll encounter articles that have been spell-checked by AI. Some alternate text for images will be SEO-optimized by AI. Marketing copy for articles I share on social media might also be AI-assisted—but that’s where it ends.

I use AI on my personal work as well; Tiling Textures, GIT shenanigans and the occasional code snippet.

I wanna lay these usages bare for everyone to make a judgment call if they wish to support the my work or not. I personally have no moral standing on AI, I’m not scared of it nor do I hold any contempt against it – It feels to me exactly the same as “corporate art”. The issues many people have with AI mirror those I’ve long had with other capitalist-driven abominations in the art world. Ultimately, I resonate with the craving for something real, heartfelt, and artisanal. I don’t want to pass off anything on this website as my own if it’s not, hence the disclaimers.

AI detectors claim your articles are AI!

First, fuck you. Second, AI detectors will flag anything that contains even a morsel of linguistic originality as AI-generated. I often write in a stylized way, which has raised eyebrows in the past. Feel free to test Stephen Fry’s writing in an AI detector, and you’ll see how far the rabbit hole goes.

Finally, for all the AI worriers, haters, and Luddites-to-be: I’ve found a way out of the AI articles which has been serving me well thus far: Marginalia. It’s an alternative search engine that prioritizes results from personal blogs and the small web. I’ve been using it since the AI boom, and it has greatly expanded my media diet.