AI tools have great potential for both good and evil, and creative professionals have a responsibility to ask themselves what they personally consider fair use and what should be considered unethical.
AI Policy
AI tools should assist the creative professional, not replace them.
I’ve given some thought to the potential ethical pitfalls of using these tools, and have decided what I think is fair use for my own work. My personal policy on the use of AI tools is outlined below.
Acceptable Use
- As a writing assistant to check spelling, grammar or alternative wordings to specific phrases.
- As a research tool, but not as a single source and not without fact-checking.
- For accelerating menial or repetitive coding tasks, or providing code suggestions to specific problem.
- For early-stage creative brainstorming or prototyping as long as it’s only one of many sources of inspiration.
- For stock image generation where highly specific subject matter can’t be sourced by conventional means.
- Image generation of people and faces where using a real model’s face is undesirable, (e.g. use in creative work on sensitive subject matter such as crime, abuse, exploitation, illness, children, etc.).
Unacceptable Use
- Generating full articles or written materials, or for rewriting large amounts of content.
- To do the entirety of research projects, especially without fact-checking.
- Coding full projects or components without reviewing and understanding what is generated.
- Generating entire designs or designed components for print projects, websites or otherwise.
- To create art or illustration end-products that are achievable by a human artist.
- To replace stock photography that can be found on stock photography websites taken by a real photographer.
If you have any questions about these policies or would like to discuss them, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.