“AI vegans”
ffs, just publish an article with a single clownemoji for the same effect.
Meet the AI vegans: They are choosing to abstain from using artificial intelligence for environmental, ethical and personal reasons. Maybe they have a point
Submitted 3 weeks ago by Davriellelouna@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/06/meet-the-ai-vegans
Comments
Brett@feddit.org 3 weeks ago
givesomefucks@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
The big corporations desperately want AI to be popular because they’ve thrown literally insane amounts of money at it and still don’t know how to monetize it.
There’s going to be a huge push to make it seem like everyone loves it and it’s weird not to use it constantly
It’s going to go horribly and come off like that “fellow kids” meme, exactly lol me this headline
salacious_coaster@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
I’m already seeing a surge of AI simp trolls on Lemmy in the last few days.
criss_cross@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
MBA dweebs running VC firms wanna desperately replace people with AI for short term profits.
Canconda@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
still don’t know how to monetize it.
They do know how to monetize it. API access generated $1Billion in 2023. There’s also huge R&D potential in fields like genetic research and medicine.
Profitability is another question though. Likely we’re waiting for advances in cold fusion or late stage renewable development for energy costs to go down enough.
zildjiandrummer1@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
AI in this form has been used for like 15 years, to generate trillions of dollars worth of value. I think you’re just talking specifically about ChatGPT and consumer-facing LLMs.
randomblock1@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
A good example were those Apple AI ads. So cringe. Google’s ads aren’t much better but at least Gemini works.
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s quite common for me to be annoyed, angry, or upset at a headline writer. Then there’s the feeling I got reading “Meet the AI vegans.”
Whole new level.
doctortofu@piefed.social 3 weeks ago
That's because the author seems to be a journalism vegan, writing vegan and self-awareness vegan.
humble_boatsman@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Its so wacky out there. When I read something like this I’m sure its The Onion. And its not. Then I read a headline about US politics and its totally believable , alas its The Onion.
echolalia@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
I refuse to believe this title is anything other than engagement-bait, personally.
CosmoNova@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Seems to me you‘re a BS vegan.
Pudutr0n@feddit.cl 3 weeks ago
You’d be surprised how much more serene your headspace can become if you stop expecting anything beyond stupidity, incompetence and negligence as the default human behavior.
expr@programming.dev 3 weeks ago
Yeah, pretty disappointing to see from the Guardian.
aesthelete@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
This is such a stupid name for this.
normalexit@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Abstaining from a thing does not make one a vegan. That’s not how any of this works.
Fleur_@aussie.zone 2 weeks ago
I’m sex vegan. Cry about it virgins
normalexit@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
No mayo in the bedroom? Why even bother.
whoisearth@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I’m a sex vegetarian gotta be a bit open
JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
“Vegan sex” is actually a different thing. It’s penetration but you stop before you cum.
magnus919@lemmy.brandyapple.com 2 weeks ago
It only counts when it’s voluntary, tho.
echodot@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
It’s like how they put the word gate after something to say that it is a scandal involving the former word.
Somesort of political scandal involving road maintenance? Oh yes well that’s roadgate then. Even though the Watergate scandal was in fact it scandal in the watergate hotel, rather than a scandal about water.
helvetpuli@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
Someday we’ll have Gate gate, or maybe even another scandal at the Watergate complex, so Watergate gate.
I can’t wait!
Hellahunter@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Awe so the article author has a vendetta against vegans got it.
JuxtaposedJaguar@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
I mean, abstaining from animal products makes someone a vegan, right? If you abstain from AI products then it would follow that you’re an “AI vegan”.
normalexit@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
It follows, but it is also feels like click bait.
A definition of vegan is:
A vegetarian who eats plant products only, especially one who uses no products derived from animals, as fur or leather.
There is an environmental parallel, and it made me read the article to see what they were on about – so I guess it worked.
To be clear, I am very pro environment (I live in it); I just feel like this is crossing the streams of related, but completely different movements, isn’t particularly helpful.
JcbAzPx@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Abstaining from animal products is just vegetarian. Veganism requires an extremely strict adherence to a very specific set of rules concerning animals.
lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.com 2 weeks ago
But it makes people come off as extremely annoying. So that’s working.
abbiistabbii@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
Calling them after a maligned (if harmless) group seems like a choice to paint refusing to use AI as being annoying, preachy and scorn-worthy.
They seem very determined to pressure people into using AI regardless of it’s practicality, environmental impact, or anything. Fuck this shit.
mostlikelyaperson@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
There’s been recent pushes in that regard, investment in AI shit has been enormous but the financial payoff for anyone besides hardware manufacturers remains nonexistent. So investors and corporations have recently redoubled their efforts into trying to get everyone to use it in the hopes that this somehow will make them profitable.
TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
yeah, this is 1000% deliberate manufacturing consent
Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 weeks ago
“Have you ever been called an AI vegan?”
“No… Shit no! That sounds like something that’d get your ass kicked!”
TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
how to belittle and minimize a very serious thing: call any protesters of it a " ___ vegan"
Sergio@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They are “journalism vegans”. They are choosing to abstain from actual journalism for clickbaiting, herd mentality, and personal lack of skill reasons.
jsomae@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Why are you dissing on vegans? Veganism is legit, bro.
TimewornTraveler@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
online lefty moment. I’m not dissing on them. I am simply aware of how they are perceived in society.
jerkface@lemmy.ca 3 weeks ago
It’s not cool to use “vegan” like this.
REDACTED@infosec.pub 3 weeks ago
Got a good chuckle out of me tho
Zorque@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
It’s like vegangate or something.
breecher@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
“Newspaper which uses AI to write its articles concocts derogatory term for people who doesn’t use AI”
Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Imo vegan shouldn’t be seen as derogatory. I’m not one, but got a lot of respect for most of em.
AllHailTheSheep@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
it shouldn’t, but years of lobbying and demonization online certainly have made it so
streetfestival@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Wow, thank you so much for sharing this. What a major blow the Guardian’s credibility
IcyToes@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
It was short lived. It is often called the Grauniad because of poor quality typos etc. historically.
umbraroze@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
This makes about as much sense as calling Linux users “Windows vegans”.
Choosing to not use AI isn’t some wacky contrarian position, it’s a tame position that can easily be justified. (Don’t want to use AI? Then don’t.) If anything, trying to assert that constantly using AI for everything would be the new normal is the wacky position.
Toribor@corndog.social 3 weeks ago
People just going about their business living their lives as they have for many years…
Silicon Valley: Hey fuck you. Also I came up with a dumb nickname for you.
reksas@sopuli.xyz 2 weeks ago
i wonder if they came up with such term to mock those who dont want to use ai and possibly actual vegans on the side.
toiletobserver@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
And here i am not using it because I’m old and cranky.
Blackmist@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
I refuse to use it because it’s shit.
We are not the same.
ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com 3 weeks ago
I’m choosing to abstain because it’s shit. The ethical things are just a bonus. It produces inaccurate information and bland soulless images.
kadaverin0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
This is the dumbest shit I’ve ever read. Refusing to submit to corpo ratfuckery isn’t a lifestyle choice. It’s common sense.
thedruid@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
What bullshif us this?
A. I vegan is a nonesence title.
How about " people who don’t want the world to end even faster tell corps to fuck off"
pjwestin@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I don’t use A.I. because I’ve had nothing but negative interactions with A.I. Customer service bots that fail to give adequate responses, unhelpful and incorrect search result summaries, and, “art,” that looks like shit hasn’t made me want to sign up for ChatGPT or Gemini. For most people, this isn’t a moral stance, it’s just that the product isn’t worth paying for. Stop framing people that don’t use A.I. as luddites with an ax to grind just because tech bros spent billions on a product that isn’t good yet.
MyOpinion@lemmy.today 3 weeks ago
I try not to use AI at all. I am not missing out on anything.
HexesofVexes@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I applaud folks like this - they make a choice and stick with it. No “I’ll never use AI to generate art but I vibe code to save time” hypocrisy. No “I use it to help me with maths, but I’d never use it to steal artistic work”.
Just straight up “it is an environmental hazard, it is unethical, not engaging”. Should be called “AI Ethicists” rather than “AI Vegans”.
zeca@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
Im also a gun vegan, a car vegan, a facebook vegan, an exercise vegan (unfortunately), a windows vegan, … just not actual vegan.
I feel like thats a bad way to use the word vegan.
jsomae@lemmy.ml 2 weeks ago
We let environmentalism become an individual issue, and that was a mistake. Can we not do this for AI? It’s a society-wide problem, not something you can solve by measuring your own personal AI footprint.
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Shitty click baity title
Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I don’t use it because I have no trust in it.
ICastFist@programming.dev 2 weeks ago
No, I didn’t make it up. Although I rather wish I did, because it’s quite catchy, isn’t it?
No, it isn’t, it’s fucking stupid. The author was kind enough to link the source of that shitty idea, and the AI/vegan parallels are, per said article: ethical, environmental and wellness concerns.
Gee wiz, I sure never saw people with those 3 concerns in regards to anything other than veganism!!!
/s
Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk 2 weeks ago
We don’t need to invent new terms, like ‘AI Vegan’, when we have perfectly good terms already: Butlerian Jihadist.
BearGun@ttrpg.network 3 weeks ago
Stupid-ass title.
Allemaniac@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
“AI vegans”? I knew guardian was already bought by tech bros, but wtf is that phrasing lmao I dont use AI either, simply because it is wrong more often than not and I am still capable of googling myself, but being cautious equals to being vegan in tech bro eyes?
toast@retrolemmy.com 3 weeks ago
Nothing wrong with being a Luddite
guillem@aussie.zone 3 weeks ago
The possibilities are infinite if you are a netaphor vegan.
Auth@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Carnivores: vegetable vegans.
bubblybubbles@lemmy.ml 3 weeks ago
And jus lik that we come full circle 😂
guillem@aussie.zone 3 weeks ago
Brilliant lol
devfuuu@lemmy.world [bot] 3 weeks ago
This works so well specially for those people that refuse to touch anything “not cooked” in their plate or that is green.
Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
My god, it’s unstoppable
zildjiandrummer1@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 weeks ago
On this blessed day, we are all truly vegans.
caseyweederman@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
I love your profile image. I should reread Rice Boy.
sorghum@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
Amish: techno vegans
Sans_Seraph@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
I interpreted that as techno, as in the genre, for too long.
surewhynotlem@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Incels: sexual vegans
hypna@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I keep trying to eat meat but it just won’t cooperate!
sqw@lemmy.sdf.org 2 weeks ago
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbivore_men
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
It’s like taking the last syllable of the name of the hotel and tacking it onto every scandal, because you didn’t understand that it’s part of the name of a hotel, and not some sort of indicator of scandal.
guillem@aussie.zone 3 weeks ago
The worst was the Col scandal.
(Sorry. So sorry)
ApollosArrow@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Image
ozymandias117@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Freeze! Vegan police!
hemko@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 weeks ago
anomnom@sh.itjust.works 2 weeks ago
Found an autocorrect vegan!
guillem@aussie.zone 2 weeks ago
In my most upvoted comment. I’m hating that typo so much.
TheTechnician27@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
You’re hereby invited to /c/vegan, as you appear to be a Northern Hemisphere vegan.
Korne127@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I mean “Straight edgers” is on the same level already
MisterFrog@aussie.zone 2 weeks ago
The Germans are probably upset with this comparison
What for a nonsense. Do these other countries not sort their waste or what? Do they not know about efficiency? Next thing you’re going to tell me they don’t sort their white, green and brown glass separately.