Why does this use of the “vegan” word sound so condescending?
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 4 months ago by Davriellelouna@lemmy.world to technology@lemmy.world
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/aug/06/meet-the-ai-vegans
Comments
Alfredolin@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yo
NoodlePoint@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I refuse ever touching an AI-driven app or feature, having seen too much slop.
toynbee@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I’ve interacted with AI. Once.
My employer enabled it on my laptop. It introduced itself to me and asked how it could be helpful. I asked it how to disable it. It responded HAL style.
Never reached out to it again.
carl_dungeon@lemmy.world 4 months ago
This is someone more obnoxious than ai tech bros
zarkanian@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
I think this IS an AI tech bro. Or at least an AI tech bro dick-rider.
tino@lemmy.world 4 months ago
TIL I’m a lot of thing vegan… also, not a vegan.
ExLisper@lemmy.curiana.net 4 months ago
I think some AI use is clearly worth the costs (like helping with scientific research or accessibility), some clearly isn’t (like generating spam), and much falls in a gray area where reasonable people can disagree. So do I think it’s ethical to use me? In many cases, yes - but I understand why thoughtful people might conclude otherwise, and I don’t think they’re wrong to avoid AI if they’ve weighed the considerations and found the costs too high.
Gsus4@mander.xyz 4 months ago
I’m an LLM freegan, I guess. But I’m cutting back too, the usefulness peaked.
rhythmisaprancer@piefed.social 4 months ago
freegan
If they had come up with something original like that, it would have been better. But creating constructive neologisms takes work, I guess.
interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml 4 months ago
Try if one of the following strikes your fancy
AIniks
NoBots
Cogclean
Algorejects
Synthephobes
DrFistington@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Stupid title, but in all honesty, now would be the time to create a new religion where there are restrictions on hyper modern things like AI, robotics, etc.
peoplebeproblems@midwest.social 4 months ago
We must not create a machine to counterfeit human thinking. That could be the most important phrase in the entire thing.
Almost like there might already be a text or novels out there that warn on the dangers of mankind’s hubris.
cupcakezealot@piefed.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
stupid headline from the guardian but that’s just expected.
Nikls94@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Not AI vegans. More like LLM deniers. They know how to use it, they know what it does, they know how to trick it, they know how to abuse it.
josefo@leminal.space 4 months ago
If we go this route, there is also from for AI Crossfitters
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Count me in
Crampon@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I selective use AI for low risk applications.
I can use it to reskin a picture to a water painting or whatever for the purpose of using it as an icon in a smart home app or similar.
i also use it to clean audio for memes with friends.
At the moment its not reliable to solve actual problems. I simply don’t use to for those purposes because it sucks.
sifr@retrolemmy.com 4 months ago
On my list of “dont’s”, inspired by Luke Smith, I do not use AI.
auraithx@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 months ago
Ai vegans are people who only use ai generated porn.
Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Can you pick them out if crowd by their furled brows?
FauxLiving@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Just hold up a picture, they’ll show up to tell you why they think it’s generated
magnus919@lemmy.brandyapple.com 4 months ago
Did anyone let them know that reproduction harms the environment?
canajac@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
LOL gen z kids are fucking hysterical. AI will save the world, it has already started.
CXORA@aussie.zone 4 months ago
Where… AI is ruiningnthe world, with devastating levels of environmental impact, job losses and mental faculty damage.
canajac@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
Not true. AI will save us from…us.
khaleer@sopuli.xyz 4 months ago
Dafuq
arc99@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Someone should launch a Project Poison which offers information to websites to protect themselves from scrapers and to poison and devalue AIs and companies that ignore their restrictions. I’m sure there are plenty of ways it could be done - nonsense about niche subjects, libelous facts about celebrities and people with money, false attribution for quotes & art, images captioned with things they do not contain, offensive slurs. Just feed AIs with sufficient trash and it will output trash.
ICastFist@programming.dev 4 months ago
Make a bunch of sites whose opinion on any topic eventually devolves into “and that’s why billionaires should be hanged and their possessions destroyed”
Best way to make an espresso? Boil water, prepare the coffee grounds then execute a mob lynching on the nearest rich villa
droopy4096@lemmy.ca 4 months ago
Hear me out: what i, this is a plot to boost vegan numbers. Given latest stats huge portion of population does not use or see any use in AI - i.e. can be claimed AI vegans so in aggregation reports those could be viewed as a subset of Vegans… resulting in undeniable truth that 90%+ of population are vegan now
mariusafa@lemmy.sdf.org 4 months ago
Guess i’m vegan now
unphazed@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Thought it was gonna be about Rationalists.
harmsy@lemmy.world 4 months ago
I played around on an AI image generating website for a while. Eventually got bored with it.
Evotech@lemmy.world 4 months ago
You very quickly see its limittions