WordPress wants me to use their AI tools. When I add an image, it asks if I want to upload one, use one from my library, or generate one. This made me wonder, why would you add an AI-generated image to your post?
What could be gained from an AI-generated image in this post that’s tangibly different from me writing “think about or look up a picture of (insert whatever my AI prompt would be here)” instead? I think the answer is that we’ve come to expect a certain amount of filler from our internet browsing, and when it’s not there, it feels wrong.
Maybe that’s what we need, though. An embrace of minimalism, or at least a friendly handshake with it. Maybe Twitter was better when it was 140 characters or fewer. Limits can be helpful, not just for fostering creativity in how to communicate despite them, but for allowing more room for more voices.
There are many good reasons to dislike AI. I concur with many of them, but I am not here to preach about them today. I will, however, say that an internet that is less crowded with generative content is an internet I prefer, and the only choice I can take to make it so is the same only choice most of us can make: to not use it myself. An internet that makes it easier for me to see the work that other humans have spent time making for me to enjoy is an internet I will gladly fight for, and forsaking generative content to make it so is an easy sacrifice to make for me. The rest of the internet may not be so easily convinced, but it has to start somewhere.
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