It’s official, my content is now Not by AI. I’m proud to be recognised by an organisation who now have over a quarter of a million members. When you read my blogs and books, look at my photos and illustrations, I need you to know they come from me. You deserve to have the confidence to know that I’m accountable for what I say and do … especially when you might choose to support me financially, buying books and trips etc. If I can’t be honest with you, how you can trust me? All I want is to share the inspiration I get from the natural world. Every email I send (including this one) I write while literally imagining I am talking directly with you, person-to-person. If it stops being that way, what does this say about our society? About being human?
The rapid and unmitigated rise of AI
It’s heartbreaking to have grown up with the rise of social media and the internet, and to see these progressive technologies become the playthings of wealthy people beset on destroying them, for their own economic gain.
The unmitigated rise of AI is threatening the honesty and authenticity of everything we digest online. This week, the BBC forced Apple to shut down AI headline readers as they made up information and posted this alongside the broadcaster’s logo. Zuckerberg and Musk are currently arguing that their AI systems should be allowed to freely absorb and use any and all copyrighted content from the world’s creators (including everything I have strived to create until now). Meanwhile, Facebook is about to launch an army of AI-generated users to boost shares and likes, while removing fact-checking. This way, content they want you to read, can be more intensively targeted, in order to sell their advertising.
How AI destroys trust and can kill conservation
This week I interviewed the amazing staff at Wildlife SOS in India (a blog will be coming at some point). They are well on their way to eradicating human-wildlife conflict for species like Leopards and Sloth Bears. The videos of their rescue of Leopards from wells are heart-wrenching and real. At the same time, there is an AI-generated video of a Polar Bear rescue circulating online, that is completely fabricated. The latter has no benefit for conservationWhy is animal conservation important? Animal conservation is important, because animals are the only mechanism to create biodiversity, which is the mechanism that creates a habitable planet for humans. Without animals, the energy from today’s plants (algae, trees, flowers etc) will eventually reach the atmosphere and ocean, much of it as carbon. The quantity of this plant-based waste is so More, while Wildlife SOS struggle for support.
Online, people are questioning photos of real animals and asking if they are fake, while sharing and liking images that (to an expert eye) are clearly made up. The lines between real and artificial are blurring at incredible speed.
The changing ecosystem for content creators
It’s not all bad news. Take a look through the comments on AI-generated content and you can see people are angry. No-one likes to be lied to or tricked. How such content can be targeted so carefully is also sinister and I genuinely believe there is a growing subset of us, who would prefer to know they are reading something created by a human.
This doesn’t mean everything you read is true. But it does mean the creator is accountable … and with that comes a responsibility to back up what’s been said or done.
I believe that when you receive content from me, you would prefer to know that it’s genuine. This is why I am very pleased to say, that my content is now Not by AI.
