A Convenience Fee

The applications that your modern designer relies on have made their work easier than ever. With a subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud, they have hundreds of fonts, shapes, and colors at their fingertips to do with anything their heart desires. Projects that once required typesetters, photographers, illustrators, and many more can all be accomplished with only one person in mere minutes. The process has become even more streamlined since the introduction of generative AI. By only typing a few words, designers can access images of literally anything they can imagine or lists of ideas for company names, slogans, and paragraphs of body copy within a few seconds. It’s unbelievable how fast and easy design has become.

            Unfortunately, all these new amenities come with a hefty price tag. Most AI companies scrape photos, artwork, and text from the internet without the owner’s or original creator’s consent and without providing any compensation. Companies like Microsoft have hired people in Kenya through third-party staffing companies to categorize all of this stolen content. These people are paid roughly $2 an hour and are required to sort through some of the most disturbing and gut-wrenching content the open internet has to offer. In the end, no one assumes any of the responsibility for the trauma these people endure.

            Even worse is how much energy is being burned up to power this giant, which no one asked for. Huge warehouses full of computer servers drain tons of watts from power grids and then use thousands of gallons of water to keep from overheating. This has gotten so bad that Microsoft seeks to reactivate a nuclear power plant known as 3 Mile Island. This power plant has earned a household name for its catastrophic meltdown in 1979. Microsoft’s aim is to rebrand this power plant while using it not to power local homes and businesses but exclusively its AI. If there’s any hope, it’s that some of the proposed new data centers have been canceled due to the conservation of rare bees.

Reclaiming Your Purpose

My proposal to fight this man-made horror that is beyond our comprehension is to reject it. Take ownership of your designs and make them entirely yourself. It may take you longer to finish than the designers who are working with AI, but what you create has authenticity, and you can take pride in the fact that it was all you. Like the great designer William Morris, you can reject the tacky shoddiness of cheap, machine-made schlock. What makes you better than a machine is that you have a truer and more natural understanding of aesthetics and beauty. What gives design its value is the thought and intention a human being puts into it. AI can only consume and regurgitate content. It can’t put feeling and meaning into it. What makes you great is that you are not a tool. You have personal experiences, ideas, and emotions that you pour into everything you make, and that’s what gives your life purpose. Fight to keep that purpose.