Grappling with Generative AI Image Use
My stance as a publisher, reflected in our new Style Guide entry
When a powerful new technology emerges, everyone has an opinion on whether it’s useful or useless, helpful or harmful, promising or pathetic. Everyone is often wrong.
While we cannot predict where the field of generative AI imagery will go, we can be sure it’s not going away. But the current lack of guardrails on the technology, along with the hidden costs and consequences, are highly disturbing. Those of us who might leverage AI for our professional benefit — writers, publishers, advertisers and just about anyone who needs images to complement their creative work — should aim to do so responsibly, and only after being well informed about the potential consequences.
I’ve decided to take steps to curb the use of AI-generated imagery in the publications I run on Medium. (For the record, I’ve never allowed AI writing on our pubs.)
Here I will outline my reasoning and show you the new entry for AI-generated images in our Style Guide, crafted after a year of deep thought, some testing of the tools myself, and listening to the views of industry experts, writers and other creative individuals, and everyday readers (several of whom weigh in below).
