Back in January I was looking around for some positive "pro-AI" analysis of the ethics of the problem <https://mastodon.social/@glyph/115908558259725802> and it looks like I finally got what I wanted: <https://types.pl/@wilbowma/116247527449271232>

I definitely don't think I'm fully convinced, but there's more than enough here to sit with for a while and consider. It's such a relief that someone is taking the ethical question *seriously* though.

William J. Bowman🇨🇦 (@[email protected])

I think if I spend any more time on this, I'll risk doing more harm than good: new blog post on "AI" and ethics. https://www.williamjbowman.com/blog/2026/03/13/against-vibes-part-2-ought-you-use-a-generative-model/

types.pl

@glyph I think I disagree with almost every word in that post, but it's at least clear enough what I'm disagreeing with, which is refreshing?

I do think it's telling, though, that he describes one of the pillars of opposition to AI as he sees it as being an intellectual property argument and not a labor rights argument — in fairness, he does revisit labor rights later, but I still wouldn't have thought of IP issues in genAI as being moral, per se?

@glyph Mostly it's this part that strikes me as being something I deeply object to, and for three reasons.

We don't know the actual energy usage impact of AI, partly in thanks to corporate secrecy.

Whatever progress we've made in renewable energy, that doesn't change that many genAI companies are using non-renewable sources for training and inferencing energy (to wit, Musk in Memphis).

And finally, genAI eating up capacity means that progress in renewables has a reduced impact on energy use.

@xgranade @glyph This! Even if we knew the energy sources of all genAI products/services and somehow they “purchased” only from “clean” sources, the energy market is a huge network! Demand that somehow got all its use labeled as clean energy would just mean other demand for electricity has to be served by other sources. A majority of electrical production in the US is fossil gas and coal!
@r343l @xgranade this is sadly a point that the worst people in the world like to make, but, it is nevertheless true: money is fungible