AI-free (but unlike free beer)

"Behind all these AI-free labels lurks a question, one that rings out even louder as the limitations of generative AI become painfully clear, as the companies responsible for it become more ethically compromised: What is the AI-generated variety for? 

"People generally prefer humans in customer service over AI and automated systems. AI art is widely maligned online; teens have taken to disparaging it as 'Boomer art.' AI doesn’t offer better products, necessarily: It just offers more, and for less money. Are we willing to trade away humanity for that?

"In the 2000s, the organic and GMO-free labels were a reaction to concerns about sustainability, pesticides, and factory farming; organic food labels were supposed to designate quality vis–à–vis the badly made stuff. But there’s a lesson here—there is of course a limit to the branding. The organic label is costly to obtain and hard to verify—rendering it meaningless in many cases—and gave rise to enterprises such as Whole Foods that have traded in the branding at little discernible nutritional benefit.

"The richest companies on Earth are pushing generative-AI output as cheaper, easier-to-produce alternatives to human art and services—and a few ad campaigns from the Doves and Discovers aren’t going to stop them. 

"Put up the badges, ring the AI-free bells, and absolutely build alternative platforms for those seeking refuge from predatorily trained LLMs — but if we want to preserve a human economy for creative goods and services, we’re going to have to fight for it too."