My Stance on AI
I certify that I will never use AI in any part of my published works. It will not be a part of any of my workflow. My works are made by a human, for humans. -IntolerantPacifist
I wanted to get the statement above out first. I will be putting it in my About page shortly after posting. I didn't want to have to make a post like this. I try to be creative in the open, so it also isn't a question, but I was prompted after 's post about his stance:
I've written a longer piece on the book that's been pulled due to "AI" use allegations, what that means particularly for newer authors, and what, if anything writers can do in the "AI" era to prove their work is their own: whatever.scalzi.com/2026/07/31/a...
As a person who has always been creative, but never published their creativity, I don't have the pedigree of someone like John Scalzi or any of the other artists I enjoy. Therefore, I have to look for ways of proving myself to the wider community. This will be my first steps toward doing so.
I want to make it clear that I do not support the use of AI. I agree with the article that they had a chance to train their data the right way, and chose to do it wrong, and these companies continue to do that. I have experience with models trained using hand collected data. It is possible and you can still have a great product. Blatant theft was not necessary.
Professionally
My day job is in an industry that works very closely with the same technologies used to create LLMs and diffusion models. Our leadership has ensured we have unmetered access to the latest tools for generating text and code, allowing for agentic AI too. I personally know several engineers and managers trying to automate themselves out of their jobs! The number of generated documents I am constantly being asked to review is demoralizing. My comments and edits are fed back into the machine, and they post a new version to reviewed again... over and over... I could provide a WHOLE rant on AI generated slide decks. They are the worst!
My background is in hardware engineering. I hold a degree in mechanical engineering and have been practicing for over 20 years now. I see companies trying to come for my skillsets and see my colleagues cheering them on! It is a tragedy in the making. The number of issues you find early in the design process through good practice and reviews can save companies millions of dollars in development.
Personally
Because I work in high tech industry, we have always been pushed to try out and use the latest technologies. This means that I have interacted and tried many of them. I have tried to generate stories. I have tried to generate images. In fact, it is what has inspired me to get back in to creating art for myself.
The reason I have called this publication Nerd Rage is because sometimes I try to complete a task using a tool that should Just Work™ and it just does not. I get frustrated by this and throw down the gauntlet to do it myself and better1. I picked up my pencil and started drawing again and it has taken me a few years to get to where I am today. I have the bad drawings in sketchbooks to prove it2. Even as I was building up my drawing skills, I didn't use AI as a teacher or to enhance what I drew. I looked toward other skilled artists and studied them. Artists that had styles I liked and the drive to teach them.
My spouse and I have always been voracious readers, especially in science fiction and fantasy. We have always lamented that a book with the niche we were excited about at the time was not available, or was poorly written. It had such a good premise, but the execution made it hard to really appreciate, is a sentiment that we have expressed often. We're not overly analytical or purist readers. It is our entertainment. My spouse spent more time than reasonable trying to get various models to develop a good story, but it never proved to be worth any level of investment.
Now, enter my latest project, Homeward. An illustrated novel3 that will be posted using ATProto for everyone to read. The only inspiration from AI that I have received is the rage it produced in my soul, driving me to build my own skillset. No concepts, no pre-text, no art, no prose, no editing, not even the word processor4, or art program5 natively contain AI.
Morally
Most of the text above is written from a viewpoint of practicality and logic. It can be a natural default for many of us who have found themselves plowing the engineering fields. It is something that actually has to be (re)taught to many engineers over their years of service. I have been lucky to have a few great teachers along the way that have helped me to keep my eyes6 open.
Empathy is such an important part of being human. Before I joined the BlueSky community, where I focused on following artists and authors, I was not fully aware of the issues they regularly face. Copyright wrangling, blatant theft of work, accusations of all manner, cancellation of payments and accounts. It is a lot! Knowing authors that I admire hold down 'day jobs' while authoring is also eye opening, in many ways.
As I said before, I have worked closely with technologies similar to LLMs and diffusion models. Knowing that these other companies have just blatantly stolen the works of so many, just to mash them together in the guise of 'democratizing creativity' is such a farce and should not be tolerated. The amount of slop we all have to wade through on a daily basis that is a regurgitation of these models is oppressing. The idea that new artists and new authors now have to PROVE that they made something is putting up walls around what should be a wide-open and inclusive community.
All of this, because a few people in this world lacked the empathy to understand that other humans threw parts of their souls out into the void, so that they could be seen and understood. They consumed those works to build a machine of oppression.
Conclusion
When our days are darkest, humans gather around light. They tell stories of dark times and the heroes that survived them. They make drawing of those heroes and also of brighter days. They sing songs of remembrance, of resistance, and of hope for the future. Our children and their children deserve these works, need these works, because they will meet dark times of their own. We owe it to them to continue to forge new experiences and to share them openly with each other.
I promise you, as I promise my children, my works are made by a human, for humans.