Bye bye, Meta
Due to the impending policy changes Meta is instituting, I will close my business Facebook and Instagram accounts on 10/25/26. Studio Eldeen Handmade Art will no longer have a presence on any Meta platform. I encourage anyone who has business profiles with Meta to do the same. More information on Meta’s changes can be found here.
I understand my small business is not the target for this wide fishing net that Meta is casting. However, if I continue to use their platforms for business purposes after these new policies go into effect, I would be consenting to becoming their bycatch.
I do not consent.
This website will continue to be updated and maintained, and you can always contact me here. Thank you for your continued support.
My Thoughts on AI
A tool has no inherent morality. A person wielding a hammer decides how to use it, whether to create a piece of furniture, inflict harm on another person, or anything in between. The hammer is not “good” or “bad;” These moral distinctions lie solely with the user.
Some people use AI in science and research to improve humanity and the stability of our planet. Some people use AI for harmless, personal purposes. And some folks use AI for theft, deceit, and manipulation of others. AI is not “good” or “bad.” It is a tool, and its morality lies with its user. My main issue lies with the tool’s creation.
Companies used vast quantities of intellectual property and information created by millions of people across the world, without consent and without compensation, to compile the data required to make the training models for their LLMs. These LLMs are the foundation of nearly every AI program/agent in use today, and they owe their very existence to that initial vast theft of labor. Thus, every company who builds its AI software on these LLMs profits from theft.
With that, I turn my gaze back to the users of AI; Should a person knowingly use a tool that was created via the theft of labor? In my opinion, it depends on what the person is using AI to do and why.
Are they compiling data in cancer treatment research? Absolutely worth it. Who doesn’t want a cure for cancer?
Are they making deepfake videos to mislead/manipulate an audience? Absolutely not. Fuck those people.
Is their job requiring them to use AI in the process of the work they are being paid to do? That’s a work and/or industry requirement that the user often has zero power to change. In today’s abysmal economy and job market I would not be so tone deaf as to suggest they “just find another job” so they can take the moral high ground.
Are they creating a flyer to advertise an artist faire? Eew. Support the artists attending the fiare by paying them to make the damn flyer.
Are they creating a personal program to catalogue their spoon collection? Well, the user isn’t making money off the theft of others but they are still benefiting from it so…?
There’s no way to know every user’s motive, so I cannot and do not automatically label every AI user as “bad.” I will, however, call a person a scumbag if they knowingly used AI to create something, but claim they didn’t use AI to create it. That is blatant misrepresentation and they know it.
I’m still formulating my stance on AI, and it evolves as I learn more about it, how it is used, and how the technology itself evolves. Amidst these fluid thoughts, there is one solid pillar my viewpoint pivots on: the theft in its original creation. In my opinion, this “original sin” can only be forgiven when AI companies pay continuing royalties (not a one-time pittance) to every person who’s work was stolen to create their AI software.
I’ll not cut off my nose to spite my face. Like everyone else, I sometimes have to make concessions and compromises that go against my core principals in order to get on in life. I’m not going to rid myself of all technology that has been touched/infected with AI.
I will, however, opt out every time I reasonably can and will continue to do so until fair reparations have been paid.
