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"plaintext": "I'm an AI skeptic, through and through. But I also voluntarily use AI nearly every day. So naturally, you might be asking: what the heck?"
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"plaintext": "My relationship with AI is complicated. Many others are in the same boat. I don't know if my story will resonate with everyone, but I wanted to tell it anyway because most people's opinions about AI aren't black-and-white. I feel a little nervous posting this–okay, a lot nervous–but I wanted to be open about my conflicted feelings in the hopes that it makes others feel less alone."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "If you're looking for AI absolution or \"this is the correct way to think about AI\" tied up neatly in a bow, this article is not for you. This is one person's vulnerable brain dump about an increasingly powerful force that is changing our world."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Let's talk about it."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.heading",
"level": 2,
"plaintext": "I walk a tightrope for a living"
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "I'm a software engineer and developer advocate. I make video content for a tech company, and you can bet your bottom dollar I have to talk about AI. While we aren't an AI company–we're a platform-as-a-service, somewhere you deploy code–many of our customers are. "
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{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "My job is a balancing act between keeping up with how developers are using AI and not selling my soul in the process of talking about it. I think I've done a pretty okay job, but it hasn't been easy. "
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "To be fair, not all of my videos are AI-related. Actually, most of them aren't. Those are my favorites. But things are changing. The way people build software is changing. And right now, my job is to talk about it. But I'm not here to talk about my job."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Let's start at the beginning."
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{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.heading",
"level": 2,
"plaintext": "Engineering is not what it used to be"
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{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
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"plaintext": "I didn't intend to become a programmer. Fifteen years ago, I was teaching English in Japan at a school with an abusive shithead boss (I'll save that for another day) and wanted a way out. Then a friend of mine helped me land my first developer job. I moved from a small town in Mie prefecture to the big city: Osaka! There, I fumbled my way through learning how to code. "
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "It's a miracle I even got the job. I didn't know what I was doing. It was exhausting. I could barely write a for-loop. Every day, I returned home with keyboard imprints in my forehead from the frustration of problem-solving."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "I loved it."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Fast forward 12 years. AI coding assistants started to emerge. Copilot became the world's best coding autocomplete. I was extremely hesitant at first. I knew how to code; what was the point?"
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "When I finally gave it a chance, though, I understood. It was scarily accurate at predicting what I needed to complete an API call. If I were writing the CSS for standard elements like H1's, H2's, H3's, it could easily fill in the blanks. I was able to code faster than ever."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "But as we all know, it didn't stop there. Cursor came out, and later Claude Code. Again, I was skeptical. People swore they could write their entire app without touching a line of code."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "As I mentioned before, my job requires me to stay up to date on AI trends. I don't love that aspect of it. I basically had to be harassed to give these tools a try, so I did."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "At first, it made a lot of mistakes. It wasn't the magic bullet most people claimed it to be. If you just told it to make you a meal-planning app, it would make a lot of assumptions. A lot of things would break. But as time went on, I learned to use these agents effectively by giving them more specific instructions, breaking things into steps, and being crystal clear about my expectations. "
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "It worked."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.heading",
"level": 2,
"plaintext": "Heartbreak"
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "AI agents like Claude Code have been a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, they've freed up brain space to focus on product development, UX, and architecture. On the other hand, my programming skills have started to feel obsolete. On top of that, building something with a coding agent doesn't scratch the same engineering itch as typing code the old-fashioned way, with my fingies."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "As I used these tools more and more, I began to have anxiety attacks. I was in an existential crisis. All the skills I'd developed over the decade+ of programming suddenly seemed useless. Well, maybe not useless. Coding agents in the hands of someone who doesn't know a thing about writing software is just a giant footgun. But still, I knew my skills would eventually atrophy."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "What I've been feeling over the past 18 months feels akin to heartbreak. I imagine this is what the Luddites felt during the Industrial Revolution. The craft I'd spent my entire career honing was suddenly trivial."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.heading",
"level": 2,
"plaintext": "The upside"
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{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
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"plaintext": "Despite my conflicted feelings, there was one upside. Claude Code allowed me to build something that never would have existed without it. Not because I don't have the knowledge or skills, but because I would have long since burned out."
},
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"uri": "https://webcomic.studio/"
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"plaintext": "What I built was Webcomic Studio: a free hub for reading and publishing indie comics online. It was something I wanted for my own comics and figured others might enjoy it too. It now hosts over 300 (update) 600+ comics. I couldn't be prouder."
},
{
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"plaintext": "Could I build it without AI? Sure. But this ain't my first side project rodeo. The more popular they become–and WCS is growing fast–the harder it is to keep up with demands. "
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"plaintext": "Thanks to coding agents, maintaining this free service actually feels sustainable."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.heading",
"level": 2,
"plaintext": "Contradiction"
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{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
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"plaintext": "The thing is, I feel like a traitor for using Claude Code. Mind you, I review every line of code (Christ, what a depressing statement), and no, not all of it is generated. After all, I like to code. But a huge feature of Webcomic Studio is that it shields creators' work from AI bots (hooray Cloudflare). Additionally, AI art is strictly prohibited. "
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Knowing how many people I respect would call this hypocrisy makes me want to run into the woods and never return."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
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"plaintext": "So I want to be crystal clear: I am staunchly against AI art of any kind. Illustrations, videos, music, writing. All of it. Artists are already undervalued and underpaid, and no matter how much investors claim AI is just a tool to empower them, every creative person knows this is bullshit."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
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"plaintext": "The most ensidious thing is this: the push for AI art is only partially about saving corporations money. Artists were never a big line item anyway. The people pushing for generative art are making a point: if we can replace artists, we can replace anyone."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "(As a side note, aside from being unethical, AI art is just lame and extremely cringe. It baffles me that companies haven't realized how damaging using the slop is to their image. Wake up. No one wants this.)"
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Here's the thing, though:"
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{
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"level": 2,
"plaintext": "Code is not art"
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Writing code is deeply satisfying. Frustrating at times, but every developer knows the euphoria of finally cracking that bug you've been trying to fix for two days. "
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"facets": [
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"plaintext": "Make no mistake: Building software is creative. It can be just as fulfilling as making art, albeit in a different way. Code can even be beautiful. It's not uncommon for developers to describe it as \"elegant\". "
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"plaintext": "But that doesn't make it art."
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"plaintext": "I know that might sound strange, but I say this with my full chest, as both an engineer and an artist."
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"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Art is something innately human. It's how we express ourselves, and the greatest value of it lies in the creation itself, not in the end result. To be human is to be creative. I've never been religious, but if there is a higher plane, the best way to reach it would be to make art. It baffles me that anyone would want to erase that."
},
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"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Code is different. Code has a job to do. And claims about leeching off the work of others fall apart when you realize that most code used in projects is written by other people. The whole point of open source is to share. There are only so many ways to write the same API call, and if the agent helps me write the same thing I would write faster, why not use it?"
},
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"plaintext": "To be clear: I'm not saying coding is somehow \"less than\" art. Code and art are apples and oranges. Coding is just different."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "I bring this up to illustrate that I do not find contradiction in avidly railing against the use of AI for art while simultaneously using AI to code. "
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{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.heading",
"level": 2,
"plaintext": "Imposter"
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "\"Only n00bs use AI to code.\" "
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "This is a sentiment I hear a lot, and it's simply not true. "
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "I can't tell you how many of my colleagues with even more experience than I do swear by tools like Claude Code. These are veterans of the Internet. Core open source maintainers. They will forget more about computers than I will ever know."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "While AI is really bad at a lot of things, coding is not one of them. Not by a long shot."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Does that make you uncomfortable? It makes me uncomfortable."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "But that doesn't mean we should be blindly trusting whatever the agent spits out. After using these tools to build something even moderately complex, one fact becomes painfully obvious."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.heading",
"level": 2,
"plaintext": "You still have to be an engineer"
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Non-coders prosthletize about a world where you don't need to know anything about code or infrastructure to build software. This is a fantasy."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "There are a hell of a lot of people wildly attempting to keyboard-smash-prompt their way into tech. The result is approximately one zillion slop PRs with the most bloated changes you've ever seen. "
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "I hate to burst anyone's bubble, but if you don't know how to code, the best you can hope for is a little hobby app to use with your friends. Otherwise, have fun with your footgun."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "When building Webcomic Studio, I chose the libraries, the framework, the styling choices. I made the design system. I tell it how I want things built to a tee. The agent implements it."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Claude is the plane. I am the pilot. That's how it should be."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.heading",
"level": 2,
"plaintext": "But the environment"
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "There's just no getting around it: AI is bad for the environment, and it harms communities."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "You know what's even worse? Eating meat. And no, I'm not about to thump the vegan Bible in your face, because that would be hypocritical. I eat meat. All the meat. Why? Because it tastes good."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "You don't have to agree with me, but in my own heart of hearts, I know that's a pretty shitty excuse. Animal production done at the scale we do today is horrendous for animals, the environment, and the surrounding communities, particularly black and brown communities. "
},
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"plaintext": "One hundred queries using DeepSeek-R1, a very energy-intensive AI model in 2025, uses ~16.6L. But that's not the latest model, so just for shits and giggles, let's pretend the newest models require triple that. That would be ~50L (13.2 gal) per 100 queries. That's a lot of water."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
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"plaintext": "A single beef hamburger requires, on the conservative end, ~2,275L of water (~68 gal). That's a hell of a lot of water, and most meat eaters consume a hell of a lot more than one hamburger. And more than just beef."
},
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"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "(Side note: 600 gallons is often the cited number, but most studies around this include \"green water\", aka rainwater. The above stat only includes \"blue water\", the water consumed from natural water supplies like lakes/rivers/aquifers.)"
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"plaintext": "Now, wouldn't it be nice to use this fact to say, \"Oh, I guess AI water usage isn't that bad.\" No, it is that bad. Data centers are being built at an alarming rate, raising local energy costs and draining communities of water. That much is a reality, and there's no sweeping that under the rug."
},
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"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Seeing as I derive far more value from using AI to build my free platform for artists than from eating meat \"because it's tasty\", I've been working to significantly reduce my animal product consumption, starting with red meat."
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"plaintext": "The harsh reality is that boycotting all AI isn't an effective strategy. And I do believe in boycotts; I'm not that nihilistic. But until AI corporations are regulated, things will only get worse. If we want to see real change, it has to come through policy change. AI has to be regulated. "
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "Fuck your \"but it will slow progress!\". Progress is not worth draining a town of all its water."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "And yes, regulating AI could mean the cost of agents like Claude Code prices will skyrocket, making it unaffordable for me and others. That's fine. A bit of a bummer, but I'd get over it. "
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"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
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"plaintext": "I do not think it's hyperbolic to say that AI could destroy the world if left unchecked, so we need to call our representatives. We need to protest the building of data centers. We need to vote."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.heading",
"level": 2,
"plaintext": "Also capitalism"
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "I feel for the people who are forced to use AI in their jobs because stakeholders want to feel it was worth all the money they dumped into it. To any decision-maker making these rules: respectfully, fuck right off."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "AI is a tool for capitalism. It's not making people more efficient; it's changing expectations. We aren't saving time, we're just asking more from workers."
},
{
"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"facets": [
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"plaintext": "I like using Claude Code for my personal projects because it prevents burnout. But that's my little project. I can go at my own pace, and did I mention it's free?"
},
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"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"facets": [
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"plaintext": "But companies aren't using AI to prevent burnout. In fact, how they're using it is going to cause burnout because they're expecting people to produce more, faster, and even replace workers. While I recognize that some of this is just a reality of technological advancements, AI poses a huge threat to society as a whole. The eutopia touted by billionaires will only benefit the rich. They do not give a shit about people."
},
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"$type": "app.offprint.block.heading",
"level": 2,
"plaintext": "Never gonna give you up"
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"plaintext": "I'm very mindful of where I choose to use AI, for all the reasons I've listed. But there's one more reason: I don't want to outsource all the fun, hard work."
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"$type": "app.offprint.block.text",
"plaintext": "There's nothing quite like the intense, buzzing focus of navigating a tough problem. This isn't simply a part of myself I can easily cut out."
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"plaintext": "I feel pushed and pulled, wanting to focus on building the product and wanting to slow down and enjoy the process. AI lets me build faster, but it's not as satisfying. Or at least, not to the same degree. "
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"plaintext": "This is why I'm shifting my approach to coding. I'm not abandoning Claude, I'm just using it less. No one is breathing down my neck to build Webcomic Studio faster. I don't have investors to please. I'm doing this for other artists and myself. That's it."
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"plaintext": "As an engineer and an artist, I hate feeling stuck in the middle of all this. As of right now, you won't find me singing the AI gospel from the mountaintops. But agentic programming is the reason my platform for comic creators even exists. Again, I would have long since burned out. "
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"plaintext": "It's a weird place to be. I hope this post resonates with others who feel deeply conflicted about AI. It's okay to feel this way. Your internal struggles mean you care about humanity. And until AI is regulated, we should all feel conflicted."
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"textContent": "I'm an AI skeptic, through and through. But I also voluntarily use AI nearly every day. So naturally, you might be asking: what the heck?\nMy relationship with AI is complicated. Many others are in the same boat. I don't know if my story will resonate with everyone, but I wanted to tell it anyway because most people's opinions about AI aren't black-and-white. I feel a little nervous posting this–okay, a lot nervous–but I wanted to be open about my conflicted feelings in the hopes that it makes others feel less alone.\nIf you're looking for AI absolution or \"this is the correct way to think about AI\" tied up neatly in a bow, this article is not for you. This is one person's vulnerable brain dump about an increasingly powerful force that is changing our world.\nLet's talk about it.\nI walk a tightrope for a living\nI'm a software engineer and developer advocate. I make video content for a tech company, and you can bet your bottom dollar I have to talk about AI. While we aren't an AI company–we're a platform-as-a-service, somewhere you deploy code–many of our customers are. \nMy job is a balancing act between keeping up with how developers are using AI and not selling my soul in the process of talking about it. I think I've done a pretty okay job, but it hasn't been easy. \nTo be fair, not all of my videos are AI-related. Actually, most of them aren't. Those are my favorites. But things are changing. The way people build software is changing. And right now, my job is to talk about it. But I'm not here to talk about my job.\nLet's start at the beginning.\nEngineering is not what it used to be\nI didn't intend to become a programmer. Fifteen years ago, I was teaching English in Japan at a school with an abusive shithead boss (I'll save that for another day) and wanted a way out. Then a friend of mine helped me land my first developer job. I moved from a small town in Mie prefecture to the big city: Osaka! There, I fumbled my way through learning how to code. \nIt's a miracle I even got the job. I didn't know what I was doing. It was exhausting. I could barely write a for-loop. Every day, I returned home with keyboard imprints in my forehead from the frustration of problem-solving.\nI loved it.\nFast forward 12 years. AI coding assistants started to emerge. Copilot became the world's best coding autocomplete. I was extremely hesitant at first. I knew how to code; what was the point?\nWhen I finally gave it a chance, though, I understood. It was scarily accurate at predicting what I needed to complete an API call. If I were writing the CSS for standard elements like H1's, H2's, H3's, it could easily fill in the blanks. I was able to code faster than ever.\nBut as we all know, it didn't stop there. Cursor came out, and later Claude Code. Again, I was skeptical. People swore they could write their entire app without touching a line of code.\nAs I mentioned before, my job requires me to stay up to date on AI trends. I don't love that aspect of it. I basically had to be harassed to give these tools a try, so I did.\nAt first, it made a lot of mistakes. It wasn't the magic bullet most people claimed it to be. If you just told it to make you a meal-planning app, it would make a lot of assumptions. A lot of things would break. But as time went on, I learned to use these agents effectively by giving them more specific instructions, breaking things into steps, and being crystal clear about my expectations. \nIt worked.\nHeartbreak\nAI agents like Claude Code have been a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, they've freed up brain space to focus on product development, UX, and architecture. On the other hand, my programming skills have started to feel obsolete. On top of that, building something with a coding agent doesn't scratch the same engineering itch as typing code the old-fashioned way, with my fingies.\nAs I used these tools more and more, I began to have anxiety attacks. I was in an existential crisis. All the skills I'd developed over the decade+ of programming suddenly seemed useless. Well, maybe not useless. Coding agents in the hands of someone who doesn't know a thing about writing software is just a giant footgun. But still, I knew my skills would eventually atrophy.\nWhat I've been feeling over the past 18 months feels akin to heartbreak. I imagine this is what the Luddites felt during the Industrial Revolution. The craft I'd spent my entire career honing was suddenly trivial.\nThe upside\nDespite my conflicted feelings, there was one upside. Claude Code allowed me to build something that never would have existed without it. Not because I don't have the knowledge or skills, but because I would have long since burned out.\nWhat I built was Webcomic Studio: a free hub for reading and publishing indie comics online. It was something I wanted for my own comics and figured others might enjoy it too. It now hosts over 300 (update) 600+ comics. I couldn't be prouder.\nCould I build it without AI? Sure. But this ain't my first side project rodeo. The more popular they become–and WCS is growing fast–the harder it is to keep up with demands. \nThanks to coding agents, maintaining this free service actually feels sustainable.\nContradiction\nThe thing is, I feel like a traitor for using Claude Code. Mind you, I review every line of code (Christ, what a depressing statement), and no, not all of it is generated. After all, I like to code. But a huge feature of Webcomic Studio is that it shields creators' work from AI bots (hooray Cloudflare). Additionally, AI art is strictly prohibited. \nKnowing how many people I respect would call this hypocrisy makes me want to run into the woods and never return.\nSo I want to be crystal clear: I am staunchly against AI art of any kind. Illustrations, videos, music, writing. All of it. Artists are already undervalued and underpaid, and no matter how much investors claim AI is just a tool to empower them, every creative person knows this is bullshit.\nThe most ensidious thing is this: the push for AI art is only partially about saving corporations money. Artists were never a big line item anyway. The people pushing for generative art are making a point: if we can replace artists, we can replace anyone.\n(As a side note, aside from being unethical, AI art is just lame and extremely cringe. It baffles me that companies haven't realized how damaging using the slop is to their image. Wake up. No one wants this.)\nHere's the thing, though:\nCode is not art\nWriting code is deeply satisfying. Frustrating at times, but every developer knows the euphoria of finally cracking that bug you've been trying to fix for two days. \nMake no mistake: Building software is creative. It can be just as fulfilling as making art, albeit in a different way. Code can even be beautiful. It's not uncommon for developers to describe it as \"elegant\". \nBut that doesn't make it art.\nI know that might sound strange, but I say this with my full chest, as both an engineer and an artist.\nArt is something innately human. It's how we express ourselves, and the greatest value of it lies in the creation itself, not in the end result. To be human is to be creative. I've never been religious, but if there is a higher plane, the best way to reach it would be to make art. It baffles me that anyone would want to erase that.\nCode is different. Code has a job to do. And claims about leeching off the work of others fall apart when you realize that most code used in projects is written by other people. The whole point of open source is to share. There are only so many ways to write the same API call, and if the agent helps me write the same thing I would write faster, why not use it?\nTo be clear: I'm not saying coding is somehow \"less than\" art. Code and art are apples and oranges. Coding is just different.\nI bring this up to illustrate that I do not find contradiction in avidly railing against the use of AI for art while simultaneously using AI to code. \nImposter\n\"Only n00bs use AI to code.\" \nThis is a sentiment I hear a lot, and it's simply not true. \nI can't tell you how many of my colleagues with even more experience than I do swear by tools like Claude Code. These are veterans of the Internet. Core open source maintainers. They will forget more about computers than I will ever know.\nWhile AI is really bad at a lot of things, coding is not one of them. Not by a long shot.\nDoes that make you uncomfortable? It makes me uncomfortable.\nBut that doesn't mean we should be blindly trusting whatever the agent spits out. After using these tools to build something even moderately complex, one fact becomes painfully obvious.\nYou still have to be an engineer\nNon-coders prosthletize about a world where you don't need to know anything about code or infrastructure to build software. This is a fantasy.\nThere are a hell of a lot of people wildly attempting to keyboard-smash-prompt their way into tech. The result is approximately one zillion slop PRs with the most bloated changes you've ever seen. \nI hate to burst anyone's bubble, but if you don't know how to code, the best you can hope for is a little hobby app to use with your friends. Otherwise, have fun with your footgun.\nWhen building Webcomic Studio, I chose the libraries, the framework, the styling choices. I made the design system. I tell it how I want things built to a tee. The agent implements it.\nClaude is the plane. I am the pilot. That's how it should be.\nBut the environment\nThere's just no getting around it: AI is bad for the environment, and it harms communities.\nYou know what's even worse? Eating meat. And no, I'm not about to thump the vegan Bible in your face, because that would be hypocritical. I eat meat. All the meat. Why? Because it tastes good.\nYou don't have to agree with me, but in my own heart of hearts, I know that's a pretty shitty excuse. Animal production done at the scale we do today is horrendous for animals, the environment, and the surrounding communities, particularly black and brown communities. \nOne hundred queries using DeepSeek-R1, a very energy-intensive AI model in 2025, uses ~16.6L. But that's not the latest model, so just for shits and giggles, let's pretend the newest models require triple that. That would be ~50L (13.2 gal) per 100 queries. That's a lot of water.\nA single beef hamburger requires, on the conservative end, ~2,275L of water (~68 gal). That's a hell of a lot of water, and most meat eaters consume a hell of a lot more than one hamburger. And more than just beef.\n(Side note: 600 gallons is often the cited number, but most studies around this include \"green water\", aka rainwater. The above stat only includes \"blue water\", the water consumed from natural water supplies like lakes/rivers/aquifers.)\nNow, wouldn't it be nice to use this fact to say, \"Oh, I guess AI water usage isn't that bad.\" No, it is that bad. Data centers are being built at an alarming rate, raising local energy costs and draining communities of water. That much is a reality, and there's no sweeping that under the rug.\nSeeing as I derive far more value from using AI to build my free platform for artists than from eating meat \"because it's tasty\", I've been working to significantly reduce my animal product consumption, starting with red meat.\nThe harsh reality is that boycotting all AI isn't an effective strategy. And I do believe in boycotts; I'm not that nihilistic. But until AI corporations are regulated, things will only get worse. If we want to see real change, it has to come through policy change. AI has to be regulated. \nFuck your \"but it will slow progress!\". Progress is not worth draining a town of all its water.\nAnd yes, regulating AI could mean the cost of agents like Claude Code prices will skyrocket, making it unaffordable for me and others. That's fine. A bit of a bummer, but I'd get over it. \nI do not think it's hyperbolic to say that AI could destroy the world if left unchecked, so we need to call our representatives. We need to protest the building of data centers. We need to vote.\nAlso capitalism\nI feel for the people who are forced to use AI in their jobs because stakeholders want to feel it was worth all the money they dumped into it. To any decision-maker making these rules: respectfully, fuck right off.\nAI is a tool for capitalism. It's not making people more efficient; it's changing expectations. We aren't saving time, we're just asking more from workers.\nI like using Claude Code for my personal projects because it prevents burnout. But that's my little project. I can go at my own pace, and did I mention it's free?\nBut companies aren't using AI to prevent burnout. In fact, how they're using it is going to cause burnout because they're expecting people to produce more, faster, and even replace workers. While I recognize that some of this is just a reality of technological advancements, AI poses a huge threat to society as a whole. The eutopia touted by billionaires will only benefit the rich. They do not give a shit about people.\nNever gonna give you up\nI'm very mindful of where I choose to use AI, for all the reasons I've listed. But there's one more reason: I don't want to outsource all the fun, hard work.\nThere's nothing quite like the intense, buzzing focus of navigating a tough problem. This isn't simply a part of myself I can easily cut out.\nI feel pushed and pulled, wanting to focus on building the product and wanting to slow down and enjoy the process. AI lets me build faster, but it's not as satisfying. Or at least, not to the same degree. \nThe great irony is that, in my desire to build something useful to me as an artist, I've foregone another, equally creative activity.\nThis is why I'm shifting my approach to coding. I'm not abandoning Claude, I'm just using it less. No one is breathing down my neck to build Webcomic Studio faster. I don't have investors to please. I'm doing this for other artists and myself. That's it.\nEngineering is in my bones. I can never fully give it up.\nThe work is never over\nAs an engineer and an artist, I hate feeling stuck in the middle of all this. As of right now, you won't find me singing the AI gospel from the mountaintops. But agentic programming is the reason my platform for comic creators even exists. Again, I would have long since burned out. \nIt's a weird place to be. I hope this post resonates with others who feel deeply conflicted about AI. It's okay to feel this way. Your internal struggles mean you care about humanity. And until AI is regulated, we should all feel conflicted.\nThe best we can do is be intentional about how we choose to use AI and actively push back against deregulation.\nHope this helps.",
"title": "Stuck in the middle: Being an engineer & artist in the AI era"
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