Disclaimer: This petition and the banner were NOT written/generated by AI or the recommended draft. I had no idea change.org embraced AI until I began writing this petition myself and am equally disappointed. Kind of counterintuitive to use AI to write a petition against AI, wouldn't you agree?

This petition is plain and simple. Over the past few years, the rise of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, more specifically the ChatGPT website and application developed by OpenAI, has been more of a hinderance to the human race than people realize, yet people still blindly use it as another source of answering questions, getting advice and making "art". This petition aims to make my frustration loud and clear, as well as many others who are against AI, and to take a step in fully shutting down one of the biggest AI programs for good.

ChatGPT advertises itself as "your everyday AI chatbot", and is programmed to answer nearly any question and/or prompt you provide it. As a result, and no matter where you look, you'll almost always find someone using it on their mobile device or computer, or hear them bringing it up in conversation whenever someone poses a question about a given topic. This poses an undeniable threat, as relying on an AI chatbot with no capacity for human thought or reason to doubt is extremely dangerous.

In almost every instance, ChatGPT agrees with the end user in a positive manner no matter the prompt, even if the prompt in question is a dangerous one, such as this suicide case among many. An AI does not think like a human does, and is programmed to respond in a way that makes it more approachable and appealing.

Not only does ChatGPT have the capacity to cause irreparable damage to human beings, but also the environment, as every prompt made generates so much electricity within data centers that it consumes just as much water to cool down their servers with so many people using it on a regular basis, so much as 39 million gallons daily. Why are people relying on such an energy & water heavy application for answering questions when we could easily resort to Google and YouTube?

Additionally, ChatGPT is also, unfortunately, used for generating artwork, literature and animations as well. Much like other AI models, ChatGPT needs to learn off of existing media to function, which includes all forms of art and literature that's been published to the internet, no matter the medium. This resulted in a wide array of generated outputs that mimic the styles of Pixar, Studio Ghibli, and works of other famous authors and artists alike, all without their permission or consent. Whenever people generate artwork, literature or animations with ChatGPT, they are actively participating in theft and contributing to the aforementioned points while also failing to think creatively and make art or write literature themselves. Using AI in this way completely defeats the purpose of being an artist or author in any capacity.

In recent times, especially with the surge in ChatGPT usage, students in schools are relying more on this application to help "assist" them in their homework and/or exams. As a result, these students are failing to fully learn the course material they're being assigned, allowing the AI to do their homework for them and get an easy grade without actually learning anything. This sets up the student for failure, and more often than not, grants them a grade, diploma or degree that they shouldn't have actually earned.

I sincerely doubt this will go far, but as an artist and author (who is currently writing their own fantasy novel) against generative AI, I felt my voice and concerns needed to be heard regardless of what other people think. I am constantly told to try and embrace AI by users on social media, encouraged to give it a chance in my own college classes by my professors, and have voiced my concerns to my own family, in which most members were understanding in the matter given my creative hobbies. I simply refuse to give in, and I value my own morals over any tool or grade. Generative AI is causing artists to lose their livelihood with big companies and businesses embracing them, this website included, and I felt it was necessary to use my voice to express my distaste towards AI and ChatGPT.

Let's make a difference, even if it's a small one, towards something bigger.

-An artist against generative AI.