AI for the Ethical Creator Who gives a F$%&!
- Alexis Snelling
- Apr 2
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 3
The Ethical AI Dilema for Creators
In the evolving narrative of artificial intelligence, we find ourselves at a cinematic crossroads. "There are two ways this story goes," says John Russo, Soulcraft.com Advisor and AI Infrastructure expert. "It’s Star Trek or it’s Blade Runner."
As creators pull back the curtain to see what’s actually happening "under the hood," a vital truth is emerging: your values, your rules, and your personal boundaries are the only things that will determine which of those two futures we inhabit.
The Human Element in the AI Machine
To explore this frontier, we’re sitting down with Joshua Foreman—a man who wears as many hats as the universes he builds. As a Netflix game designer, author, artist, and sculptor, Joshua lives at the intersection of technical precision and raw imagination.
His work highlights exactly why the Humanities x AI partnership is the most critical alliance of our era. It isn’t just about what the tools can do; it’s about the responsibility we carry to:
Stay Human: Keeping empathy and soul at the center of the process.
Choose Wisely: Recognizing that not all AI tools are built on ethical or solid foundations.
Act with Intent: Taking a stand on how we use these systems to build new worlds.
Whether you are looking to architect a digital universe or simply improve the physical one we all share, your first priority must be the integrity of your tools. Because in the end, the "human" part of the equation isn't a luxury—it’s the entire point.
As a creative person with a sprawling project I've been spending my evenings and weekends on for decades I would love to have help. But I cannot afford to hire the people I need to help me. I cannot quit my day job because I need excellent medical insurance for my disabled family members.
This is where a typical pitch would tell me that with the power of AI I can make my dreams come true by generating the stories, images, and even the movies and games I hope to one day create within the world of my IP.
This is where my ethical concerns about AI stop me. Could I generate all this stuff? Eventually. Yeah. Is that the creative journey I want to be on? Is that the impact on the world I want to leave behind? More generated content in an endless ocean of generated content? Is getting the end result of my ideas rendered in pristine detail the reason I create? Hell no. For me -and countless other creatives- the joy and satisfaction of the end result is proportional to the process that brought it about. The collaborative interplay of other people's ideas, critiques and tutorials. For us, the process is as important as the end result. We express ourselves creatively as much by the way we live as by our output.
If I feel like my process requires unethical practices to bring it about I'll find another way. Even if it means I'll be left behind and lost in obscurity. I recognize that simply living is to engage with endless ethical compromise. From the food I eat and the clothes I wear to the the technology I use in the process of creation. So I'm not a purist on a soapbox. But when presented with new tools or processes a big part of my self expression is to analyze them. I try to determine where they land on the ethical landscape I'm trying to navigate with care and sincerity.
Generative AI is not a technology like sable-hair paintbrushes, where the ethical ramifications are somewhat proportional to their use. Where I can simply choose to use a slightly inferior synthetic brush, effectively voting with my wallet. Instead I'm faced with a near-existential level of complex issues, many of which I don't have the technical knowledge to adequately interpret. It's not as simple as swapping brushes. It's also a calculation about my very survival in a radically uncertain future. It's a best-guess about how the economic, ecological, and political ramifications will resolve. I don't want to contribute to the data centers hording water in deserts, run on dirty energy, creating noise pollution for nearby residents. I don't want to feed my dollars to the oligarchs who are actively destroying the art I love and smothering the democracy that I hoped would be the inheritance of my children. I don't want to outsource my thinking to a machine owned by a company that will lease it back to me.
I hold all these questions, fears and hopes in tension with my desire to make something truly meaningful in the world. I try to navigate the ethical compromises that I feel will be inevitable as generative AI becomes woven into the infrastructure of our lives. I don't believe the AI evangelists' claims, but I can also see real and valuable contributions it can have to many people's lives. What I'm very unsure about is how seriously I should take "left behind" narrative. Are creatives who are refusing to embrace this tech effectively erasing their influence from the future? Are they relegating their voices to a vanishing niche? If so, should there be a cohort of creatives who retrain the ethical concerns and engage with the technology in a way that helps to shape it for the better?
Personally, I know what my red lines are. I will not generate images, music, animation or writing for my IP. No matter how much time and money that might save me, it is fundamentally not a project I'm interested in. To me it would be like building a robot that could lift weights for me so I don't have to work out.
It would be nice to be able to investigate if and how AI can help me in my creative endeavors with my personal ethical concerns in mind. But every system I've experimented with feels like it's purposefully designed to obscure the answers to those concerns. They are simply not made for people like me. If there was a product where I could simply check a box that says I don't want to generate images, use a data center, or share my data with a mega-corp I could feel free to focus on my creative vision. I would feel unburdened by the invisible ramifications these companies foist on me. Then I could discover -within my self-imposed constraints- what I can do with this technology. (Things like keeping my dozen novels consistent.) On my terms. Expressing my own sensibilities, personality and soul.
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