My AI Ethics Guide

For thoughtful humans in a complicated world...

As part of my series about learning to use Claude, I wanted to write my own AI Ethics Guide and how I use it in my own life and business.

My feelings, thoughts, and opinions on this topic are likely to evolve over time. So this will be an evolving article that I will update along with producing quarterly posts that summarize what I’m learning about AI. When I’ve added or discovered something new, I’ll try to share an update in my weekly newsletter so you can keep up with the additions.

I want to encourage you to use this article as a starting point to develop your own guide on AI ethics or disclosure statements. Losing yourself, and your own morals, values, personality or even sense of self to new technology is easier than we are often willing to admit. Taking the time to clearly identify how you will or will not use AI is the first step in shaping it in ethically-aligned ways.

What Forms My Opinion

Before we can dive in to my actual opinion or guidelines, I need to provide relevant context for some of the things that have impacted my feelings surrounding this.

I graduated college in 2008, and after a year in a post-graduate program, I entered the world of publishing in 2010, just as platforms like Facebook and Twitter were taking off for business. Soon, Instagram and Pinterest joined the scene. Within 18 months of landing my first “office job”, I left and launched my own social media agency.

From 2011 until 2020 I was working in social media, primarily within the beauty and skincare industry. I lovingly refer to these as the “wild west days” of social media, particularly 2010-2016, and for those of us who were working as social media managers, strategists, and content creators during that period it often felt both exciting and terrifying.

There was no roadmap. No mentors or industry professionals could really tell us what our business should look like or where it was going. For the most part, we had to learn in real time, and every day brought new challenges, trends, platform updates, and algorithm changes.

But those early days also felt full of possibility. I was bright-eyed and optimistic about what social media could bring to the world. I witnessed and experienced first-hand how social media could educate me on topics I had never considered learning about, show me cultures I had never encountered or issues I had never experienced first-hand, and especially how it could connect people across the world and allow us to communicate freely and openly with each other.

And then I watched, year after year, as that was corroded. Replaced by algorithms driven by capitalism. How the algorithm decided who I saw and who I didn’t. How quickly every social media platform became pay-to-play.

Witnessing the role social media played in the 2016 election was a major turning point for me. I increasingly felt at ethical odds with the work I was doing, and knew it was no longer where I wanted to build my career. By 2018, I was transitioning away from that work, and walked away from social media consulting completely by 2020.

Behind the scenes, I put up guardrails. I’m careful about whose faces I share online and how. I’ve never monetized any of my social media accounts. I don’t do brand deals or paid content. When I worked directly with US political campaigns in 2018, 2020, and 2024, I did all of it unpaid. I’ve spent years very intentionally building algorithms on every platform that educate me on specific topics rather than sell me a certain lifestyle.

And despite that effort, over the past six years I’ve watched as the industry has continued to slip into what I can only describe as a late-stage-capitalist hellscape. Content demands increased drastically, while consumer attention spans decreased. Tech companies control whose voices matter, and largely any of us speaking out on important (or “controversial”) topics are suppressed and silenced. The platforms have been bought up and dismantled by white male billionaires, mostly in an effort to destroy movement building for social justice causes, enable mass surveillance, and accelerate their profit.

And, of course, there are concerns about how social media use has impacted everything from confidence and body image, to reading comprehension, consumerism, depression rates and political polarization.

When I no longer felt ethically aligned with where social media as an industry was headed, I increasingly distanced myself from it and, for the most part, did that work in private. At the time, I saw this as making the ethical choice.

Over the past several years, I’ve come to view this decision with some regret. I don’t regret pivoting my work and distancing myself from the industry, but I regret not sharing my experiences, talking about how the work was challenging my own ethics and morals, and most importantly — sharing what I was doing differently and creating the guidance that younger people in my industry needed and deserved.

Where I Go From Here

Anyone my age or older has lived through an incredible period in history. We saw the first computers arrive in our schools, built websites in Microsoft Word, remember using card catalogs in the library while also typing “ASL” into AIM and creating the first MySpace accounts. We saw the digital revolution unfold in waves: personal computers, internet, social media, smart phones…and now, AI and LLMs.

While the concerns surrounding the emergence of social media are not identical to the concerns of AI, my past experience prepared me for this moment and taught me that when my ethics are at odds with my work, the answer is not to look away. The answer is to be louder. Be clearer. Be informed. Be engaged. And help shape the path this new technology takes.

There are voices online right now saying there is no ethical way to use AI. That simply engaging with it is supporting job loss and human exploitation. And it’s not necessarily that I disagree with that sentiment, it’s just that I think the solution is more complex than simply encouraging people not to use AI.

Committing to not using AI is a commendable position, and I support people who have found that to be the best option for them. It’s also a relatively privileged position, and I think every movement needs abstainers. I do worry, however, that when we say AI use is unethical, many of the only people willing to consider that stance are often the most ethical and informed among us. If we want to shape AI’s impact on humanity, those are the people we need in this movement. These are the people most likely to demand that AI be used in ethical and just ways, and we’re asking (and often demanding) that they opt out.

I understand that people can abstain from using AI while still advocating for it’s ethical use and being involved in activism surrounding it. I know that this is the actual demand behind the calls to not use AI. And this is the point I have spent the most energy ruminating on.

When I was a young person working in social media, and the ethical issues became clear, it was nearly impossible to find guidance from people who were:

• Informed on both ethics and social justice

• Experienced in activism, advocacy, and policy making

• Well-versed in technology, social media and how platforms operate

• In positions of power within communities, businesses, and governments

Those of us who have been on this ride for decades are the only ones who can effectively guide our communities through the advancement of Artificial Intelligence and introduction of Large Language Models. And, most importantly, those of us who have that lived experienced combined with intersectional skills in justice, equality, and liberation are vital to making this transition happen in ethically-aligned ways.

As we enter this same cycle with AI, we need to amplify people who are all of those first three points, and we need to focus energy toward supporting them in the fourth point (putting them into positions of power).

I’m not saying that I’m this unicorn person. But what I’ve realized is that my audience is full of them. Maybe you’re one of them.

We have the power to shape what AI looks like and how it impacts the future — maybe not always at the highest levels of government, but in our homes, schools, communities, hometowns, and places of work.

And just like any movement, that is where the real work happens and where real change takes place.

While that is my main motivation, I also feel compelled to support those people in my audience who are being forced to adopt AI at work and are looking for information on how to do so ethically, as well as help all of us recognize how AI is being integrated into our lives without our knowledge. We cannot fix what we cannot see.

This was all a long way of saying that the right choice for me is to:

• develop and adhere to clear guidelines about how I will or will not use it

• find ways to be directly involved in advocacy and activism surrounding AI

• use my platforms to transparently discuss and share what I’m learning

• demonstrate transparency with how AI is used in my work and business

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My Top Takeaways

Over the past two months I’ve spent hours learning as much as I can about how AI has evolved and where it’s going — books, podcasts, articles, and phone calls with experts.

I am emerging with these three points as my biggest takeaways:

#1 - AI is not compatible with capitalism. I truly believe we can have either AI or capitalism, but not both.

#2 - We deserve to be compensated for the use of our collective knowledge. AI is not something that fell from the sky. It is built using collective human knowledge from us and every generation before us. We should demand shared ownership and profits so that all of humanity benefits equally from its use.

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My AI Guidelines

1. I will always disclose when and how AI has been used in my work or content.

2. I will use AI strategically to challenge and expand my thinking to protect my critical thinking skills and retain research and emotional regulation skills.

3. I will add information about my use of AI to my client contracts and an AI disclosure page on my website.

4. I will not use AI tools in client projects unless given express permission.

5. I will use my platforms to advocate for ethical AI development, fair compensation, and equitable access to AI tools.

6. I will be thoughtful about my use of AI and consider if AI is necessary for the task at hand.

7. I will disable automated AI tools or features in places where it is not vital or helpful (emails, text messages, search results, etc.)

8. I will not use AI to replace human creators and will stay invested in human work by redirecting income toward independent creators, artists, and small businesses.

9. I will continue to learn about AI tools and their impact, and openly adjust how I’m using AI based on new information.

10. I will not change how I naturally write to satisfy AI. I use emojis, emdashes, and dividing lines and there’s two decades of proof on the internet. Miss me with the “telltale signs”. AI is trained to produce clear, focused writing.

This list is not fixed. I will revisit and update it as AI and my understanding of it evolve.

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Additional Mindset Shifts and Ideas I’m Exploring:

Below is a hodge-podge of additional points and ideas I wrote down or encountered during this sprint of learning. They are things I hope to go deeper on in future articles, but I’m parking them here for now:

✨ While there are many valid concerns about AI, we often don’t hear the other side of it because it’s not as “clickable”. I’ve learned that there’s a lot of gray area and it’s not always as simple as it appears. This carousel from Simone Grace Soul consolidates a lot of information and research and is an incredible resource:

✨ When we tell someone not to use AI, we might be preventing them from experiencing something they have never had access to before.

✨ There is inherent classism in saying that AI will replace human intelligence. It assumes that all other forms of labor that have been replaced by machines, computers, or automation in previous decades were not valid forms of “intelligence” or “labor” (ex. factory workers who were replaced by robots, secretaries and typists who were replaced by the internet/automation tools).

✨ Why are people compelled to use AI in place of medical or legal advice? What systems are not functioning properly that force people to then rely on AI instead of professionals or experts? How do we fix that?

✨ AI can help level the playing field for small businesses and solopreneurs by giving us access to tools and insight that may have previously been inaccessible.

✨ Bernie Sanders is proposing an AI Sovereign Wealth Fund that would give all Americans shares in AI profits. I expect other countries will do this, and Americans should demand the same.

✨ Government policies we need to push for: strong whistleblower protections so employees feel comfortable coming forward, accountability for harm caused by AI, payments/dividends/shares to everyone.

✨ Europe generally has stronger consumer protections than the US does. Fighting for regulation here can help shape policy in the US, too (and historically this has been true in various industries).

✨ The problem isn’t AI. The problem is capitalism. Every negative thing I have encountered about AI so far has been capitalism, not the technology itself.

✨ Data centers are not new — most of the internet runs on data centers. We need to differentiate between the capacity that is needed for human progress and the capacity that is being demanded for government surveillance.

✨ When we tell people not to use AI, we likely deny them of the ability to identify when they are using AI unknowingly -- which can be more problematic than being informed and using AI intentionally and with strong ethical guidelines.

✨ Grifting via AI creators: selling things that aren’t actually possible or are outside the skillset of the average user OR unethically using fear of job loss to sell courses/trainings.

✨ “The question we must continuously ask ourselves, is whether the technology is helping to build and create community, or destroying it. How can we redirect, change, or even dismantle, so that community is always the conclusion? When we ask ourselves these questions, it clears up some of the ways we can hone in on our battles, for it is made clear what we need to fight for, and what we must fight against.” - YK Hong

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Who I’m Learning From

Below are some of the resources and people I’ve found most helpful in shaping my opinions in this guide as well as some of places I will continue to go for updated information. I will update this when I find new things to add (and if you have something to suggest please leave a comment or send me an email!).

📃 ARTICLES:

“The Privilege of Refusing AI” by Codified (one of the best pieces I’ve read…and I’ve read it so many times)

“Is using AI unethical?” by Rachel Rodgers

“The ‘Don’t Look Up’ Thinking That Could Doom Us With AI” via Time

“The Actual Environmental Cost of AI” by Slow AI (especially appreciate this section)

📧 SUBSTACKS/NEWSLETTERS/NEWS:

The AI Daily Brief Newsletter by Turpentine

Ai, Humanities, and the Future of Work by historian, public educator, and humanist Shae O. Omonijo

Card Catalog by librarian Hana Lee Goldin

Codified by Maria-Ines

Slow AI

Dangerously Educated by Tayla Burrell

User Mag by Taylor Lorenz

Platformer - Note: Casey Newton’s wife works at Anthropic so I keep that in mind when consuming his content (he typically discloses this).

Nerve News

📙 BOOKS

AI for Good by Josh Tyrangiel

Empire of AI by Karen Hao

Resisting AI by Dani McQuillan

Artificial Intelligence a Guide for Thinking Humans by Melanie Mitchell

The Last Human Job by Allison Pugh

✊🏻 ACTIVISTS/EXPERTS:

💠Tech literacy worker Clara Jane Fulks on Instagram

💠Germany-based tech writer Aya Jaff

💠Liberatory strategy + Tech justice with @YKReborn (+ Liberation Toolbox newsletter)

💠Dr. Joy Buolamwini, AI Ethics Leader, founder of The Algorithmic Justice League @PoetofCode (also Dr. Joy Buolamwini)

💠Critical thinking in the age of Ai, with Harvard PhD candidate @IamShaeo (also at Shae O.)

💠 PhD in Medical Eng. from MIT @JordanBHarrod (also at Jordan Harrod)

💠 Digital Anthropologist Rahaf Harfoush @Foushy

💠 Information science professor @ProfessorCasey

💠 PhD neuroscientist & evolutionary biologist @Drmelisande

💠 @MichelleKimKim

💠 Labor Economist Katherine Edwards @Keds_economist (Also at Kathryn Anne Edwards

💠 International CEO Maria-Ines @EnvisionBrands

💠 Tech consultant Saria Joseph @TheCorporateFlamingo

💠Creative technologist Angela Benton @Abenton

🧡 ORGS/SITES:

The AI Resist List, created by Karen Hao - an incredible archive of AI/data center resistance movements across the globe

AI 2027 - this is basically a timeline of how AI may evolve from 2025 to 2027

AI Futures Model - same creators as AI 2027. Long term models.

The Center for for Humane Technology and their AI roadmap

Future of Life Institute

🎬 TV/MOVIES/DOCUMENTARIES:

The AI Doc

The Thinking Game

🎧 PODCASTS:

“A Labor Economist Explains why AI Won’t Take Your Job” Platformer episode with Katherine Edwards

“The Perils of Unregulated AI” from Front Burner

404 Media

Platformer - Note: Casey Newton’s wife works at Anthropic so I keep that in mind when consuming his content (he typically discloses this).

AI Ethics Now

Novara Media (loved both their episodes with Karen Hao)

Power User with Taylor Lorenz

Write Your Own

This guide and the AI Ethics Statement page on my website are templates you are welcome to use to create your own if they are helpful. Let it evolve. Update it as needed. Reflect back on it when your ethics or morals are feeling challenged.

I always appreciate a little shoutout, though it’s not required. You can link to this post, my main website, or my Instagram account when crediting my work.

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