A personal statement, not a case study

My Stance on AI

I use AI tools, including to help build this site, and I have serious reservations about the industry building them. Both things are true at once, so here they are, in plain terms.

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Why I use it at all

UX research has contracted sharply in the last few years, and staying visible to employers increasingly means showing fluency with AI-assisted workflows. I'm doing that because I need to keep working in a field I care about, not because I've made peace with how these systems are built, powered, or governed. That distinction matters to me, so I'm putting it in writing.

The manifesto

1. Duress, not enthusiasm

I use AI because staying employable in a shrinking field currently requires it, not because I think these tools have earned much trust.

2. Against surveillance

I oppose AI built for, or used in, mass government surveillance, in any form.

3. Against unchecked data centers

I oppose the current pace of AI data center construction and the resources it demands from the communities around them.

4. Against powering AI with natural water

I oppose using rivers, lakes, aquifers, or any natural water source to cool or power AI infrastructure.

5. For regulation

I support strong, binding regulation of AI, all of it, and don't believe this industry can be trusted to police itself.

6. Offsetting my use

I donate to organizations working against AI's unchecked growth, treating my own use as a cost to account for, not something free.

7. Creative control stays mine

Every idea, decision, and word on this site started with me. AI carries out what I've already decided. It doesn't decide.

8. Expertise first

My judgment, built over 13+ years of research practice, is what this work runs on. AI is a tool I direct, not a collaborator I defer to.

9. No important decisions go to a machine

Anything that matters gets decided by me, checked by me, and owned by me.

10. Expert first, AI user second, if at all

I want to be known for what I know how to do, not for how well I can prompt something else to do it.

“A just machine to make big decisions
Programmed by fellows with compassion and vision
We'll be clean when their work is done
We'll be eternally free, yes, and eternally young
What a beautiful world this will be
What a glorious time to be free” — Donald Fagen, “I.G.Y.”

— Michael Kennedy