My new image policy (AI and photography)

Image made with "Grigne".

First: AI.

My policy is this: I use AI to build tools, not content.

So for programming, now and then.

For example: I used Claude Code to write the scripts that feed this site. (I write my notes in Obsidian and they sync live.) More on that later.

But now that the site is running, I don't need AI anymore.

Another example: AI helps me code my generative art program (called "Grigne"). More on that later too – it's been a hobby of mine for a long time.

But once the program runs, no more AI.

So: heavy use while I build the tool – a few weeks – then hardly any the rest of the time.

(Yes, I'm still conflicted about this. Feel free to yell at me in the comments.)

But I never use AI to write text or make images.

Not that I haven't tried.

Several times I wanted to see whether Claude could help me write. The things that bore me, for example.

And I found that no, not at all. It doesn't even make sense.

Because this is how my life works now:

• Either I write something I enjoy, that only I can do and that I have no wish to hand off. The activity itself is the pleasure.
• Or I don't write.

Same for images.

The pleasure is in making the drawings, in taking the photos.

Little by little, I've removed from my life (personal and professional) any need to produce content I wouldn't want to make myself.

It's never necessary.

It's actually the main reason I stopped doing video production.

(In all honesty, I bent this rule for my web series Panic in Space! At first I made every background by hand in Blender. Then I caved at the end, when Midjourney got good enough to help.)

I'm not throwing stones at anyone who works differently, of course.

But personally, if you write to me or send me a drawing, I prefer it short, personal and imperfect. Otherwise, no promises.

I've also changed how I approach photography. That's for tomorrow.