AI & Outdoor Advocacy: Do they belong together?

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Whether or not you're in environmental conservation circles online, artificial intelligence generated writing, images, and videos have become inescapable.

You'll never catch me using AI images or captions on my personal platform. Our ability to learn and communicate is what makes us human, and it's not something I'm willing to forsake out of convenience.

Beyond the ethical dilemmas spurred by the mainstreaming of generative AI, our absent-minded use of chatbots takes a big environmental toll. Additionally, AI generated information about climate and conservation issues is more likely to ignore larger social and political causes and contributes to an over simplified narrative that is counterproductive to outdoor advocacy.

Integrating AI into schools feels particularly alarming to me. Forget preparation for using AI in their future careers, students must learn how to dissect, interpret, and communicate information themselves.

If after reading this you still choose to use AI to support your outdoor advocacy online, I encourage you to have your critical lens ready, double check all your facts for accuracy, and disclose when you use it.