Sharing My Personal AI Ethic
Plus the return of Trail Towns 101
When Aldo Leopold called for “a new land ethic” in A Sand County Almanac (1949) he wrote, “There is yet no ethic dealing with man’s relation to land and to the animals and plants which grow upon it.” Instead, he wrote, “The land-relation is still strictly economic, entailing privileges but not obligations.” In other words, we were benefitting from the land but had not yet obligated ourselves to care for it.
Leopold looked to guiding principles like the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule and wondered why such an ethic did not exist concerning our relationship with the land. The Aldo Leopold Foundation calls the resulting land ethic framework his most enduring idea. An important aspect of Leopold’s call to action was his view that everyone should have their own personal land ethic, one that evolves over time.
I think it’s the same with artificial intelligence (AI). Everyone who intentionally uses it has their own reasons, comfort level, and limits on how they’re willing to engage with AI. I’m here today to share mine.
I’ll start by sharing my reservations.
In short, they relate to:
Concerns around intellectual property (including my own…I sometimes wonder how much of my work is simply out there for the taking).
Threats to the livelihoods of artists and other creatives (and consultants, for that matter, when people opt to use AI to generate reports and plans)
Concerns about accuracy (everything from inadequate Zoom meeting notes to AI recently telling me that, sure, it’s okay to have a boozy drink with antibiotics)
The environmental impact, with data centers consuming loads of water and energy (why wouldn't we care that there’s an environmental cost to every single ChatGPT question?)
And now for my personal AI ethic:
AI is ubiquitous. We all use it one way or another. I recognize that it’s a great time saver for people, systems, and society. I’m not here to admonish or make anyone feel bad or interfere with their personal AI ethic. Truly, I know that some of you love AI and benefit from it every single day.
But I do have concerns, as explained, and think as an independent consultant I should take the opportunity to share my AI ethic. Like with a land ethic, this may change over time with more exposure and more knowledge. But, for now, this is where I stand with AI and how I tend to use it in my work. You might think of this as a promise to my clients:
I generally don’t use AI in my work…not in any significant manner, anyway. I won’t ever pass off AI-generated text as my own writing, and I don’t really think to use AI to conduct research. Instead, if you hire Cycle Forward, what you are getting is our thinking and creativity, meticulous research, fact checking, and attention to detail.
I don’t use generative AI to create images, fliers, or other content. I value photographers, illustrators, graphic designers, and other creative professionals and don’t plan to side-step them to save time or money.
I may use AI as a time saver in certain instances. I’ve intentionally used it twice over the past year to analyze open-ended survey responses and identify themes. This helped my team avoid a time-consuming task. This made sense to me. Even then, I did so with the client’s permission since we were using their data.
I do collaborate with other consultants on projects and recognize that they may have a different AI ethic than I do. These are differences worth exploring. At the very least, I want to know their thoughts on AI and what they are willing to commit to when we’re collaborating (while knowing where I won’t budge).
I acknowledge that there are ways I may be using and benefitting from AI that aren’t even on my radar. Virtually every digital tool out there includes AI features these days. I commit to continuing to learn about AI, to be open-minded about it, and adapt as necessary.
The land ethic and AI are inextricably linked in my mind. There’s an environmental cost (the extent of which I don’t have a great grasp on), and I’m mindful of this. This awareness contributes to my personal reluctance to engage with AI.
If I can circle back to #1 on the list, when clients are paying Cycle Forward for a project, they’re not paying for rapid speed. Instead, we’re thorough. We’re thoughtful. We’re curious. And we’re committed to delivering on our promises.
To take this a step further, I recently dug out my StrengthsFinder results. My top strengths are Connectedness, Empathy, Developer, Maximizer, and Harmony. Four of the five fall in the “Relationship Building” category. These are the strengths that make me tick, and they make Cycle Forward the kind of consultancy it is. Cycle Forward is all about building and maintaining relationships. There’s no AI prompt for that. And it seems like a natural part of the relationship to share where I’m coming from in terms of how AI augments our work.
I’ll close with Leopold. He wrote that “Nothing so important as an ethic is ever written – it evolves in the minds of a thinking community.” I did pretty much just write this down, but the important piece to me is that I (and you) will continue to reflect, explore, and update our personal AI ethics. And our land ethics. It’s part of being members of a thinking community.
Trail Towns 101: “I’d do it again.”
Michele Archie of The Harbinger Consultancy and I hosted the first Trail Towns 101 course in February. One of my favorite pieces of feedback from one of our two dozen participants was: “This was super valuable and also a bit like drinking out of a firehose! (I would do it again though).”
I’m happy to share that we are doing it again: offering the course, that is. Please plan to join us Tuesdays in August for a deep dive into Trail Towns. We promise to make it fun and digestible and that you’ll leave the experience with resources, inspiration, and new peers. Use the discount code CycleForward for 10% off the cost of the course.
Gratitude Notes
I’ve gotten away from my gratitude notes over the last few posts. Honestly, I don’t know whether that relates to the crushing burden of the first few months (the movie title Everything Everywhere All at Once comes to mind) or if I just wasn’t feeling it. But in this very moment I’m feeling grateful for how people come together in the spirit of community in so many ways. I’m thinking about my neighbors who gathered for our Spring litter pick up and how we pulled together drinks and a cheese plate on a whim at 11:30 on a Saturday. This provided the most beautiful, impromptu opportunity to get to know each other better. Or about how some folks in Meyersdale rolled out the welcome mat for a group I brought through the other day. We were in the “maple city,” and their welcome was so sweet (pun intended, obviously). Or how folks all around Pittsburgh helped each other out over the last 10 days following a severe storm. I’m grateful for community, in all forms…everyone, everywhere, day in and day out.