There's a group of people online who seem to think their mission in life is to find anything that might have been created with AI and complain about it.

You've probably seen them.

Somebody posts an announcement about a fundraiser, a business special, or a community event. Instead of discussing what the announcement actually says, somebody jumps into the comments to point out that the picture looks AI-generated. I'm sitting there thinking, who cares?

Sometimes they're right. Sometimes they're wrong. Either way, they apparently think they've uncovered some great scandal. These self-appointed AI warriors have become a pain in the rear.

I'm not talking about people raising thoughtful concerns about copyright, technology, or the livelihoods of working artists. I'm talking about the ones who seem more interested in catching somebody using AI than in understanding why the picture was posted in the first place.

What does the candidate stand for? What do they want to accomplish for our town? How do they plan to handle the issues that affect our neighbors?

Those are the questions I want answered.

Shoestring operations

I've spent much of my life helping businesses and organizations use technology. My philosophy hasn't changed much since the early days of desktop publishing: Use the tools that help you do your job. Don't spend money you don't have to spend. And when you need professional work, hire a professional.

That's not disrespectful to artists. That's how small businesses have always operated.

Look around Berea and Madison County. We have small restaurants, churches, community groups, shops, school organizations, and local businesses that need to tell people what they're doing.

Think about a volunteer fire department hosting a fundraising dinner. The volunteers are already giving their time, buying supplies, preparing food, and trying to raise money for equipment. They need a flyer, but they certainly don't need another expense.

Or consider a church organizing a chili supper to help a family with medical bills. Every dollar spent advertising that supper is a dollar that doesn't go toward helping the family.

Then there's the small downtown shop trying to bring in a few extra customers with a weekend flash sale. The owner may be handling the sales floor, inventory, bookkeeping, and advertising without much help.

For these folks, the choice was never between hiring an advertising agency and using Canva. The choice was between putting up a plain text announcement or finding a free digital template that made the announcement look a little better.

When a small business owner who was never going to hire an artist uses AI to make a Facebook graphic, I don't see a lost job there. I see somebody using a tool to do something they were already doing themselves. If AI helps small business owners create a better-looking flyer without spending money they don't have, I consider that a good thing.

Announcements, not fakes

There are legitimate questions about how AI companies train their models, whether artists have given permission for their work to be used, and whether someone is trying to pass off generated work as something it isn't.

If a company replaces an artist it previously employed, that's a real economic issue. If someone uses AI to copy another person's distinctive work, that's worth questioning too.

And I certainly don't think anyone should use AI to create misleading pictures and present them as actual photographs of real events.

But those concerns are different from a volunteer using a computer to make a graphic advertising a church supper.

We shouldn't pretend they're the same thing.

It doesn't mean everything AI creates is good. I've seen plenty of terrible AI graphics. I've seen just as many terrible graphics made the old-fashioned way. The person using the software still has a responsibility to make sure the finished product is accurate and appropriate.

But the next time you see a Berea business posting a flyer, maybe spend a little less time examining whether the picture was generated by AI and a little more time reading what they're trying to tell you.

That restaurant might have a special worth trying. That church might be raising money for a good cause. That volunteer fire department might be trying to purchase equipment that could save someone's life.

And if it's a political advertisement, I'd much rather know what the candidate plans to do for Berea than what software they used to make the picture.

The picture is supposed to help deliver the message. Let's not get so busy arguing about the picture that we forget to read the message.