Books For Littles

USE DILIGENCE & PRIMARY SOURCES

Raising Luminaries creates free and public resources for public, non-profit and public use.

We do not give consent to AI companies to scrape our resources. But I also have no way to stop them. I also don’t really care – an AI summary of my work lacks the quality of content I provide directly.

But please use caution –  if you use AI to find answers that you would ordinarily look for here, the responses you get are likely to be muddled, confusing, or full of misinformation.

Even if the AI cites Raising Luminaries as a resource, I can’t guarantee the veracity or quality of information generated from scraping my work.

USE OF AI FOR COPYEDITING

I can’t afford a copy editor. Sometimes I run my articles through AI to fix grammatical errors, typos, etc. But usually not because I’m too lazy for the extra step.

USE OF AI GENERATED IMAGES

Whenever possible I default to free stock images from sites such as Storyset, Unsplash, and Canva, with attribution to the artist when available.

I occasionally use AI-generated images as an accessibility tool to keep pace with the large number of requests for new content from our community.

When I do this, the images are cartoonish and silly, and created with care to avoid misleading information or mimicking the work of artists who take commissions.

All all the resources here are free or offered at a sliding scale, and I cover the costs of hosting, maintaining, and creating everything here, so the image asset budget is currently zero. If you are interested in sponsoring Raising Luminaries design assets so we can afford to hire artists, I would love to switch from generative AI images to hiring a custom artist.

IMAGE NECESSITY

We all know that text-only content gets buried in the feed. Algorithms downgrade it, and without images, people scroll right past. Finding and attaching relevant visuals is necessary to compete for attention digital spaces. Additionally, creative and relevant images support people with executive functioning and other disabilities who rely on visual markers to determine what content is worth engaging with. In practice, not using images isn’t workable..

I used to spend 2+ hours searching for and creating images for every Raising Luminaries post and newsletter. It was unsustainable. And that extra time taken? It meant I published less content. Meanwhile, critics demanded, “But what about [insert urgent issue here]?!”—as if I could cover every topic while also spending hours fiddling about in Canva.

In practice: Either I publish more about a wider range of topics and use AI as an efficiency tool, or I lock the content behind a paywall, or I publish less and spend my limited time making images from scratch. 

ETHICAL CONSUMPTION UNDER CHANGING TECHNOLOGY

After years of metaphorically raising my own cows, paying for their feed, and churning my own butter, I’ve accepted that some shortcuts are necessary to survive. We all make compromises—like buying cheap butter at the grocery store despite the exploitation of dairy farmers, factory farms, and carbon emissions. Ethical purity under capitalism is an illusion.

I’m old enough to remember people freaking out about email and websites, claiming they’d put postal workers and book publishers out of business. Industries evolve. That doesn’t mean we ignore harm, but it does mean we have to focus on the actual threats instead of making artists and small creators the scapegoats.

The AI cat is out of the bag, and rather than fixating on purity politics, the more pressing need is preventing corporations and oligarchs from weaponizing AI against workers and creators. The reality is that large corporations and people who do have the funds to commission artwork are already using AI—without consequence.

If you’re concerned about AI use by educators providing free labor and resources, it is worth asking: Are you boycotting your favorite movie because they use AI? Your favorite snack brands, clothing brands, mortgage lender, or local educators? Because they all will be using AI within five years, if they aren’t already.

Unfortunately the website theme, software, and design tools I started paying for and rely on before generative AI have integrated it into their interface in a way I can’t avoid. When possible, I do – but I do not have accessible alternative resources available that would allow me to boycott. Refusing to use AI entirely is equivalent to me giving away a refrigerator I bought 10 years ago and insisting I stop using refrigeration and churn my own butter on demand. Environmentally responsible? Questionable. Best use of time? Not really.

SUPPORTING ARTISTS

I trained as a graphic designer and photographer in the early 2000s—back when we still used film and X-acto knives. And the second I graduated, everything went digital. That’s how art and technology work: they evolve.

There are real concerns about AI scraping intellectual property, but let’s not pretend this is new. In the early 2000s, the panic was about artistic mimicry—copying someone’s style or composition. And yet, in art school, you learn that all art is built on the work of others. AI operates on a similar principle – it deconstructs and reconstructs at a speed that humans can’t comprehend and therefore find very creepy.

For over a decade, businesses and corporations have stolen my work for their own use, without consequence. As a sole proprietor photographer, I found it annoying when people ripped off my work, but I never saw it as an economic threat. They weren’t stealing my business because they weren’t my audience.

AI is not replacing artists I would otherwise hire, because I can’t afford to hire artists, period.

Digital design and photography were once seen as lazy shortcuts, too. But digital technology has liberated independent creators and small businesses, allowing them to participate in visual culture in ways they otherwise couldn’t afford. AI is the next evolution of that.

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT & EMBRACING HYPOCRISY

Some people fly in planes. Some people drive gas-powered cars. Some people use plastic straws. Some people buy factory-farmed onions. Some people use electric toothbrushes instead of bamboo husks. These are all choices made for survival, accessibility, or even just joy. I’m not in the business of judging people for doing what they need to do to get by.

I do my best to mitigate my impact—I walk everywhere, and a few times a year when I drive, it’s electric. I invest in solar panels instead of vacations, keep my house at a painful 50F in the winter, pour too much time into vermicomposting, and invest my time in growing native landscapes. I donate to causes and organizations I amplify to you, and contribute to my local Buy Nothing economy. All of this is expensive and tedious and much of it leans toward unhealthy and unrealistic ethical purity. 

It’s worth noting that the few notes of criticism I’ve received for making a goofy image of racoons attacking ICE agents or cartoon bears knitting on exercise bicycles came from non-contributing followers on Facebook—a platform built on the unpaid labor and intellectual property theft of millions of artists, writers, and educators – including my own. Users consume our unpaid labor and rip off our art. If you are on Facebook while raising concerns about AI use, or are on this site consuming my labor without reciprocating with donations, it might be worth considering what concrete support you could provide that would enable artists and educators to afford support while we are supporting you.

I exist on this platform because it’s the best way to make my resources accessible to the people who need them most. That’s the best choice for particularly vulnerable members of community. 

AI AS AN ACCESSIBILITY TOOL

I’m Autistic, and AI helps me manage the workload of running Raising Luminaries as a sole creator with executive functioning disabilities. I use AI to clean up my text because I can’t afford a copy editor. It also helps me create guidelines and break down complex tasks so I can work more efficiently. 

Running this all alone is hard work, and it gets challenging without support or colleagues to help. Sometimes I’ll also use AI to talk me through technology challenges, talk out hypotheticals, help me narrow my focus, and create boundaries around my work so I don’t overdo it.