I’ve always been slow to join the party, I’m always 6 months to 2 years behind the latest trend (case in point, I became a fan of Bros in January 1992…….Bros fans – See what I mean?!) . My initial intentional use of A.I. (Artifical Intelligence) in 2024 was no different. Chat GPT had been around for a little while before I started playing around with it to see the possibilities for myself. Remember, this is with a backdrop of being a Post-Graduate Social Researcher and BA History and English Literary Studies (hons) graduate. I had proven that I possess research, writing and communication skills in my academic life, and also through my work history. I didn’t need to use A.I…..did I? But curiosity got the better of me and I started to ask questions in Chat GPT, that I ordinarily would have looked up in…*gasp* a book…or by using a search engine. Fast forward a couple of years and I’ve been using it far more than I’d like, often without being overtly aware that I am even using A.I.! A.I. provides convenience and speed in many different areas, but I have been questioning whether it is right for convenience and speed to come at such a cost.
I heard the initial concerns about copyright and IP and wrongly believed there were laws in place that could protect businesses and creatives from copyright/IP violations. I also believed that, as long as I didn’t ask for anything to be created ‘in the style of’ So and So, I wasn’t stealing anyone’s work. I now know that I was completely wrong and that theft of creative output is a genuine concern, whether done deliberately or not, and whether the creative objects or not. Away from A.I., I have been the ‘victim’ of copyright theft; I could literally hear my own voice when reading M.E.-specific content from a very large public organisation who had engaged with my work. I know how hurtful that feels and would never intentionally do that to anyone else.
I dallied with creating artwork using A.I. for a short period of time around 2024, I haven’t created artwork using AI since 2025. Here’s that bit of the story….
I had the idea to create BED for Severe ME 6 weeks before the original first awareness day, 8th August 2024 (it’s now held on Oct 29th every year). I knew I would need original artwork to increase engagement, I also knew I wanted to sell badges as a revenue stream (50/50 split of profits going to 2 M.E. charities,) – the imagery needed to be GOOD but also timely. I needed to have finished artwork within 10 days. My first stop, as always was my friends who are artists. These awesome people have previously offered to create imagery either pro-bono or at low cost, something I am always grateful for as I am only too aware of the true value of their creativity, but we are a micro-entity social enterprise with very little money! All 3 of these awesome artistic friends were busy with other work; it should be noted that 2 of them directed me towards A.I. for a quick turnaround. I contacted a local graphic designer who has created designs and imagery for me before, I gave him a detailed brief, and paid him for an hour’s work (out of my own money – not ME Foggy Dog funds) – around £35. Unfortunately, although he had stuck to the brief it wasn’t what I had pictured in my mind. I knew I couldn’t afford to keep paying for different drafts so I thanked him and, did as my artist friends suggested and looked for a good A.I. site specifically for artwork. I found Nightcafe, a great site that offers the first few attempts for free but then it becomes a ‘credits’/subscription service.
As you can see from the images and prompts below, I learned I had to be more descriptive to get better results.
First prompt: ‘Basic light blue fabric sleep mask covers eyes in a darkened room’ – I figured I’d keep it broad to see what A.I. came up with first.
‘Close up on head, chronically sick woman head on pillow, they are wearing a blue sleep eyemask and noise cancellation headphones’ (5th prompt)
‘Sad, lonely, chronically sick person in bed in a dark room’ (10th)
‘Sad and lonely chronically sick woman in pyjamas laid on their bed’ (13th) – far too realistic! Looks like a photo, something I didn’t want.
‘Sad and lonely chronically sick middle aged woman in pyjamas wearing an sleep mask. She is laid on her bed propped up on pillows.’ (15th)
157 attempts later…. (yes, I had to pay for credits for ‘evolves’ (re-dos)) and I finally saw what had been in my mind’s eye. 157 attempts meant I had to go through a lot of dinosaurs instead of humans, 7 fingered people, eye masks with eye holes (um….yeah because they would block out light!), and three-eared humans, to get to the end result I wanted.
‘Sad and lonely haggard chronically sick middle aged woman in pyjamas wearing a sleep mask. She’s asleep.’. Hurrah!! The word ‘Haggard’ was added, 10 more ‘evolves’ were made and – mission accomplished!
I decided I needed more images to reflect the diverse nature of our disease, and so to create the other 5 images in the series, I simply had to change the age/sex/ethnicity in the prompt. Even then it took another 30-odd ‘evolves’ to get the whole series. This would not have been possible, in such a small space of time, away from A.I.. I didn’t want to use photographs of real people as I didn’t want to have to pick one person to be the ‘poster’ person for M.E. It also would have taken a long time to get volunteers/photos organised. Remember, I had 6 weeks to get everything created, uploaded to the website, badges printed and sold, donation pages sorted…etc etc.. I also didn’t want the image to look like a photograph, I didn’t want it to look like a real person. It is not based on any one, real individual – you can tell that from the prompts I used.
I have received low level backlash for using A.I. to create this artwork, I hope this blog provides an explanation as to why I did that in 2024/25. I also received praise from other corners of our community for using such visually striking images for the Bed for Severe M.E. campaign. These people asked what platform I used and are now using it in their own work. I should say that, these images are the permanent official BED for Severe M.E. promotional images and I won’t be replacing them any time soon, if ever. However, I see this as a learning exercise and it has helped to shape my current viewpoint on A.I.. I created maybe 10 A.I. images for M.E. work over the space of those 9 months nearly 2 years ago. I’d prefer to not create more AI artistic content in future, because of the concerns laid out in this blog. However, if I am ever in a situation similar to the BED for Severe M.E. 6 week turnaround scenario again, who knows. I have deadlines and M.E. funds to raise. Taking the moral high ground requires a healthy bank balance, unfortunately. Never say never, I have no idea what the future holds.
I have found it interesting that I received a small backlash for using A.I. to create artwork but am regularly encouraged by our community to use it for accessibility reasons such as creating transcripts, adding CCs to videos, or using translation services so people living with M.E. have greater access to my output. I wonder why we are outraged at some people potentially being at risk of losing their jobs, income, but not others? I paid hundreds of pounds to have a human translate English content into Welsh in 2023 because I wanted to be 100% sure of quality. But in 2026, there are very good AI translation services. In 2023, I was able to pay for this service because of grant funding, however, would I be as inclined if I were on a virtually non-existent budget? I believe budgetary restraints are adding to the drive towards A.I. being the way forward, it has certainly historically been a driver for me.
I should clarify that after playing around with A.I. for around 9 months on various projects, my eyes started to be opened as to the negative flipside of the convenience. I think A.I. has immense potential as a disability aid, it opens up the possibilities for those of us who need extra help with written tasks, or getting organised at the touch of a button. But, many of the uses of A.I.in the wider population seem to be vanity projects and pointless. There have been arguments made recently by tech giants, that the reluctance to embrace A.I.is similar to when the internet first came about. It’s claimed that people are scared of the unknown. I disagree, I think people are realising the negatives massively outweigh the positives. If A.I .can’t exist without harming the planet, at what point do we say no?
I was relieved to see that Erin Brockovich (I’m sure you’ve all seen or heard about the film of the same name) has started to tackle the impact of A.I. data centres in the US with her website – AI Data Center Reporting. The key concerns she is tackling can be seen in this screenshot from the website homepage-
