The 'AI Not Needed' List

What Do You Mean By 'AI'?

To keep things simple for the time being, the definition of 'AI' that I'm using is anything that includes A) Generative AI such as large language models (LLMs) or image generation models, or B) uses data from or about users to train such models.

It should be noted that there are lots of other types of algorithms that are sometimes referred to as AI, but the above should cover most of the stuff that irritate the most people. For example, I won't treat most single-task machine learning algorithms as AI (for example, an email spam filter based on ratings or criteria that you've given it).

Why Do You Say It's Not Needed?

There are four main reasons why many people would prefer to use AI-free software. First, generative AI tends to be surprisingly good sometimes but below average overall. Second, the vast majority of these models harm marginalized people in one way or another. Third, they use enormous amounts of water and electricity to run, pushing the climate crisis in the wrong direction. And finally, they almost always have a poor relationship with the idea of consent, from features you can't turn off, to using people's intellectual property without permission.

Conceptually, there's nothing wrong with these models in general, just in how they are being implemented (generally by large tech corporations). If the four problems above are eventually eliminated in the most popular models, perhaps this list will no longer be needed. In other words, if models are trained with consensual data, use minimal resources to run, have systems in place to ensure equity and harm prevention is built in from conception to end user, and regularly perform at a high level for their intended purpose, then that would be a good thing.

If you'd prefer to see the flip side, there's the Unfortunately Using AI list.

The AI-Free List

Key:

  • F: Currently AI-free, no additional information
  • C: Commitment on record to not use AI in the product
  • O: Option to turn tool on/off easily
  • T: Transparent information about the AI they do use
  • P: Have a published AI policy
  • PS: Also known as being good for privacy and security

Office Software (like those in MS Office or Google Workspace)

  • LibreOffice (F)
  • Scrivner (F) -- word processing only
  • OpenOffice (F) -- a less actively up-to-date cousin of LibreOffice
  • Proton (F)(PS)

Web Search

  • https://udm14.com/ It's still Google search, but with a bunch of the "extras" turned off, including the AI-generated search results. (F)

Cloud Storage (like DropBox or Google Drive)

  • ???

Messaging/Discussion (like Slack, Discord)

  • ???

News and Media

  • 404 Media (P) "Media for humans, made by humans" including links to some of their stories about the harms caused by AI.

Arts & Entertainment

  • Omaha Classical Radio KVNO (C) Showing how to commit publicly to a "No AI" policy.
  • NotByAI.fyi (P) A badge for humans to add to their creative works to attest to its human-generated...ness...
  • The Cottage Vegetable blog (C) A blog with a declaration of no-AI.
  • Perth Comic Arts Festival (P) Their statement includes reasons they will not "knowingly promote AI-generated materials" but also an openness to reassessing when ethical problems are fixed.
  • Krita (F)(T) Digital 2D illustration and animation (raster graphics editor). Does not currently have AI, but soon may have a non-generative AI-style algorithm to clean up the lines made by the artist. It is not "large" (as in Large Language Model), and doesn't train on user data. Supposedly a statement will be made available when that feature is released.
  • GIMP (F) Image manipulation program, akin to Adobe Photoshop. As far as I've been able to tell (Jun2024), there are generative AI plugins available for it, but out of the box it should be free of AI as defined above.
  • A chart of alternatives to Adobe products posted on Mastodon, 5 June 2024. It's organized by Adobe program so you can find possibilities to explore. I haven't checked most of them...yet.

Brands and Consumer Products

  • Discover credit card (C) Kind of. Ad campaign claims "At Discover, everyone can talk to a human representative." Which is good, but not as comprehensive or official as we'd like.
  • Dove (C) Pledged to never use AI to represent real women in their advertising.

Other (writing code, art, etc.)

 

You Can Help

There's going to be a lot of work involved in keeping up on all the companies involved in all this software, their policies, changes in the world of 'AI' and how it exists in the world. If you think the information here is incorrect in some way, please send evidence (link to news report, company policy page, etc.) to the email 'ainotneeded' at this website. I can also be reached on Mastodon at https://scholar.social/@michaelc

If you'd like to support me in doing this research work, keeping up (and improving) the page, and other related costs, I'll commit at least two minutes' worth of updates for every dollar of membership support on my ko-fi page. That ends up being, at most, $30/hr...but probably less than that 'cause who gets anything done in two mintues? Just go to the "buy a cup of tea for Michael J. Coffey" box, click on Monthly, and we're off to the races. The more support I get, the better I can make this resource.

If you'd prefer to support me in some other way, you can contact me at that same email address mentioned in the first paragraph of this section. I don't currently have a newsletter or other mailing list for this project, but if you think I should have one, let me know your interest in that as well.

Roadmap-ish

  • Collect more options that are free from AI in the empty categories
  • Find if any of the AI-free options (F) are supported by formal commitments to remain that way (C)
  • Add links to the official websites of listed resources
  • Make little custom icons for the key instead of letters
  • Design and formatting improvements
  • A 'Learn More' section with links to articles about machine learning algorithms, current real-world harms, etc.
  • Expand into other types of software, types of 'AI' algorithms, and/or add ratings for privacy/security
  • Other community-supported suggestions for improvement

Final Note:

This webpage doesn't track you, beyond whatever access logs are kept by my hosting service. It's been entirely written in plain HTML in Notepad. Eventually, I might use some JavaScript tools for a feedback form or something, but I intend to stay ignorant of you and what you do on this page unless you are the one who makes contact. In that case, well, I'll have whatever information you send to me.