I have looked into it a lot in the past however many years! I'll post the same information I posted on my Tumblr!
Power usage is so bad blackouts are expected to increase by 100X
Data centers used 256 billion gallons of water in 2025 alone
And then, of course, you have the health impacts on the public
This is, of course, just a 101 intro on how bad AI usage and data centers are and what expected future impacts are. I could give you dozens of different sources on this topic alone. My issue with AI is not solely "it's a plagiarism machine" my issue with AI is how it's exasperating a lot of pre existing issues to new levels of bad. My issue is that poor and/or poc areas are being heavily affected (because that's what always happens with these kinds of things. It was the same with factories, now it's the same with data centers).
I'm also not saying I expect people to be able to magically be free of AI, especially with every company on earth shoving it down our throats. However, morally, I refuse to contribute to the issue as much as I can because I have the luxury to do so. I've been able to not touch google outside my work email for years. I don't use microsoft outside of windows, and even then I went into the system and removed Copilot and other AI related material. And now I am in a position where I can move to another engine that is against AI, so I'll do so. Not everyone can do that, and even I cannot completely rid it of my own life. When every website on earth uses AI, that's not feasible and I don't really expect people to. And like I said in the base post, I don't expect people to magically switch from Ren'py, that's crazy, but I personally am able to do so, and so I will.
But with all that said, I'm also not going to give grace to people who willingly use it for convenience. If I have to completely learn a new engine or deal with tedious code, so be it.
My convenience is not worth other people's health and safety.