AI Policy

I do not use generative large language models (LLMs) - commonly referred to as "AI" - in any of my work. This includes my images, software, and writing. There are numerous reasons for this decision, the main ones are listed here:

1. Multiple academic writings I have published, including journal papers and my full-length statistics textbook, appear in data sets listing copyrighted works scraped by LLM without permission. LLMs have violated license agreements on my open-source published code contributions, clearly reusing my code without the required attribution.

2. As an academic, I strive for scientific integrity in my work. LLM outputs cannot be separated from plagarism, and cannot be placed in my work under copyright or my own open source licensing terms.

3. LLMs are literally based on statistical averages, by "learning" from previous works and outputting a plausible average response to a prompt. I desire my work to be exceptional, and won't settle for average.

4. LLMs needlessly accelerate the climate crisis.

5. Like other new tools, I evaluate their place in my workflows before adopting. Every trial use of LLMs has shown no use case for me. Using LLMs in their current state require more time than just doing the work myself and create outputs that aren't "mine".

6. The very process of struggling through code and finding solutions to problems is what motivates me to continue developing, writing, and creating. Outsourcing my creativity to an LLM puts the focus on the end product, and removes any satisfaction gained from the process itself.