AI Policy for This Site

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AI (artificial intelligence) is all the rage these days, and its supporters and opposition are increasingly vocal, and, at times, hostile towards anyone who thinks differently. Unbeknownst to most people is that AI has been used to some degree or another for years. I am a former professional photographer, retiring after I could no longer hold a pro camera with a heavy lens level and straight. It was one of the saddest days in my life when I had sell thousands of dollars of camera/studio equipment that had given be so much joy over the years. I used AI-based software to edit photos. Adobe introduced basic AI in its content aware function in 2010. In September 2023, Adobe integrated AI into Photoshop. What’s different now is that non-technical Joe has access to tools that used to require extensive training to master.

This site does not use AI to write text. It never has and never will. AI is used to check grammar before a post is sent on to Carolyn, my editor. All text written on this site — unless it is a guest post — belongs to me. I alone own all blame or praise for anything written on this site.

I do, however, use AI to make graphics for this site. I make no apologies for doing so. Most comments and emails about the AI graphics have been positive. The graphics provide keen insight into the warped mind of Evangelical-turned-atheist Bruce Gerencser. More “warpness” forthcoming. 🙂

Calling me lazy or a destroyer of jobs is not helpful. Neither claim is true.

Thank you for your understanding.

Bruce Gerencser, 69, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 48 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.

Your comments are welcome and appreciated. All first-time comments are moderated. Please read the commenting rules before commenting.

You can email Bruce via the Contact Form.

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7 responses to “AI Policy for This Site”

February 7, 2026

Neil

Couldn’t agree more, Bruce. I ran a draft post of mine through AI a while back: the result was terrible. Faults were corrected for sure but there was nothing left of my own ‘voice’.
I like your new graphics though. AI is great for that.

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1. February 7, 2026
  
  Bruce Gerencser
  
  Thanks, Neil. I appreciate your comment. I’ve been a bit surprised by the flak I’ve received about using AI for graphics. I find it easy and enjoyable to make the graphics, much like I felt when “editing” photos.
  
  I used portrait software that used AI. One year, I shot my oldest granddaughter’s senior portrait. Day of the shoot, she developed a honking zit on her face. Was I wrong to use AI to smooth out her face a bit and remove the zit? Not in my book. I had guidelines I followed. I didn’t use the software to so transform people that they became someone else. But fixing minor flaws? Fine by me. No one wants a big zit on their face prominently featured in their yearbook.
  
  Polly and I are simple people. We never got caught up in looking differently than we actually look. Polly doesn’t wear make-up or color her hair (and I don’t criticize those who do — each to their own). Post-Jesus, we have become increasingly comfortable in our sagging, dying skin. 🤣🤣 We dress for self, not others. I’ve gotten more than a few cross looks when I wear my rainbow suspenders. Stupid hillbillies. 🤣🤣 However, one day several college aged girls came up to me to compliment me on my rainbow suspenders. This led to a discussion about local bigotry and racism (while Polly oh-so-patiently 🤣🤣 waited for me at the exit.).
  
  Not sure why I wrote that last paragraph. It tangentially applies, I suppose. Can I claim old age or maybe I’m in a mood to chat with likeminded heathens? ❤️❤️
  
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February 7, 2026

GeoffT

I’ve only recently really embraced AI. Of course, we’ve had computer assistance for decades; I remember using CAD at work close on 35 years ago, and we were amazed how we could design and rearrange an office with a few clicks of the mouse (which we’d only just discovered and were amazed by). Recently I began to play with images for fun, and there’s a great one of me shaking hands with King Charles. By the same token, I am horrified by the way in which it could, and is being misused for pornographic reasons and I hope we can somehow address that (sadly I think that particular genie has left the bottle).

Now I’m slowly discovering its benefits. If a houseplant is withering I can ask it for instructions to revive it. If I have a problem when I’m tinkering on with the car it can instantly summarise very precisely where I’m going wrong and what I should do, without my spending maybe hours wading through google searches. More recently I’ve begun having conversations onpoints of philosophy or history that I want to try exercising my mind with. And I’m doing daily sessions where I converse with it in Spanish and German, both languages that I would love to improve and now find I’m progressing.

It is very important throughout all of this interaction with AI to bear in mind that you are speaking to a computer and software (that really helps in my losing my self consciousness in language speaking). To maintain the pretence I’m always very polite in my conversations with the AI and will usually finish with a thank you at the end, which is invariably returned, and this helps maintain the fiction. But it’s really important to remember that it is only a fiction. The computer cannot become your best friend.

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1. February 10, 2026
  
  JT
  
  ” I remember using CAD at work close on 35 years ago, and we were amazed how we could design and rearrange an office with a few clicks of the mouse”
  
  Long time engineer/AutoCAD user myself. That comment makes me laugh as I think about an engineer I once worked with that didn’t understand why some new equipment wasn’t fitting… I mean, he moved the steel I-Beam in CAD and it fit perfectly… LOL!!!
  
  Reply
February 7, 2026

John S.

I think for older sci-fi nerds like myself, the first thought that comes to mind when discussing AI is the fictional “original” AI, the HAL 9000 in the movie “2001 a Space Odessey”. It’s kind of scary how predictive that movie was, considering it was released in the late 1960’s.
I guess AI is like anything else. It depends on which humans are designing it and also wielding it. I don’t trust AI in the hands of our current Dear Leader Trump (or our “real” leader, Stephen Miller), nor in the hands of Putin’s nationalist Russia, Xi’s communist China, Iran’s theocratic Ayotollah or any other authoritarian regime. I also worry about how AI and religion is going to work. AI can be used to promote disinformation that looks “real”. I don’t mean to get all “Book of Revelation” on this topic, but the imagination can run wild with the possible benefits and atrocities unrestrained AI can produce.
On a more local level, the push to build data centers in rural areas, often against the wishes of local residents, is another by product of the profusion of AI.
I just think we need to proceed carefully. But I agree that it does produce some cool pictures.

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February 7, 2026

Ben Berwick

The author in me just cannot imagine turning to AI for anything other than spell-checking, and sometimes, not even then! As to art, I’ve tried to be more personal in what’s plastered on Meerkat Musings, hence a lot of hand-drawn stuff. I have generated pictures via AI in the past, and may do so again in the future, but I’m careful not to describe myself as an AI artist, because I don’t think such a job exists.

I tend to mingle with people on Twitter who draw by hand, be it via paper or digital means. They’re worried about being supplanted by AI, and I can sort of get that. Trouble is, commissioning someone to draw for me isn’t exactly affordable for me, so yeah, I’ve turned to AI from time to time. I’ll try to draw where I can though, even if it’s dubious!

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February 19, 2026

Troy

I like A.I. Maybe it needs to be clearly marked when it is used for audio and visual purposes. We’ve had A.I. as long as we’ve had computers. Even a bubble sort algorithm is an A.I. application. Not to mention all the cad programs, 3d graphics. I think what’s new is the manipulation of images as well as abstracting and summing of large information data chunks. Especially for pictures, I’m quite impressed. It’s a very neat-o tool to create something you’ve never seen before and in some cases deriving colored images from a black and white line drawing.

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