What are good examples of concrete acts of resistance against "AI"?
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What are good examples of concrete acts of resistance against "AI"? I am putting together an overview and am surely missing great stuff!
I have:
Data centre opposition (thx to @gerrymcgovern )
Examples of sabotage from @asrg
Some ideas about practical refusal from @danmcquillanAlso everyday acts are great (such as not following orders to use "AI") if they are documented somewhere, somehow. Most references tend to be rather vague (e.g. in this otherwise great article
https://restofworld.org/2026/techno-negative-thomas-dekeyser-fighting-ai/)@alineblankertz Ridicule, humour, memes against slop. Turning the culture against the delusional ideas being spread by the industry.
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What are good examples of concrete acts of resistance against "AI"? I am putting together an overview and am surely missing great stuff!
I have:
Data centre opposition (thx to @gerrymcgovern )
Examples of sabotage from @asrg
Some ideas about practical refusal from @danmcquillanAlso everyday acts are great (such as not following orders to use "AI") if they are documented somewhere, somehow. Most references tend to be rather vague (e.g. in this otherwise great article
https://restofworld.org/2026/techno-negative-thomas-dekeyser-fighting-ai/)@alineblankertz Baiting data crawlers to poison the large language models with noise and nonsense. I've heard about some tricks to make the crawlers load the same page over and over again - not sure how.
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What are good examples of concrete acts of resistance against "AI"? I am putting together an overview and am surely missing great stuff!
I have:
Data centre opposition (thx to @gerrymcgovern )
Examples of sabotage from @asrg
Some ideas about practical refusal from @danmcquillanAlso everyday acts are great (such as not following orders to use "AI") if they are documented somewhere, somehow. Most references tend to be rather vague (e.g. in this otherwise great article
https://restofworld.org/2026/techno-negative-thomas-dekeyser-fighting-ai/)@alineblankertz data poisoning (such as prompt attacks, Glaze & Nightshade), and resource thrashing (making it too expensive to run their LLMs).
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What are good examples of concrete acts of resistance against "AI"? I am putting together an overview and am surely missing great stuff!
I have:
Data centre opposition (thx to @gerrymcgovern )
Examples of sabotage from @asrg
Some ideas about practical refusal from @danmcquillanAlso everyday acts are great (such as not following orders to use "AI") if they are documented somewhere, somehow. Most references tend to be rather vague (e.g. in this otherwise great article
https://restofworld.org/2026/techno-negative-thomas-dekeyser-fighting-ai/)@alineblankertz@indieweb.social
I really liked @mntmn@mastodon.social 's suggestion to bring back the e-mail signatures highlighting the environmental impact of printing e-mails, only for "AI" instead. It's not much, but it's something. If I had the courage I'd use something like this at work:
Before using "AI" to summarize, respond to, or process this email or its attachments, please consider the environmental impact and the potential effects on your own cognitive abilities. "AI" consumes significant natural resources, and relying on it can diminish your own thinking skills.
CC: @gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green @asrg@tldr.nettime.org @danmcquillan@kolektiva.social
Edit: spelling
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@alineblankertz @gerrymcgovern @asrg @danmcquillan
I'm lowkey politically active. When I spot some government entity or office using AI illustration for brochures, handouts and the like, I call them out.
"Is that AI? Why did you use that? Are you aware of the implications regarding the environment? Isn't that against the policy of your department?"
I do this in a friendly way. Mostly, they admit they were in a hurry and didn't really think about it, since everyone is using AI, too.
@megaphon @alineblankertz @gerrymcgovern @asrg @danmcquillan Maybe they do not want to hire and pay artists to draw. Same happens with music. Very few people are interested in new artworks. Even less are willing to pay for them.
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What are good examples of concrete acts of resistance against "AI"? I am putting together an overview and am surely missing great stuff!
I have:
Data centre opposition (thx to @gerrymcgovern )
Examples of sabotage from @asrg
Some ideas about practical refusal from @danmcquillanAlso everyday acts are great (such as not following orders to use "AI") if they are documented somewhere, somehow. Most references tend to be rather vague (e.g. in this otherwise great article
https://restofworld.org/2026/techno-negative-thomas-dekeyser-fighting-ai/)In addition to what others have said, you can resist as a human being:
Reply with an AI;DR to emails or messages containing #AIslop.
Change your email signature to something along the lines of:
Using so-called "Artificial Intelligence" (AI) is a waste of energy and exacerbates climate change.
If you are short on time, there is no need to generate an reply to this. Raw bullet points are very acceptable. Stay human! -
I install this ublock list on every machine, it (among many things) removes ai results from search engines, which are often the entry door for people..
GitHub - laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist: A huge blocklist of manually curated sites that contain AI generated imagery for uBlock Origin & uBlacklist.
A huge blocklist of manually curated sites that contain AI generated imagery for uBlock Origin & uBlacklist. - laylavish/uBlockOrigin-HUGE-AI-Blocklist
GitHub (github.com)
An excellent list that sadly seems to become outdated (maintenance has stalled, for unknown reasons).
While waiting for an update, you might consider using this fork:
uBlockOrigin-AI-Blocklist
uBlockOrigin-AI-Blocklist - Fork and expansion of laylavish' AI blocklist on github. Manually curated blocklist for uBlock Origin and uBlacklist aiming to remove ai results from search engine results. Currently supports DDG, Bing, Google, Startpage and Brave.
Codeberg.org (codeberg.org)
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@alineblankertz @gerrymcgovern @asrg @danmcquillan
This movement @tunubesecamirio
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@megaphon @alineblankertz @gerrymcgovern @asrg @danmcquillan Maybe they do not want to hire and pay artists to draw. Same happens with music. Very few people are interested in new artworks. Even less are willing to pay for them.
I know :')
Since you're Potsdam based, I assume 1. you know some German and 2. you might therefore enjoy this AI, art and cake themed take:
https://mastodon.social/@megaphon/114714833613291050 -
What are good examples of concrete acts of resistance against "AI"? I am putting together an overview and am surely missing great stuff!
I have:
Data centre opposition (thx to @gerrymcgovern )
Examples of sabotage from @asrg
Some ideas about practical refusal from @danmcquillanAlso everyday acts are great (such as not following orders to use "AI") if they are documented somewhere, somehow. Most references tend to be rather vague (e.g. in this otherwise great article
https://restofworld.org/2026/techno-negative-thomas-dekeyser-fighting-ai/)@alineblankertz @gerrymcgovern @asrg @danmcquillan Learn a skill that they make “obsolete” (drawing, writing, coding, etc) and post about it, even if you dont think its all that good.
I’ve been learning to draw for the last year now
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I know :')
Since you're Potsdam based, I assume 1. you know some German and 2. you might therefore enjoy this AI, art and cake themed take:
https://mastodon.social/@megaphon/114714833613291050@megaphon @alineblankertz Ausgezeichnet!
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@alineblankertz @gerrymcgovern @asrg @danmcquillan Learn a skill that they make “obsolete” (drawing, writing, coding, etc) and post about it, even if you dont think its all that good.
I’ve been learning to draw for the last year now
@scavello @alineblankertz @gerrymcgovern @asrg @danmcquillan I do sewing alterations and repairs.
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What are good examples of concrete acts of resistance against "AI"? I am putting together an overview and am surely missing great stuff!
I have:
Data centre opposition (thx to @gerrymcgovern )
Examples of sabotage from @asrg
Some ideas about practical refusal from @danmcquillanAlso everyday acts are great (such as not following orders to use "AI") if they are documented somewhere, somehow. Most references tend to be rather vague (e.g. in this otherwise great article
https://restofworld.org/2026/techno-negative-thomas-dekeyser-fighting-ai/)@alineblankertz @gerrymcgovern @asrg @danmcquillan
AI is about as "cool" as a red MAGA hat.
Push that "uncool" AI image. because it is true and accurate and it hits. No one worth talking to is still MAGA. Anyone worth talking to, already hates them.
and educate. IRL and online, educate yourself, your friends, your co-workers,-- and, if you have kids, educate them, especially them.
Anti-AI talking points are not hard to find--use them.
Track, publicize and oppose new datacenters.
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What are good examples of concrete acts of resistance against "AI"? I am putting together an overview and am surely missing great stuff!
I have:
Data centre opposition (thx to @gerrymcgovern )
Examples of sabotage from @asrg
Some ideas about practical refusal from @danmcquillanAlso everyday acts are great (such as not following orders to use "AI") if they are documented somewhere, somehow. Most references tend to be rather vague (e.g. in this otherwise great article
https://restofworld.org/2026/techno-negative-thomas-dekeyser-fighting-ai/)@alineblankertz @gerrymcgovern @asrg @danmcquillan
The simplest act opposition against #Ai is to engage with politicians to lobby to #regulateAi
It's so effective, Thiel says it's an act of #Antichrist
Everything else is just window dressing.
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An excellent list that sadly seems to become outdated (maintenance has stalled, for unknown reasons).
While waiting for an update, you might consider using this fork:
uBlockOrigin-AI-Blocklist
uBlockOrigin-AI-Blocklist - Fork and expansion of laylavish' AI blocklist on github. Manually curated blocklist for uBlock Origin and uBlacklist aiming to remove ai results from search engine results. Currently supports DDG, Bing, Google, Startpage and Brave.
Codeberg.org (codeberg.org)
@penguinrebellion @hadokowa @alineblankertz @Aepasek Just added this to my Pi-Hole. Thanks.
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@alineblankertz @gerrymcgovern @asrg @danmcquillan
The simplest act opposition against #Ai is to engage with politicians to lobby to #regulateAi
It's so effective, Thiel says it's an act of #Antichrist
Everything else is just window dressing.
@n_dimension
I strongly disagree. Wanting to “regulate AI” is to legitimise the existence of “AI”. That is not what I understand as refusal or resistance. -
@n_dimension
I strongly disagree. Wanting to “regulate AI” is to legitimise the existence of “AI”. That is not what I understand as refusal or resistance.We legitimise the existence of carcinogenic cigarettes
We legitimise the existence of militaries
We legitimise the existence of usurious "banking" system that literally destroys lives
We legitimise the existence of industry that destroys earth life support systems
We legitimise the existence of an economic system based in exploitation of the workers
I could go on forever...
The alternative to prohibition is regulation.
And if for some freaky reason, #Ai dissapears, the only people who will have access to Ai will be billionaires and thats not the future you think you want.The #AiBubble, if it happens will just mean consolidation of the industry into fewer hands.
Unlike most of the Luddites who are just going through their first #AiAnxiety, I've had 35 years to think about AI and humanity, #RegulateAi is the only rational way to mitigate the #Airisks
That's not just my opinion, it's what the international peak science and political class thinks (Bletchely and Seoul agreements)