Should Vegans Use AI?
in this nonfiction post I’ll be making the case against the use of generative AI, from an intersectional vegan perspective.
Introduction
With the sudden spike of AI popularity, and its promotion online; discourse across the internet has been ongoing about the ethics of its various uses. The most prominent discussions have probably come from artistic circles, and more recently there have been concerns about the environmental impact of subsequent data centres, which are of course necessary for AI demand and development.
Within veganism we place an emphasis on the responsibility of the individual, this involves boycotting animal products. Inherent within veganism is the necessity to lessen suffering for all living beings. This is why we advocate for incremental changes to our society and food systems, such as; banning live export, making the breeding of cats and dogs illegal, requiring cruelty free practices instead of animal testing for things like makeup and skincare products, updating slaughterhouse practices to ban gas chambers. Although such changes do not usher in veganism, it does make the current situation for non-human animals a little less horrific.
Veganism is not just a diet though. Veganism is an intersectional philosophy, which at its core seeks to de-commodify animals. Within our movement, and as individuals, we are constantly discussing and debating new subjects, and what actions we should be taking. This is why you’ll often meet vegans who do targeted boycotts of other products as well; American goods (during Trump’s presidency), products from Israeli companies (during Netenyahu’s genocide), and products coming out of Russia (during Putin’s wars of aggression). Many vegans intimately understand the power of supply and demand, and will be highly selective with our purchasing power. Many of us even opt to buy most items second-hand, refurbished, or from thrift stores; rather than contributing to consumerist culture, as well as the profits and unsavoury practices of most corporations.
So how does this apply to AI? Well lately I’ve been noticing an increased use of AI image and video generation within vegan communities. We are now starting to see what has already been happening in so many other circles online. Some activist groups, content creators, individuals, businesses, and charities, are starting to make use of AI generated content as a part of their animal advocacy, event promotion, product marketing, etc. This is a worrying trend to me, and I fear that it is contributing to the dehumanisation of animals.
A key driver for most people who eventually become vegan, is a deep care for these beautiful individuals who are so often derogatorily referred to as “farm animals” or “livestock”. Pigs, cows, chickens, fish; are morally no different from the animals that we choose to care for as pets, for conservation, or protect from horse racing, poachers, etc. Pretty much every single animal has some level of sentience, intelligence, a unique personality, a nervous system, and the ability to suffer and feel pain. We know this from our beloved pets, or from spending time with animals at a sanctuary, we can even learn it from problematic places like zoos or farms. But at the end of the day, none of that experience is necessary when science also tells us the same thing.
This same concern and care (as well as activism) that vegans have towards animals, of course extends to humans (we are animals too after all). Many of us are outcasts ourselves, or members of minority or working class groups. We fight for the rights of the LQBTQIA+ community, neurodivergent individuals, those with disabilities, as well as for the rights of; immigrants, refugees, and indigenous peoples.
Vegans take part in news and politics, and are concerned about the ongoings of many things across the world and locally. But perhaps, just like any other individual, we may not be fully informed on certain subjects. I hope that this is the case with AI. There are of course members of the vegan community who are there for the wrong reasons (things like health, rather than for the animals), as well as those who have fallen down internet rabbit holes of misinformation. Trust me when I tell you that we argue with these people within our community constantly, and distance ourselves from them if they become toxic. But we’ve hardly even spoken about this new topic of AI yet.
AI of course has its beneficial uses, admittedly I’m not well versed enough to fully articulate them. But I can imagine its benefits as a timesaving tool, when used by an expert, and only within their own field; where the AI can essentially be utilised and supervised by an individual or a group, who are experienced in their area of application.
But what we see online is the mass deployment of AI as a “feature”, or a tool for the public to use for whatever we like. It has quickly become overused by individuals, out of convenience. Personal chatbots, which feed you a false sense of emotional attachment, video and image generation for the purposes of spam or creating a misleading narrative. People will even use “ChatGPT” as their personal assistant, assuming that everything it regurgitates is fact-checked and true. If you are internet literate then you are likely aware that finding facts online is not as simple as “googling” them. AI tools are no different. The top few results on Google are often paid to be there, and the next few are likely from places like “Reddit” or “Quora”, which are opinionated online forums, filled with questions and answers; often from anonymous users or bots. Several AI tools are even trained with information from such websites: OpenAI (ChatGPT), Gemini (Google’s AI).
Artists Don’t Like AI
The artist’s argument against generative AI is a widely understood one. Artists and creatives fear that their professions are being replicated and replaced at an industrial scale. They also fear that their art is being used to train generative AI models without the consent of the artist. It is true that some companies who employ or contract digital artists, animators or even photographers; are now starting to make use of AI tools instead, and this is a cause for concern. I’m sure you’ve come across a car advertisement or gambling ad, and not even realised that it was heavily AI generated. I’ve even seen examples of generative AI at the supermarket, and on the packaging of some vegan products. It is also an ongoing issue that these tech companies are so desperate to have such unrestricted, and copyright free access to creative media online, to train their generative AI with. Here are some references: Federal government rules out changing copyright law, AI startup Anthropic agrees to pay $1.5bn to settle book piracy lawsuit, AI Copyright Lawsuit Developments in 2025.
On the individual level though, people are generating memes, ideas, and promotional material for their own causes or small businesses. Many such images or videos are essentially for their own personal use, and these individuals were highly unlikely to ever pay an artist for such things anyway. But as someone who dabbles in digital art, I personally think these AI generated images and videos look like otherworldly, unnatural trash, and spam. But I can only really judge the individual’s personal tastes, and motives when it comes to such usage; perhaps also the outcomes too, if other people consuming the media are led astray by it.
AI’s Environmental Impact
What about the environmental impact? Now this is an interesting argument to me, especially because veganism has close ties with environmental activism and climate change advocacy. The water consumption of data centres has been a trending subject online, but as a vegan I was immediately skeptical of the severity. In terms of water usage, it takes a lot to shock me. Animal agriculture (meat and dairy) and the crops required to feed those animals, in order to then feed us; consumes around 30-40% of our planet’s total annual water consumption. Which adds up to roughly 1.3-1.7 trillion cubic metres of unnecessary water consumption per year. References: Water Use and Stress, Land Use Diets.
Whereas if we look at the water consumption of data centres, it is actually extremely high, but it barely even scratches the issue of what we eat. Current data centres globally consume around 4.5 billion cubic metres of water per year, which is predicted to double to over 9 billion by 2030. References: AI to double data centre power and water consumption by 2030, Data Centers and Water Consumption. This rate of growth is obviously staggering, and there is already a huge cause for concern when it comes to the water usage of data centres within the municipalities in which they are built. But I just wish people knew how much worse it is to eat meat and dairy, because there is an obscene difference between a billion and a trillion.
So let’s move onto the other environmental arguments against AI: land usage, and energy consumption. Land usage is also a well understood issue within veganism, because close to half of the world’s habitable land is being used for animal agriculture: https://ourworldindata.org/global-land-for-agriculture.
Something that I did not know though, is how big data centres actually are. Larger hyperscale facilities can be well over 100,000 square metres. That’s pretty huge, and these buildings are consuming roughly 100,000 households worth of electricity. This means that the electricity prices are skyrocketing in some of the towns where they are being built. It also means that these data centres are needing to draw on the power of more and more sources. So at a time where we should be desperately trying to become 100% renewable, these electric monstrosities are being built, and needing to draw upon fossil fuels, as well as greener energies. References: Energy supply for AI, Report warns AI data centre boom threatens Australia’s energy transition, What we know about energy use at U.S. data centers amid the AI boom.
So I think it’s pretty clear by now that AI, and the subsequent data centres are contributing to negative impacts on the environment; through water consumption, land usage, and a reliance on fossil fuels. They aren’t even close to being as bad for the environment as the meat or dairy industries, but the electricity consumption of data centres is of particular concern. But I recently learned of another potential negative environmental impact; you know how your laptop or your phone heats up when you use it a lot? Now imagine a giant building, essentially full of thousands of computers that are running 24/7. This is why so much water is required to cool the facility down, and this is also why a new report is saying that the temperature surrounding larger data centres is increasing by around 2 degrees celsius, at a radius of up to 10km. Scientists have found an alarming environmental impact of vast data centers. While reports like this one are still in their infancy, it is still important that we keep an eye on every possible environmental impact, and listen to residents who are living in the towns where these data centres are being built. Also something to be mindful of, particularly as we get more information on the ground, is the noise and light pollution of such centres, and how that could potentially impact the natural wildlife around some data centres.
I want to stress that just because the water usage and land usage of data centres are a lot lower than that of the global animal agriculture industry, it doesn’t mean that it should be ignored by vegans. Any little bit of difference that we can make with our choices is impactful, this is why we continue to do things like: recycling, picking up litter, or even sometimes choosing another mode of transportation instead of driving; although there are much bigger industrial polluters than us at an individual level. This individual impact is important to note when AI image generation is many multiplications more energy intensive than simple text generation; and then AI video generation consumes vastly more energy than that.
I think the novelty of AI is something that hopefully will not last. Its current wide public availability will surely become too costly for tech companies to continue, at least not without applying advertising to the models, or subscription services. But I think it is upon us to now consider the impact of these seemingly simple tools. Everything on the internet comes with an energy cost; AI technology, and its associated data centres, are a new and increasingly heavy burden upon the Earth, as well as potentially the wildlife within surrounding areas. Not to mention the invasive training on information and art that many of these AI models require.
Generative AI within Animal Advocacy
My final argument against AI is focused on animal advocacy.
In vegan communities we often talk about the dairy industry, meat industry, and fast food chains who create this promotional image of animal products, which attempts to take us away from the reality of where these products originally come from.
“A thick, juicy, sizzling slice of rasher bacon, on a flame grilled whopper with cheese” (I wrote that from fucking memory by the way). This is a pig, a creature more intelligent than a dog; who was kept in a cage its whole, short life - before either having its throat slit, a bolt to the head, or put in a gas chamber. That is a cow, a sentient animal that loves to run around and play, and its fate is just as bad as the pig’s. But cows get the dairy industry as well. They only produce milk when they’ve given birth. They are in a constant state of forcibly induced pregnancy, and having their baby taken away, all while being sucked dry by a dirty machine until they are “spent” and sent to slaughter… That is a burger.
AI generated images or videos of animals, once again takes animals out of the picture. It replaces them with this false fucking disgusting replicant of what a machine considers a pig to be. It undermines the human messaging and care that usually follows a vegan’s advocacy. So vegans, I implore you; please reconsider your use of generative AI. Not just for images or videos of animals; but for event posters, marketing, and products as well. When it comes to advocacy, we need to think about text too. We constantly speak about effective advocacy, and the robotic language of ChatGPT misses that essential, empathetic human element that comes with animal advocacy.
I’m telling you that many of us who are more internet savvy, recognise AI online a lot quicker than others might. It doesn’t look good to a lot of people, it’s off-putting, and it doesn’t represent anything positive. Local online vegan groups are a great alternative if you lack the resources; ask sanctuaries if you can use photos of their animals instead, or local vegans for pictures of their rescued pets. If you don’t know how to create a graphic for an event, then ask for help in a vegan group. If you’re a vegan business; take photos of your own products, or once again ask within a vegan group for a photographer’s help. We’re a community that thrives on mutual support, especially locally; where we’re all looking for more vegan friends, as well as more options for vegan products.
Conclusion and Disclaimers
So, should vegans use AI? I think there are potential benefits to AI when used by professionals within their fields of research. But I believe that specifically generative AI goes against the intersectional ethics of veganism.
Thank you for reading this far. I didn’t expect this article to become so long, but I hope it gave a few people something to consider when it comes to AI. I want to add a disclaimer that I am no expert on these subjects, I still have a hell of a lot to learn about AI, as do we all. I do know a fair bit about ethical veganism, being a vegan of almost 10 years, and debating subjects of ethics for more than a decade. I am also quite familiar with general internet culture subjects.
Please also let me know if any of my cited information on data centre environmental impacts were misinterpreted. I spent a lot of time transferring measurements into different units to make them more readable and understandable, so it is possible that I missed something. I also didn’t even touch the numbers of electrical output, because I honestly don’t know how to read those units.
Vegans, I love you all, even if you have used generative AI. Tech bro AI advocates, I don’t care for you so much. Peace and love.