I've been struggling a lot with the ethical dilemma of using AI. The argument goes like this: AIs are unethical (well the true LLMs, the most efficient ones), because they were created by using stolen goods. So by using them I am complicit to a crime.

I've been looking to AI thought leaders for an answer to the question: Am I complicit? Most do not even ask it, the ones who do, don't tackle the issue head-on but just frame it differently.

My interim conclusions:
If my ethical priority is personal moral clarity, then non-use is more ethical.
If my goal is structural change, strategic use with resistance may be more effective.

I'm keeping this quote:

Ursula K. Le Guin: “We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable – but then, so did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art. Very often in our art, the art of words.”

while I keep working on this.