How and When We Use AI at Badgerton

Dear friends,

AI is changing the world.

Some of these changes are wonderful, and some are downright terrifying.

At Badgerton, Jacob and I have thought, and continue to think, deeply about what role, if any, AI should have in our work as we restore our land, build our homestead, and eventually start our small business.

On one hand, AI allows citizen scientists and hobby ecologists like us to access scientific knowledge and tools in new and exciting ways. With the help of AI, we can now do many things with data and coding that we previously simply could not do because we lacked the necessary technical knowledge. AI allows us to bring our data to life, uncover important learnings, and share them in engaging and interactive experiences. Paired with our passion and backgrounds in experiential storytelling, it has the potential to significantly boost our ability to change hearts and minds and advance the important ecological work we are committed to.

As small-business owners and content creators, AI can also help with tasks we have limited expertise in, such as copyediting, image editing, and coding — allowing us to keep things fast and lean, especially in the early years before we open our doors, while our brand, operations, and networks are still developing.

But there are real ethical and ecological concerns that we must face. The concerns include job loss, the theft of intellectual property, strains on energy resources, and — especially relevant in our part of Wisconsin — construction of massive data centers that affect wildlife habitat, the water in our aquifers, and energy costs for us and millions of our neighbors.

Ultimately, after much debate and many late-night talks, we have concluded that neither uncritical adoption nor complete disengagement are the right paths for us. Individual choices alone cannot resolve the systemic problems surrounding AI, but that does not relieve us of the responsibility to use these tools carefully and intentionally.

So, we have drafted our own principles that guide how we personally use AI and how we won't use it.

Our Guiding Principles

When using AI, we try to keep these key questions top of mind:

• Am I producing something that makes the world (or me) better?
• Is AI the right tool for this job and situation?
• Am I taking paid work away from a writer or artist, a neighbor or friend?
• Am I robbing myself of a learning opportunity?
• Am I depriving myself of an opportunity to engage with my community or seek advice from real-life experts?
• Have I independently verified information provided by AI before publishing or making important decisions based on it?
• Instead of using AI to perform the same task repeatedly, could I use it once to create a locally run tool I (or others) could use to reduce our future reliance on AI?

What we will not use AI for

• We will never knowingly use AI-generated art or images to promote our business.
• We will not use AI to write articles for us.
• We will avoid using generative AI to process large batches of data or will exercise extreme caution when doing so, because it can introduce fabricated or inaccurate information. We may, however, use AI to help write a script or build a tool for processing data programmatically.
• We will avoid using cloud-based generative AI for low-value tasks.

How we may use AI

• Identifying plants and animals: iNaturalist, Merlin Bird ID
• Processing wildlife monitoring station data: BirdNET Analyzer
• Limited writing assistance, such as copyediting, ideation, and preliminary research for select topics, with independent fact-checking: ChatGPT
• Image editing that does not meaningfully change the subject or truth of an image, such as tools that remove distracting people or objects from the background, sharpen an image, or extend its edges to fit a different aspect ratio: iOS, Adobe Photoshop
• Prototyping, coding, and basic website construction, especially for citizen-science tools: Claude Code

This is our position today. However, we expect our thinking to evolve over time. We consider this a living document and will update it as our practices and perspectives change.

Questions and thoughtful conversations are welcome. Feel free to reach out to us at [email protected].