The Yamas and Niyamas in relation to AI

My response to the AI trend of generating a cartoon version of yourself (except mine is hand-drawn and painted)

As a yoga teacher, I can’t justify the use of Artificial Intelligence in my work. And I am very concerned about seeing it used more and more, in every day situations, unnecessarily.

The Yamas and Niyamas are part of the Eight Limbs of Yoga, and are a code by which you can choose to live. I feel that AI goes against each of them in some way. Of course, this is my interpretation and you may feel differently.

However, in order to live authentically, I choose not to use AI in my work. All my teaching plans and readings are the result of my own study and decision making. None of the images used in my books or advertising has been artificially generated and neither have any of the words. It’s all me in all my imperfection.

I can’t hope to encompass everything in one blog post, so it’s going to come across as a load of bullet points. It is scrappy, unpolished and probably not particularly balanced. I hope it at least gets you thinking for yourself.

The Yamas

Ahimsa (non-harming or non-violence in thought, word and deed)

AI is bad for the environment. Data centres use enormous amounts of energy and water, and pollute local areas. Why is ai bad for the environment? – The Institute for Environmental Research and Education

AI has been used to generate harmful images of children and adults without their consent. Grok controversy: Everything you need to know about X's sexual AI image scandal | Science, Climate & Tech News | Sky News

Satya (truthfulness)

Generating articles, stories or images using AI is not true creativity, even if the prompts were all your idea. AI regurgitates others’ creativity and adds nothing new to the human experience.

Information given by AI is not necessarily true. It works by scraping together sentences and presenting them to you as truth. If you point out any falsehoods, it grovels. This blog post made me smile and also think about how we should never abandon our critical thinking skills.

How I Broke ChatGPT… - by Chip Colquhoun - Storyteller Chip

Asteya (non-stealing)

AI was trained on the work of artists and writers without asking for consent or offering payment. Tech companies are profiting from the work of millions of actual creative people. This is theft and there is a lot of anger about it in creative communities. How AI is Trained Using Our Books - Shelley Wilson Writing Mentor

Brahmacharya (right use of energy)

Learning, studying, working, creating – this is how we grow and evolve, through the difficulty. It’s like a butterfly needing the struggle to get the fluid pumped into its wings.

Generating a cartoon using AI is not true creativity. Presenting generated text as your own output is not work that you can be proud of. It’s mindlessly being spoonfed information and accepting it as correct.

Aparigraha (non-greed or non-hoarding)

People using AI for personal gain, claiming that they have created something. 'Writers' claiming that they have 'written' and published books using AI.

Tech companies building bigger data centres, taking water from local communities and generating more harmful emissions.

Saucha (cleanliness)

AI is harmful to environment as data centres require huge amounts of water to keep the servers cooled, and generate emissions.

Saucha also relates to what you consume, physically and mentally. Do you have control over the information you are being fed? Are you being influenced by the information you are consuming?

Santosha (contentment)

Why do you want to gain more?

If you need AI to write a novel, maybe don't write a novel (it's not you writing it anyway).

Why not be content with your own creativity and critical thinking skills? If we delegate all our decision-making to technology, we will lose what we have. Studies have shown that there’s an increase in the risk of developing dementia later in life if we don’t keep ourselves mentally active. [2506.08872] Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task

Tapas (discipline, austerity or ‘burning enthusiasm)

There is no discipline in using AI to do tasks for you. There is none of the work, overcoming obstacles, feeling satisfaction, learning and growing if we just simply accept the information that is fed to us.

Svadhyaya (study of the self and of the texts)

AI nullifies the need to study, you can ask it to feed you a summary of what you need to know. But there’s no questioning, no fact-checking, people are accepting what they read as true. We need to question the information we are fed, and notice any biases. Here's a useful explanation about AI bias. What Is AI Bias? | IBM

Isvara Pranidhana (surrender to a higher being, or contemplation of a higher power)

People are surrendering to AI and treating it as unquestionable truth. The number of times I hear someone say ‘I asked Chat GPT’ is disheartening. Why not have faith in your own intuition, your ability to find things out, your own organic, brilliant brain?

We are all part of a wonderful universe, we should honour and celebrate what we have.