I Use AI Every Day — Here’s How I’m Making It More Ethical, Not Just Easier

This image was created using AI.

In the interest of keeping my water use low, I’m not doing the dishes, saving my pasta water, and accepting that Dall-e gave me two stoves instead of one.

As a new mom balancing work with baby naps, AI has helped me reclaim hours in my day — but not without asking tough questions about its environmental impact. Here’s what I’ve learned, and what I’m doing differently.

I’m no Taylor Swift, but I still want to reduce my energy consumption.

I recently suggested to a friend that she might save time by using GPT in her personal life — maybe for writing or project planning. Her response wasn’t judgmental, but it was clear: “I’ll probably never use it,” she said. No reason given. Just not for her.

And honestly? That’s totally fine with me. But because I’m living a reality that does require its use — working part-time, raising a newborn, and supporting creative strategy at 316 Strategy Group — I want to make sure I’m acting with good intent. So when I saw concerns online about how much water a single AI session uses, I paused. I had to ask myself:

Is this tool helping me work smarter… or just outsourcing responsibility?

The answer wasn’t simple, but it was clarifying.

It takes 6x more water to diaper a baby than I’ve used through AI.

Since I started using GPT primarily to edit copy, build SOPs, and streamline decision-making, I’ve likely consumed the equivalent of 10 bathtubs of water — about 1,650 liters — through indirect data center cooling. That’s a lot. But perspective matters. For example:

A baby in diapers for one year uses over 9,000 liters of water, factoring in manufacturing, transport, and waste.

That’s about 6x the water of my AI use in the same time.

As a new mom, I’m already puzzling through the environmental impact of basic needs — cloth vs. disposable, plastic-free vs. sleep-deprived convenience. I didn’t grow up wealthy. I was a latchkey kid — my parents worked late, and Totino’s 25-cent pizzas were a staple after-school snack.

I’ve always been interested in finding ways to work smarter, not harder. And that’s exactly what AI helps me do.

🧠 Working Smarter Looks Like This

This morning, I edited four campaigns, built two client playbooks, and repurposed brand messaging — all in three hours. I saved myself four more hours of work, which I used to nap, make dinner, and play with my baby. Time I wouldn’t have had otherwise. That’s not trivial. That’s the dream.

But I still want to use these tools responsibly. So I asked GPT how to reduce my own footprint while keeping my workflow sharp. Here’s what I learned:

• Batch your sessions to reduce frequency

• Set shorter output limits to cut down compute needs

• Repurpose high-value content instead of reinventing it

• Ask better questions upfront to reduce revisions

Using AI LLMs hasn’t made me less human. It’s helped me show up more fully in the parts of my life that matter most.

I’m not trying to do less of what I love — I’m learning how to do it better, with more care for the world around me.

And for those of us navigating motherhood, creativity, and meaning-making inside late-stage capitalism, that’s a radical, hopeful act.

P.S. I dictated this article to my phone. — look ma, no hands!