Generative AI models like ChatGPT or Gemini have taken the world by a storm over the past three years, with ethical considerations often ignored in the name of progress. Proponents hope that generative AI may play a role in solving many of the world's problems, but we think you should pause before giving your full support.

While it may seem like a digital, automated revolution, in reality "roughly 80% of the time spent on training AI consists of annotating datasets", a job done mostly by underpaid workers in third world countries. OpenAI reportedly paid Kenyan workers less than $2/hour to read text related to sexual abuse, hate speech and violence while developing tools to detect toxic content.

Beyond human rights, the massive energy and water requirements to train and power generative AI are driving carbon emissions goals backwards, with new gas-fired power plants opening to meet demand, and global energy demand expected to double in the five years to 2030 due to AI.

Want to reduce your impacts?

• Reduce your use of AI for 'recreational' purposes
• Prefer AI models that are transparent about their environmental impact, like French-based Mistral AI 

Should AI models be allowed to train on copyrighted material? This is a question which has been debated in court in a few recent high-profile cases such as Bartz v Anthropic and Kadrey vs Meta. The upshot is that much of AI development to date has been classed as 'highly transformative' and thereby covered by Fair Use provisions.

For Copyright holders, and any creative professionals, this may be deeply worrying, knowing that their works can be ingested by AI, summarised to users, and new works generated by AI in ways based on their own. Users can even generate artworks "in the style of" their favourite artists or writing "in the voice of" their favourite authors - a trend which may displace an increasing number of jobs.  

What can you do? Support real human artists, authors and other creatives by buying art, music, books, etc., rather than relying on AI. 

KnowTheChain seeks to encourage companies to make more transparent and fair supply chains. Companies are rated on almost 40 metrics, from transparency and traceability to purchasing practices, numbers of grievances raised by employees, and actions taken.

Their latest report, the 2026 Food and Beverage Benchmark, identified many key failings across the industry, and in that context KnowTheChain hopes to promote a competitive landscape where companies feel a need to 'race to the top' on supply chain practices. Companies scored an average of only 15 out of 100 on addressing forced labour in supply chains, and investigations into Brazilian coffee plantations showed indications of forced labour in every interview conducted.

At the top of the list, Woolworths and Coles were the only companies that scored (just) above 50%. Even as "leaders", they had much to improve on, such as declaring what percentage of workers are paid a living wage, and integrating responsible buying practices into contracts with suppliers.