Last Thursday, I engaged in a conversation on X about the AI platform JOI AI. The dialogue began after I observed a former peer publicly bashing the company and their contract. This same individual holds a leadership role as an industry union representative — a position that carries the weight of responsibility, influence, and example.
With that said, I decided to take a leap and incorporate the information I had gathered over the eighteen months I had been working on my AI Trademark and researching the home where my AI Digital Duplicate would reside.
The criticism didn’t need to play out in public. She had privately messaged the company but, not receiving a response quickly enough, chose instead to initiate public shaming. This form of harsh communication doesn’t only target the company — it ripples outward, impacting every person behind the scenes, including the employees who work tirelessly at JOI AI.
In my many years in this industry, I’ve learned a painful truth: often, the loudest voices are the most reckless, speaking with no regard for the collateral damage their words inflict. This isn’t productive communication. It’s destructive. This creates panic, shares misinformation, and makes creators fearful in a space where they should have the right to make their own decisions.
Determined not to let this go unchecked, I set a timer on my phone — a boundary to keep my day intact. I engaged. Quickly, the bandwagon effect took hold. The bullying snowballed. One comment, in particular, struck like a knife.
Reading the comment below transported me back to the pain I endured for years in this business — the same pain that pushed some to addiction, even suicide, because of relentless harassment, public humiliation, and unchecked cruelty. It was triggering.
As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, a flippant response like this is unrelated to the topic of AI and is based on horrible accusations and hurtful words.
First, I would like to apologize to all and everyone who has been at the hands of abusers and or potentially a part of human trafficking. To all abuse survivors, this woman does not represent the industry, and her disturbing approach to communications was not productive or appropriate.
For this, I extend my empathy and sympathy to all those affected.
This was intentional; these are the same type of people from the industry who took pride in posting jokes about my sexual abuse, some of which landed in my books as a cautionary tale.
This is why the industry remains so dark, so self-destructive: because these voices — filled with hate, bitterness, and pain — are still the loudest.
The entire thread is on my X timeline HERE
I engaged thoughtfully, but when the dialogue became counterproductive, I tapped out before my timer even went off. Protecting my mental health from abuse, I am way too familiar with from my many years of dealing with these tyrants.
I haven’t seen these people in years. And my heart aches for them — still trapped in the same toxic patterns of hate that I walked away from long ago.
We must do better. We must communicate with kindness.