I have a coworker that does the same. His logic was sound -- when something is heavily subsidized, abuse it.
Considering that hyperscalers are effectively funded by hype, you can also make the argument that by using AI you are helping their business by adding one to their active user number and making their business look ever so slightly better to investors.
Not to say your original argument is wrong. Just want to point out that the economics of AI is a mysterious mess.
Given enormous competition and good progress on the part of the Chinese and open models, I'd say let's enjoy the situation while it lasts. It's like chap Uber drives a decade ago subsidized by Saudi money. I have no sympathy neither for sama/amodei nor people who invest in their companies, and happy to use their resources in this crazy show where everybody pretends something and pushes their own agenda.
Such is the tragedy of the world. Everyone claims they have strong morals, then shed them whenever convenient and no one is looking.
You can't say you "go out of your way" to avoid something and then you do the literal opposite, not even with a little bit of humility or moderation, but, in fact, going out of your way to using it as much as humanly possible.
I'm not even sure what is the point of your comment than just demonstrating your hypocrisy and lack of self-awareness.
Then, knowing how the sausage is made, this person refuses to spend that paycheck on more AI-generated content. They are sabotaging their employer, forcing reconsideration of AI-first culture, and then refusing to re-integrate that cash into an AI-obsessed economy. It's a lot more of a principled position than just "I like AI" or "I want to see AI fail" that we hear from most sidelines pundits.
Their employment is corollary to telling this story, it's not any kind of subtle brag.
It is worsened by the fact she, too, now, has been unemployed.
The status-quo is awful. Leeches in C-suite doing everything they can to squeeze pennies from the people, leveraging their capital to in turn abuse those in other countries.
The world needs to come together and cap how much value can be retained without reinvesting it back into the lifeblood of society.
(saying that as a Ukrainian who observes the same vibe-coding-at-job mess)
We live in the time of Uber Eats letting you pay 50 cents to hire a limousine that will deliver a burrito to your stoop.
Not sure if we can confidently say that unless the first of these companies goes public.