Art & Impact

Some of the designs by our founder, Jaymi, incorporate AI art. When she does use it, it’s just one part of a much larger creative process that includes digital illustration, hand-editing, and a whole lot of squinting at pixels while sipping bird-friendly coffee.

And we’re not using AI to crank out soulless junk. We’re using it to sketch bold ideas, test new visual styles, and stretch creative boundaries—all while still being fully involved at every stage.

Here’s a not-so-secret secret: getting usable art from AI isn’t just about typing “pretty bird” and pressing enter. It’s about understanding how to craft complex, layered prompts to communicate a specific vision. It’s creative thinking. It’s communication. It’s wrangling chaos.

And even then? What comes out is just a starting point.

That’s where the actual work begins. Using tools like Procreate, Affinity Design, Photoshop and Lightroom, every piece Jaymi creates is edited, rebuilt, reimagined until it’s a finished piece of original work. AI isn’t doing the heavy lifting. It’s handing us a messy ball of clay. We sculpt it into something cool.

Let’s rip the bandage off: yes, most big AI models were trained using internet-scraped data that likely included copyrighted material—art, photos, writing, and more.

That includes Jaymi’s own work. Her 15+ years of photos as a wildlife conservation photographer? Scraped and in the soup. Her articles from 20+ years of blogging? Stirred right in.

So no, we’re not naive about this.

We have a couple choices:

1. Opt out entirely from increasingly ubiquitous tools, which would mean limiting our ability to innovate or explore other sides of creativity.
2. Use the tools—flawed as they are—responsibly to create work that supports real humans and real birds.

We picked door #2.

We don’t use AI to mimic styles or steal from other artists. We use it as a creative prompt engine, not an art factory.

In fact, the model for this business as a whole was shaped by the fact that AI art impacts the income of artists. Read on for how we built a win-win solution into our plan.

Let’s talk about the carbon footprint of AI-generated art—because yep, we care. We’re not just out here tossing pixels into the void without thinking about the planet.

Image generation is indeed one of the more energy-hungry AI tasks. According to a study by researcher Alexandra Sasha Luccioni and team, generating 1,000 images using a powerful model like Stable Diffusion XL currently pumps out about the same amount of CO₂ as driving 4.1 miles in your average gas-powered car.

But here’s the thing:

We keep about 85% of all the images we generate and use them as raw material, only leaving behind those that went waaaaaay haywire with the prompts. That makes it really easy to track our energy use around AI image generation.

We’ve generated fewer than 1,000 images total in our first 14 months.

Yep—total.

Not bad for over a year of creative experimentation.

And, because we take environmental footprint quite seriously, we've committed to capping our AI image use to 1,000 images per year.

For comparison’s sake, the next time you drive 4.1 miles to your favorite birding patch? Yep—you’ve just matched the carbon footprint of all the AI images we'll generate in any one year.

In other words, we’re using this tool mindfully, and in a way that aligns with our values—not just slamming the “generate” button like it’s an arcade game from hell.

Sure, we could rage-quit all tech forever and go live in the woods. (Honestly, that’s tempting… seriously tempting.)

But instead, we’re leaning in to curiosity and moderation for maximum positive impact. AI isn’t doing the work for us. It’s just one tool in our kit—alongside Procreate, Affinity, Photoshop, and strong coffee.

We use it to explore wild ideas, test visual directions, and build artwork that’s human-led from start to finish.

Every time we use it, we ask: does this add something useful? Does it push the idea further? Does it help us explore creative concepts we couldn’t otherwise afford to test?

We don’t flood the internet with generic designs. We don’t treat it as a shortcut. And we definitely don’t replace people with it.

In fact, we’re using Jaymi’s art to fund this site as a free platform to help human artists earn more income with their work AND help birds, too. Read the next section to find out how.

Every product on our site is either:

• Designed by Jaymi, with 80% of shop profits from those products keeping the lights on at Better With Birds.

• Designed by a hosted artist, with 80% of shop profits from those products going straight to the artist. We keep ZERO dollars from their product sales. We also pay for all overhead and do all the admin work. The artist simply provides the designs they’re excited to sell, and checks their PayPal for a commission payment every quarter.

No matter who designed a product, 20% of the profits from EVERY sale go straight to bird conservation and inclusive birding projects.

Thanks to our customers, we were able to donate over $1,000 to Birdability and Institute for Bird Populations within the first year of opening shop. We can’t wait to send more dollars flying off to awesome nonprofits.

We didn’t invent the system. But we are trying to use it differently—to build something better for creatives, for conservation, and most importantly, for the birds.

• We use AI as one of our creative tools, not a replacement for artists. Indeed it helps us fund a platform specifically for artists to earn more income with their work.
• Crafting prompts is an art in itself—and the results require a ton of software skillz to turn into finished designs.
• Our energy use? Tracked, measured, and minimal. Since our very first image prompt in early 2024, our AI image generation energy use has a carbon footprint equivalent to driving fewer than 5 miles in an average gas-powered car. Basically, our AI use has created less carbon emissions than driving one round-trip to a local birding patch.
• Every piece we make is human-led, human-edited, and filled with intention.
• We pay our artists generously (keep $0 of the profits from their shop sales), funnel 20% of all shop profits to bird conservation & inclusive birding efforts, and run this whole operation on transparency and bird nerdery.
• We didn’t make this system—but we’re hacking it to do the most good we can.

If that still doesn’t sit right with you, we totally respect it. No shade whatsoever. But if you want to be part of a future where art, tech, and activism can actually coexist in a way that benefits people and the planet?

You’re our kind of bird nerd.

Let’s fly awkwardly into that weird, hopeful future together.