Piggy Pop uses a mix of digital tools — including AI — thoughtfully and responsibly. It’s part of nearly every creative process now, from your phone’s camera to Google search itself. Our focus is always on creativity, ethics, and supporting real artists whenever possible. 💛
My Perspective on AI Art, Ethics, and Impact
For nearly 30 years, guinea pigs have been more than a hobby to me — they’ve been my purpose, my work, and my joy. Over those decades, I’ve photographed, designed, built, rescued, written, and shared more guinea pig content than probably anyone on the planet. From Cagetopia to Guinea Pig Market, from rescue photos to educational resources, my work has shaped what the world sees when it looks up “guinea pigs.”
So when I hear people say that “AI art steals from artists,” I see it through a different lens — one built from experience.
Because here’s the truth: much of what today’s AI systems have been trained on already includes my own work. I’ve poured thousands of images into the digital world in many places over three decades. I’ve even seen an AI image that I’m almost certain was influenced by an old photo from my own forum.
So, in a way, when I use AI-assisted tools, I’m building on the visual ecosystem that I helped create.
Why I Use Digital Tools
Let’s be honest — guinea pig art has always been scarce.
Over the years, I’ve gone to countless art fairs and exhibitions, stopped at every booth, asked the same question:
“Do you have anything with guinea pigs?”
Every time, the answer was the same: “No, sorry.”
Rabbits? Sure. Cats, cows, hedgehogs, raccoons? Everywhere.
But guinea pigs? Practically invisible.
That void is part of what inspired PiggyPop. I want to make the joyful, funny, beautiful spirit of guinea pigs visible and celebrated in art.
To do that, I use modern creative tools — AI, Photoshop, Canva, Procreate, and other digital platforms — to explore color, composition, and style. They’re tools, not shortcuts. Every image is refined, corrected, and finished by hand. Every piece begins with intent and ends with care.
🧠 About “Stealing” and Real Exploitation
I understand why people get uneasy about AI. But if we’re going to talk about creative theft — I know that story personally.
I invented the C&C cage design for guinea pigs — the one that transformed small pet housing worldwide. And over the years, I’ve watched others replicate, commercialize, and profit from that innovation without credit or compensation.
That’s real exploitation.
That’s millions of dollars in lost revenue.
So yes, I understand creative ethics. But let’s not pretend that AI image tools are the only place where ideas get borrowed, copied, or commercialized.
⚡ The Environmental Impact (and Why It’s Not So Simple)
People often say AI harms the environment. It can — but so can everything else we use online.
Here’s what the numbers actually show:
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Data centers (which power everything digital — search engines, email, Netflix, e-commerce, and yes, AI) currently use about 1.5% of global electricity. That’s projected to double by 2030, mostly because of rising demand for all online activity — not just AI. (IEA, 2024)
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A Google search uses about 0.3 watt-hours (Wh) of energy — roughly equal to watching a few seconds of TV.
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A text-based AI query (like a Gmail summary or chatbot answer) uses about 0.24 Wh, or 0.03 grams of CO₂ — about the same. (Google Cloud, 2024)
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Image generation uses more energy per request — sometimes 10–50× more — because it requires heavier GPU processing. But that’s still a tiny fraction of overall global digital use, and the infrastructure (data centers, cooling systems, renewables) is shared across millions of other applications.
And here’s the bigger truth:
Every photo auto-enhanced by your phone, every email suggested by Gmail, every Google search result summarized for you — those all use AI too.
The same underlying systems power both.
The only difference is that one is visible, and the other is invisible.
So if we’re going to talk about environmental cost, we need to talk about the whole digital ecosystem — not just the art we can see.
💬 My Bottom Line
I care about creativity. I care about the environment. And I care deeply about ethics — because I’ve lived the real consequences of being copied.
AI isn’t replacing artists. It’s another tool in the creative palette — one that still needs a human hand, a sense of taste, and a whole lot of heart.
I’ll continue to create art that celebrates guinea pigs — whether the brush is physical or digital, whether the tool is a pen, a camera, or a neural network. Because love and creativity aren’t defined by medium. They’re defined by meaning.
And that’s something no machine can replicate.
— Teresa
Founder, Cagetopia, Guinea Pig Market, and PiggyPop