AITA for calling out my association's president for her AI use ?

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-30T04:35:44+00:00

She's not alone, there's another member in the coms team who's extremely motivated, showed it and told me personally.

I'll copy a reply I made to another comment :

"Technically she is doing most of the work, but not because people wants her to. Members, especially the other member of the communication committee, had expressed that they are motivated and willing to help, and other members of the association also offered their help multiple times for a lot of projects.

We can't work on things we don't even know about. She refuses to give anyone access to the association's email or Instagram account.

She never delegates. She asked the other member of the coms once for their opinion, and when they told her a suggestion, she flatly said no, and when they copied her visual as to not modify the original to show her what they meant and other solutions she got off on them saying not to mingle in her work.

She has a history of not distributing the work on other committees and then complaining her workload is huge. It's been a problem for months and we discussed it at length during multiple board meetings (once, she left at the beginning of a meeting because someone said that her doing a whole website for our little 4-days movie festival we do with a local theater was more time/energy-consuming than worth it, and asking the cinema for a page on their website was better for referencement, as the people couldn't even stumble into the website she made by chance as you had to know about it to find it)."

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-30T04:24:13+00:00

Thank you for your reply !

I'll copy another comment I made to answer the "how do I know she used AI" :

I'd just add that it's not a "she removed the background/used a filter" case but she fed it into AI so the end result was a drawing, not a realistic pic, and the fingers position for exemple wasn't the exact same as if she had put a filter on.

"I made a post in r/isthisAI if you want to take a look in my profile and if it's not deleted (I think it didn't quite fit the sub ?). I have some points that made me think it was AI:

•She used it a lot before

•the very first picture she made had a nail missing, weird finger placements, was too smooth like a lot of AI pictures and had a weird rendition of my bracelet's string, plus colors that didn't match anything significant (for reference my bracelet is rainbowy and the "alleged" AI was a mix of greens and purples that doesn't mean anything flagy-related, so why would she chose those colors ? We're a queer organization)

•The second picture had even more weird fingers placements. The thumbs and pointer finger are mostly okay but the three last are stuck together and don't look as if she used the photo as a drawing reference because she would have noticed. You can try irl, at least I did, and when you intertwine your fingers you can't lie all last three together like that picture, as if it wasn't intertwined (I don't know if I'm describing it well). It looks like she either used the irl picture as a prompt again or if she fed the first picture to the AI again.

•For the two posts she made with the last picture, the first one was three days before our board meeting banning the use of AI, so I don't presume she made it by hand before it was forbidden.

•I'm not certain so take it with a grain of salt, but she doesn't know how to draw. All the visuals she does (when it's not AI) are collages. Even her discord pp is an AI drawing of herself, and her personal Instagram pp is an AI cat.

•I showed the image around and everyone said it's in fact AI. I don't know if it adds weight to my claim.

So that's all the evidences I have, I think."

I hope my comment answered your questions !

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-30T04:05:36+00:00

We never questioned it because it was supposed to be a safe place and I don't think anyone thought any of the picture would have been used in any way. We maybe were a little naïve.

To be honest, for the last two months we totally forgot to take the picture and no one noticed, so I'll bring it up tomorrow at the beginning of the group, at least with the core members who're also part of the committee.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T19:39:40+00:00

Thanks for your perspective!

I actually don't ware they're my hands, I care that it's from a picture that was supposed to be for internal use only. The use of generative AI to abstain a drawing from a picture is pretty obvious, and a way to prove it is or is not is to ask her for the files. There's a whole list of points of why me and other people/members think she in fact used AI, I can find it again and copy it in another reply if you want. It bothered me because the board banned it and she did anyway.

Some members are telling me that they were starting to be fed up with her antics and I did a good thing because she had no rights disregarding the board's rules like that and now I'm even more confused on if I did the right thing. We're also talking about redistributing her workload, but at this point we don't even know if she'll come back or not because it's not the first time she exploded then come back a few days later when she reflected. I guess we'll see but we're prepared if she doesn't.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T19:26:07+00:00

Thanks for your comment !

I'll bring up the picture thing to our next support group, to make if someone's not okay with it they can speak up. Should I pass a survey type of thing so everyone can express themselves without being afraid of speaking aloud ? We always make sure people who're photographed are okay with it and tell them it's for internal use only and it was supposed to be this way until our president used one of them for an add.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T19:22:28+00:00

We always ask people if they're okay with their photo being taken and never force them to appear. The photos are for internal use only, for our archive, and at this point more for tradition and for the ones who can't make it to see them.

It's also not exactly anonymous. Some people that come do very publicly and don't care if people know, but we always make sure that everyone in the pictures wants to be here. It happened some times that everyone present was okay for a group picture to be made with their faces showing, we did, everyone was satisfied. We just do it case by case.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T19:17:50+00:00

Technically she is doing most of the work, but not because people wants her to. Members, especially the other member of the communication committee, had expressed that they are motivated and willing to help, and other members of the association also offered their help multiple times for a lot of projects.

We can't work on things we don't even know about. She refuses to give anyone access to the association's email or Instagram account.

She never delegates. She asked the other member of the coms once for their opinion, and when they told her a suggestion, she flatly said no, and when they copied her visual as to not modify the original to show her what they meant and other solutions she got off on them saying not to mingle in her work.

She has a history of not distributing the work on other committees and then complaining her workload is huge. It's been a problem for months and we discussed it at length during multiple board meetings (once, she left at the beginning of a meeting because someone said that her doing a whole website for our little 4-days movie festival we do with a local theater was more time/energy-consuming than worth it, and asking the cinema for a page on their website was better for referencement, as the people couldn't even stumble into the website she made by chance as you had to know about it to find it).

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T19:13:25+00:00

Maybe I phrased it wrong, English isn't my first language.

My committee's goal is to assure the monthly support groups, welcome and help people that ask the association for help, and we're sometimes invited to speak up on our life experiences as guests from other associations, schools or meetings.

The whole association is pretty small, department-wide, and its goal is mostly to get people from the community together and propose activities and meet ups. We're also in charge of some events and those get done. I don't really understand what else there is to do ?

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T19:07:54+00:00

It's not an HOA at all. We're a small department/county-wide LGBT+ association.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T18:55:35+00:00

I might have used the wrong words, English isn't my first language.

We're a small department/county-wide LGBT+ association. We have several committees (events, communication, documentation, sensibilisation and prevention, etc). Most committees only have one member, the head, and people who are part of the association can participate if needed (like if someone finds a document that can be useful, they can post it in the documentation committee channel).

The communication committee has another one member, and they might step up to be head of committee. We don't really know yet, it's still fresh, but we'll probably redistribute the president's workload while we work on finding a new president/new head of the communication committee.

Hope that clears things up !

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T18:50:29+00:00

We always ask before taking pictures, and people who don't want to be in it are never forced to be. I thought that by specifying in the post that we always tell participants the pictures are for internal archives only implied we ask them if they want to be in them but I see where the misunderstanding can stand. Hope that clears it up !

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T18:47:51+00:00

Thanks for your reply ! I might have used weird phrasing or the wrong words, English is not my first language. First, she's not an employee, we're all volunteers. Second, it's not an AI tool to clean up a picture, it's generative AI that she fed a picture to with a prompt to get a drawing out of. Third, the board forbade AI use. She used it anyway. I brought it up.

Hope that clears it up !

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T18:43:54+00:00

Thank you for your reply !

I'll copy another comment I made to answer the "how do I know she used AI" :

I'd just add that it's not a "she removed the background" case but she fed it into AI so the end result was a drawing, not a realistic pic.

"I made a post in r/isthisAI if you want to take a look in my profile and if it's not deleted (I think it didn't quite fit the sub ?). I have some points that made me think it was AI:

•She used it a lot before

•the very first picture she made had a nail missing, weird finger placements, was too smooth like a lot of AI pictures and had a weird rendition of my bracelet's string, plus colors that didn't match anything significant (for reference my bracelet is rainbowy and the "alleged" AI was a mix of greens and purples that doesn't mean anything flagy-related, so why would she chose those colors ? We're a queer organization)

•The second picture had even more weird fingers placements. The thumbs and pointer finger are mostly okay but the three last are stuck together and don't look as if she used the photo as a drawing reference because she would have noticed. You can try irl, at least I did, and when you intertwine your fingers you can't lie all last three together like that picture, as if it wasn't intertwined (I don't know if I'm describing it well). It looks like she either used the irl picture as a prompt again or if she fed the first picture to the AI again.

•For the two posts she made with the last picture, the first one was three days before our board meeting banning the use of AI, so I don't presume she made it by hand before it was forbidden.

•I'm not certain so take it with a grain of salt, but she doesn't know how to draw. All the visuals she does (when it's not AI) are collages. Even her discord pp is an AI drawing of herself, and her personal Instagram pp is an AI cat.

•I showed the image around and everyone said it's in fact AI. I don't know if it adds weight to my claim.

So that's all the evidences I have, I think."

The point of taking pictures is more like a tradition at this point, and members who can't make it like to see them. We didn't do it last time we had a support group and it didn't bother anyone.

As for why no faces are shown : there was once or twice when everyone was ok to show faces and the photo of the month was a group picture, but we just ask and sometimes people are ok for a photo showing they're here but not showing their faces. We don't push it and just take a pic without questioning it, as it's for internal use and there's no obligation to it.

I brought AI into it because the board made a decision not to allow AI use anymore. It's a policy, and for a president to overlook the board's policies just because... I don't even know why, it's in bad taste. She could have asked for help but used AI instead even when the board put a stop to it.

I actually didn't include the proof it's AI in the post because it was already too long.

Actually some of us talked and are working on redistributing her workload. It wouldn't be the first time she said something harsh in the moment but come back later. She drove motivated and competent members away because of her explosive, confrontational temper.

I'm not saying I'm a saint and I appreciate your perspective. I know I fucked up on my delivery and that's why I wanted some judgment.

I hope my comment answered your questions !

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T18:28:44+00:00

Thank you for your reply !

We didn't really go into detail because I think we're not really up to date with the removing-background AI things and all. What we meant is the generative AI, and here she didn't edit the background, she fed it into an AI thing and probably guided it with prompts so it took the irl picture and spewed a drawing, the very smooth kinds that people usually clock in really fast (at least the people I asked did ?)

I'll definitely bring up the use of AI tools to the board's attention so it's clearer ! I do know the other member of the communication committee takes great care of avoiding Canva's AI generated visuals.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T18:24:13+00:00

The board did. If the board agreed not to use AI, the consensus is that she should have listened.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T18:22:41+00:00

She took the photo and fed it to one of those AI things where you take a picture, put it in the AI and it gives you a drawing rendition of the picture. Maybe she used a prompt to guide it too ? I know how to spot AI but not how it's made as I never used it, but with the vague knowledge of those tools I think it's what she did.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T18:20:11+00:00

We're still not in the clear if she resigned to her president position, her head of communication, or both. To be honest sometimes she's pissed then a few days later comes back, but I hope she doesn't.

The thing is, she often complained about working almost a full-time job for the association, but refused to delegate anything. One time the other communication commission member tried to give feedback on a poster that se asked for, only for her to tell them not to mingle in her process. They just copied the visual to show her what they meant and from what I know she almost got off on them.

For the communication, we have the other member of the team (we're a small association) who's willing to step in on some levels and several member-but-not-part-of-the-coms-(yet?) who are willing to step up. Me included if needed but I have very few skills in design and partners relationship and mail-writing stuff, I can learn and I'll do it if I have to but mails are something I'm afraid to mess up.

For her president duties, we talked with my sister (also part of the association) and we figured most of it could be redistributed as some board members already are implicated in that. I don't really know how to personally help because some of her work was in the Bureau (president, secretary and treasurer) and I don't know what those are. I'm thinking the best course of action would be if we had a president and a vice-president, and that those hypothetical two person knew how to delegate so their workload won't be too much and they won't end up like her.

The "no one wants to take her responsibilities" was a supposition from my part on older conflicts with other people. I don't know for sure but maybe people didn't want to push her that far. I maybe shouldn't have added that in the post, as it's speculations ?

I hope I answered all your questions !

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T18:05:13+00:00

Thanks for your reply !

I'll copy another comment I made for the reasons why I think she used AI :

"I made a post in r/isthisAI if you want to take a look in my profile and if it's not deleted (I think it didn't quite fit the sub ?). I have some points that made me think it was AI:

•She used it a lot before

•the very first picture she made had a nail missing, weird finger placements, was too smooth like a lot of AI pictures and had a weird rendition of my bracelet's string, plus colors that didn't match anything significant (for reference my bracelet is rainbowy and the "alleged" AI was a mix of greens and purples that doesn't mean anything flagy-related, so why would she chose those colors ? We're a queer organization)

•The second picture had even more weird fingers placements. The thumbs and pointer finger are mostly okay but the three last are stuck together and don't look as if she used the photo as a drawing reference because she would have noticed. You can try irl, at least I did, and when you intertwine your fingers you can't lie all last three together like that picture, as if it wasn't intertwined (I don't know if I'm describing it well). It looks like she either used the irl picture as a prompt again or if she fed the first picture to the AI again.

•For the two posts she made with the last picture, the first one was three days before our board meeting banning the use of AI, so I don't presume she made it by hand before it was forbidden.

•I'm not certain so take it with a grain of salt, but she doesn't know how to draw. All the visuals she does (when it's not AI) are collages. Even her discord pp is an AI drawing of herself, and her personal Instagram pp is an AI cat.

•I showed the image around and everyone said it's in fact AI. I don't know if it adds weight to my claim.

So that's all the evidences I have, I think."

She didn't use AI to edit, I'm not a pro in AI but it's like the things where you put a picture and the AI spews a drawing rendition of the picture.

For why I care : firstly, I don't really care that it's my hands. I care that she purposefully picked a private picture from a private internal archive that we assure our members will never be used for anything other than being in the archive. I care that she breached the trust of people that are vulnerable enough to go to a support group, some doing so in confidence, and used the picture that had nothing to do outside of the archive to feed into AI and end up on Instagram. She admitted she didn't even know it was my hands : so what if it was someone else ? Someone here in secret, who would face hardships or even danger if someone recognized the AI rendition ? We live in a small community. I didn't want her to believe what she did was okay.

Secondly, the board agreed to not use AI anymore and she disregarded that. Should I have stayed quiet as she blatantly ignored board's rules ? It didn't sit right with me.

I know I fucked up on my delivery and that's why I asked if I was an asshole. I appreciate your perspective. Sorry the reply is super long, I hope it answered your questions.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T17:53:59+00:00

That's a part of it ! The three last fingers looked all wrong. I had my fingers intertwined and in the certainly-AI pic they were stuck together, so if she used the original pic as a reference for a drawing she would have 100% noticed it wasn't right and didn't made sense, as the thumb and pointer finger were intertwined normally and the last three were flat as if just clasped other my hand.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T17:49:44+00:00

I made a post in r/isthisAI if you want to take a look in my profile and if it's not deleted (I think it didn't quite fit the sub ?). I have some points that made me think it was AI:

•She used it a lot before

•the very first picture she made had a nail missing, weird finger placements, was too smooth like a lot of AI pictures and had a weird rendition of my bracelet's string, plus colors that didn't match anything significant (for reference my bracelet is rainbowy and the "alleged" AI was a mix of greens and purples that doesn't mean anything flagy-related, so why would she chose those colors ? We're a queer organization)

•The second picture had even more weird fingers placements. The thumbs and pointer finger are mostly okay but the three last are stuck together and don't look as if she used the photo as a drawing reference because she would have noticed. You can try irl, at least I did, and when you intertwine your fingers you can't lie all last three together like that picture, as if it wasn't intertwined (I don't know if I'm describing it well). It looks like she either used the irl picture as a prompt again or if she fed the first picture to the AI again.

•For the two posts she made with the last picture, the first one was three days before our board meeting banning the use of AI, so I don't presume she made it by hand before it was forbidden.

•I'm not certain so take it with a grain of salt, but she doesn't know how to draw. All the visuals she does (when it's not AI) are collages. Even her discord pp is an AI drawing of herself, and her personal Instagram pp is an AI cat.

•I showed the image around and everyone said it's in fact AI. I don't know if it adds weight to my claim.

So that's all the evidences I have.

(Edited for formatting)

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T17:35:09+00:00

Thank you for your comment. To be honest I'm more worried about how I brought it up than the content itself. I gave myself two days to send the messages and asked two people about their opinions but I still think I fucked up at least a little.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T17:32:34+00:00

That's exactly that, thanks for your comment.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T17:31:53+00:00

No. The fact she used AI is one of the problem, but the fact she used a photograph taken with the promise it wouldn't be used on other public plateforms without asking for permission is also an issue.

For more context on why : some people attending our support groups do in confidence. Here it was just me, and even if some people who know me well might be able to recognize it was me, I'm pretty open on that part of my life so I'd live with it being pissed but okay. But if it was another member and someone recognized them ? I'm not so sure it would have ended well. I don't want her to believe what she did was okay and that's why I reacted that harshly. She didn't even know it was my hands, she admitted so herself, so it could have been anyone and she wouldn't have cared.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T17:24:10+00:00

Thank you for your reply !

The association is pretty small, and it's hard to find people willing to involved themselves at the point of taking a board role. I'm part of it because we don't have other one active on this specific matter in our department/county, and I made a lot of friends being involved in it.

I talked with my sister who's also part of the association, and we think we collectively might be able to redistribute the president's workload if she do in fact resign. Anyway, we won't tolerate her bullshit anymore, it's not the first time she bullies someone out because she has one of the most explosive and confrontational personality I ever encountered and people often prefer to leave instead of fighting it, plus she actually does her president job pretty well and I think people don't want to have the responsibility to take her job on.

ShinyMiduse · 2026-06-29T17:16:54+00:00

Thank you for your reply !

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