Going for a mix of strategic isolation and speaking out against smug mob rule bullies personally. The existence of rules is one thing, but when it's both about micromanaging the arguably innocuous use of information processing tools, and enforced in the most obnoxious way possible, that seems like the right hill to take a stand on.

I do use locally hosted AI and haven't used anything else in quite a while (in part because I agree with some of the criticisms), but yes, it uses resources. About the same as playing a videogame, I tested it with an outlet meter. As much as I do actually go out of my way to live in a way that limits my carbon footprint (relevant example: I throttle my GPU's maximum wattage to a more efficient setting), I'm not fooling myself to think that individual aggregate lifestyle choices is what it boils down to, that's misleading industry propaganda they've been pushing for decades.

That propaganda especially doesn't make sense with regards to AI, because its promise as a consumer product is not at all why corporations are funneling resources into its development, they are doing it because they believe it is something they can use for business and give them a more dominant position over society, so it would be done regardless of whether any individual chose to use it. Which isn't to say people using their services aren't contributing at all, doing so gives these companies training and surveillance data. The ethics of it is worth discussing and considering. General purpose "you breathe our air therefore your actions must all be justified by our moral standards regardless of the scale of impact" type arguments are petty and absurd and don't really make for a constructive discussion though.

Metrics are needed. Based on an article that Rimu shared a few days ago, I didn't get the impression that stuff like simple graphics work needed for a poster particularly added much strain.

There's also the simple fact that it's too late to be herding cats on this one. Most people who've gotten used to using AI for various tasks aren't going to give it up very easily. While I agree that it can be useful to talk up and spread the word about the destructiveness of AI costs, that energy and pressure ultimately needs to be funneled to lawmakers in order to draft and pass appropriate legislation.