On Sept. 30, 2025, President Donald J. Trump issued an executive order, initiating an attempt to unlock cures for pediatric cancer through the use of artificial intelligence. This has sparked much discourse and conversation about the overall use of “AI,” including its intended purpose and current applications. At Cherry Lake Press, discussions about the use of AI had already begun before the executive order was even created.

“It scares me,” owner and CEO of Cherry Lake Press Ben Mondlach said. “Because the impact on the population that I don’t think many people are considering; many, many, many of the jobs that we rely on to fund our middle class will, in essence, be gone. And I’m not sure if we’re ready for those jobs to go away.”

Mondlach is the president of Cherry Lake Press. He has advocated for the use of AI as a tool for some time.

“But to use AI to attack diseases, I think, is a great opportunity, you know, to advance the use of AI. So I would be in favor of that,” Mondlach said in relation to the executive order.

Of course, there are some individual issues about the widespread AI usage, with it being accessible to all.

“I think the challenge is when you have anything in the public domain, it has to be a difficult kind of ownership position where advances can happen if there’s a little bit less control,” Mondlach said. “So if you want to try and make this thing a force of good, I think it has to be a little bit more control and put some more guardrails around it.”

On the other end, there are people who don’t believe the type of AI that has been so widespread and easily accessible should be used at all. Bethany Neal is one of these people. She’s the author of YA titles My Last Kiss and Friends ‘Til the End, and she has complicated feelings about AI.

“The generative end, I personally don’t want to use it for anything,” Neal said. “But I don’t think I’m looking at the other ways to use it, like for medical purposes, coffee, mechanical systems, or stuff that doesn’t involve our creativity.”

The issues with generative AI have only gotten larger over the years as AI evolves, with several people’s work being taken for AI training.

“We’re dealing with mass lawsuits,” Neil said. “Both in my personal life, because I have a published book that was scrapped, and here at work, where I’m having to do sort of the same thing, where, luckily, the courts are generally in favor of the artists. So we now have this process of billions of people filing claims to attempt to recruit some of that money.”

Neil also has issues with Google using the AI overview as the first result that appears when you search.

“Because I know it’s using extra water and other resources,” Neil said. “It’s very unregulated. So I feel like it should be an option instead of the default, because people are unknowingly wasting all of these resources.”