#Techbros

[sepdet]

Ignore the ugly thumbnail & title — this is SUCH a good discussion with US historian Heather Cox Richardson.

Parts are sobering, as she connects the dots and points out the endgame that I don't think the Republicans have realized is the likely outcome (not at all what they intend) if Trump is elected.

But about 15 minutes in she moves past the "democracy is on the line" angle (with surprising insights and receipts) to a more positive, joyful, actionable angle which has been missing from the last two election cycles, and usually from activism and progressivism on Tumblr too.

if you don't wanna watch the whole 20 minute video, jump ahead to 15:00 for that bit. 



Harris keeps emphasizing that we all have the power to make a difference right now. Sometimes it feels like that's just empty words. I find it very reassuring that a historian with research to back it up concurs.

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

MAGA congressman says top priority is shutting down FEMA like the Department of Education

A Tennessee Republican congressman on Friday told a conservative podcaster that the first thing he wants to do when he returns to Washington D.C. is advocate to reorganize FEMA – and “shut it down.”…

[hasellia]

'What if Al gains sentience?" You techbros

can't even handle the idea of someone with

a communication disability being a sentient

being. You haven't even thought about a

human with a different pattern of thinking

let alone the sentience of an animal that

you can't keep in your home.

"Don't bully my mini Roko's basilisk"! lf it

gains sentience, it's going to wonder what

constitutes as the letter Y, a dwarf planet or

the colour red. It's not going to hate; it's

going to wonder why you're mad that it

doesn't care about money.

[sleepy-bebby]

Adam Ellis

[ignorantsanonymous]

[chaoskirin]

Glaze Your Art!

I recently got Glaze and I've been running some tests on my art and style to see how it affects images. It's much better with highly detailed pieces... On cartoons, you can definitely see artifacts like it's got a JPG compression layover over it. But it prevents your art style from being stolen. The makers of Glaze have also developed Nightshade, which will start poisoning datasets if your art is stolen without consent.

Here's a few of the pieces I've tested Glaze on, and I'm happy with the results. While I used to like posting my ultra-high quality art for people to enjoy, I'm now finding that's no longer an option with all the theft happening lately. But this will do.

You can actually download Glaze and run it yourself with your own resources, but I was very opposed to having the AI dataset present on my computer (which you need in order to pollute your data). But they've come out with a web app that you can request to use with the form on their site, or you can message them on Twitter.

Protect your art!

[azspot]

What do TechBros and TheoBros have in common with Trump and his inner circle? All think their respective causes will be better served by ending American democracy. They want a strongman at top—their strongman. To hell with democracy, and with the rest of us.

TheoBros, TechBros, & Trump

[davekat-sucks]

I think Sollux should just leave behind his warm colors hoes and settle down for a more polite Eridan

Aka, Sollux and Equius scratch a funny itch in me. Maybe cuz that error pic Paradox Space gives you when you type /413 at the url

Pros: They both wear glasses, their lives kinda go around animals, they're incredibly powerful, they're good with machinery, Sollux has a bit of blue goin on, I think they both dislike Eridan, at one point they had the only two trolls with shiny eyes with them... It's interesting.

Cons: All what I said are pickpoints, they would be hard to work out on camera with their personalities, for a genderless species with no idea of what sexual orientations are, they're surprisingly hetero

But I say almost unironically "I can fix them!" as I write the worst, nonsensical fanfic you've ever read about them trying to bond

Sollux x Equius aka Techbros is better than Davekat. I would be happy to read it if you do get the chance to write it down. Send me it once you're finished!

[inkbotkowalski]

cool we're back at ppl unquestioningly reblogging AI shit

[anthophilafalls]

i feel like we inch closer to this every day

[ankewehner]

Moving fast and breaking things is vandalism.

[ritchiepage2001newaccount]

Project2025 #TechBros #CorpMedia #Oligarchs #MegaBanks vs #Union #Occupy #NoDAPL #BLM #SDF #DACA #MeToo #Humanity #FeelTheBern

JinJiyanAzadi #BijiRojava Trump Appeals to Latino Voters by Doubling Down on Racist Lies

Donald Trump’s voter outreach is going great…

[eubedoo6]

Flim and flam are techbros, not convinced?

Here's my argument

they both(the flim flam brothers and techbros as a group) push a mixture of working(but not to human quality) technology and scams

they both have tried to steal from people doing the thing they're trying to make tech do (apples from the apple family, and art from artiss)

neither cares about much other than the money they can make from it

both try to paint themselves as victims when people refuse things from them that would lose those people their home and current food supply (and somehow don't seem to understand why those people refuse)

and they both try to pass off their money making schemes as "opportunities" or increasing the availability (admittedly the apples could have made more Cider with help, and they proved that, but art isn't about amount of supply, and EVEN neck down paralysis only makes specialised equipment a requirement)

both have tried to sell things as what they aren't (nfts, and a "miracle curative tonic")

and, I'm going to say this again for those who haven't thought about it since last time, THEY BOTH ONLY CARE ABOUT THE MONEY THEY GET FROM IT

However, in all honesty, I have 1 argument in defence of them on this, the flim flam brothers have style, and at least give you a song with their shady presentation, they're good songs too.

[titleknown]

Do you know, or have any idea about a way, or anything that can be used against AI bros/techbros? (I have seen people refer to them by both AI bros, and techbros, just to be clear.) I think they bad for both artists, and people who are into AI. It's bad for artists because they steel from us, and harrass us, and it's bad for people like you, because they give you a bad name, and probably harrass you guys too (I don't know, but if one harrassed you then,I'm sorry). Sorry if I sound stupid, or rude. And English is not my first launvige.

...Long story short, be informed about the bad and sketchy shit they're doing, and be up front about why it's actually bad, and more actively tell bad actors in that space to fuck off and/or fuck themselves.

Because, a lot of people are wildly misinformed about how AI works and its position under fair use, that they don't understand the actual worrying stuff, and those of us in the AI community who do care about ethics often forget to talk about that bad stuff when so much of our time is spent swatting off misinfo. And we need to.

As an example, I've mentioned the issues with Midjourney and OpenAI, but also, watch out for UnstableDiffusion, who're scummy as hell.

They're trying to crowdfund their way into being A Thing and have directly stated their desire to directly target their training on sites like Deviantart in the way other AI models aren't. Don't support them.

Also, another thing I may as well bring up: If you're training those smaller finetuning-models directly off of specific living artists' work, that is significantly morally different than, like, the models with their big dumb (like you have no idea how dumb, but that's its own post) search engine-type internet mapping, and you're being an unethical dick attracting attention to AI art in the worst possible way.

Hell, even the AI bros simply saying that they think the idea of AI art replacing traditional artists is Good and Cool actually, those people are complete assholes (Especially given how many AI artists I know who're also traditional artists) and we should probably be telling those people to shut the fuck up more.

Granted, those people apparently hang out mostly on Twitter and I try to keep myself off the hellish bird site as much as possible, but pro-AI people reading this who do enter the musky hole of the worst mainstream site on the internet should feel free!

Stuff like that, I think, would help a fair bit...

[chaoskirin]

"But I WANT Chat GPT To Finish this Fanfic! :( :( :("

The most frustrating thing about the rise of the techbro is that they don't understand copyright because they've never had to. It's never been a concern for them, so why would they have ever thought about it?

This leads to a plague of asshats with chronic Dunning-Kruger-itis just deciding they know more about copyright than people who have been well-versed in it for their whole lives.

That's why you get these clueless AI users saying things like "you don't own fanfic, haha got youuuu" because they only have a vague, transparent understanding of IP and how content works.

Here's some actual truth: The reason writers, showrunners, producers, and actors don't read fanfic is because if they do, and they get an idea from your work, and then that idea APPEARS in the media, they have to prove they didn't steal it. (actually, because of the mega-billion dollar entertainment industry, the accuser has to prove the company DID steal it. Harder, but not impossible.)

If it turns out to be stolen, the company MIGHT HAVE TO PAY THE FANFIC AUTHOR FOR THEIR CONTRIBUTION AS A WRITER. This depends on how the court case goes and how similar your work is to the "official" work. Generally, even though it's a fanfic, there's a LOT of original content in that writing, which does NOT automatically belong to the IP.

The original content belongs to the writer, unless the company buys it.

SO! If you, as Techbro McDunning-Kruger, loads that shit into a chatbot or AI text generator, the ONLY shit that doesn't have a natural copyright is anything that VERY SPECIFICALLY pertains to the media itself. Generally, this includes names and extremely unique concepts. Everything else is stolen.

You want to know how I know?

Fucking 50 Shades of Gray.

It's a fanfic, where only the names and hard concepts from Twilight have been changed. It's still being sold, and no money is being paid to Stephanie Meyer.

There's other examples, too. 50 Shades is just the most well-known.

Fanfic is protected. The original material in that fic is copyrighted to the original author. If they tell you you can't use it, you can't use it.

In conclusion: I don't care how much you scream and pound your fists on your chest and piss on trees to assert your dominance. Spewing this nonsense about how fanfic is public domain and you get to use it because you want to is theft. Stop doing it.

[salgood]

I haven't made a lot of #AntiAI memes, in the end my position is between the camps often, recently seen some arguing simply subjective moralizations of the #aesthetics of AI, and in the past gatekeeping what is #Art or who is an #Artist often, I don't really agree with those, or the idea that most people will simply lose interest in #human generated works in the first place. + #Automating the personal and the most enjoyable is madness #techbros, and because of that I think it will ultimately fail. But we do need to fight that in the courts both for our own self interest, and to make sure corporations understand it's legal minefield, as any other potential risk of #copyright #infringement is. And to do that we have to make training without consent infringement without question. For my own use though, I can see a use in having control over the rights, and training my own bot I can license out to do low end corporate work for reasonable fees. And for my #comics, I can see using very well controlled rendering tools that run on AI engines and mimic my work, directed by my intent, to make my own stories a LOT faster and frankly? Sustainably and healthier. Get a page done in a quarter of the time and still get in daily walks and eating right? Yes please. I'd be a mosaicist not to see the potential there. And it would free me up to do the choice bits myself or final touches, take more time and care with those. And because I still have faith in humans, I don't think those who care about my stories and ideas now, will not care even via additional tools, Or that they will prefer the one sided mirror of a purely algorithmic creation that shows them nothing more than a reflection of their own interpretation. I could see some being interesting as reflections of humanity as a whole, as it is our work the AI are trained on. but it is of the gestalt, and no one in particular. Even as a hermit I care more about other individual humans, than nameless masses in the end, or our collective cast shadows on our cave walls. (at Salgood Sam's Spilt Ink) https://www.instagram.com/p/CnA6lthuA-p/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=