#but of course all the ai has to be know-it-alls

[mythandlaur]

The links in this post still do seem to get you to the correct places. It also may help to turn off smart features in Google settings (if the link doesn't get you to the page it's Gmail > Settings cog > View all settings), scroll down, and uncheck this box:

(Google will constantly bother you to turn this back on, meaning it's probably a very, very bad thing for you.)

You can also click your icon in the corner on any Google page, click Manage My Google Account, and from there reach Data and Privacy to turn some settings off. There's also My Ad Center (don't know how to get here normally) where you can supposedly turn off ads based on information collected, and My Activity to probably turn off using data from websites you visit and your Youtube history to do ads.

I know this all isn't totally related to AI, but in a world where they'll use anything they can get their grubby mitts on, I want to spread awareness of these features and how much they're collecting.

Proton Drive and File Garden are good alternatives for cloud storing and sharing files respectively, with Proton slowly building a Google-esque suite including Docs and Mail (and as a bonus providing a VPN with a free option that is currently one of the horrifically few VPNs you can get that isn't stealing your data and ratting on you).

Since I'm mostly a writer at least ostensibly, as all writers are, Ellipsus and Writer by Big Huge Labs are online Docs alternatives meant for creative writers, I don't know a lot about the latter, but the former has the bonus of having told NNWM to go fuck themselves when they started taking AI sponsorships, and their stance on AI amounts to "absolutely fucking not ever until everyone developing this is dead"

DuckDuckGo is also compromised by AI, I use StartPage and it mostly works for daily use.

And then, of course, there is LibreOffice, which a lot of people know about but there's always the lucky 10,000.

Stay safe, fuck AI, fuck Google

Hey everyone, I know it's going to be a busy day for a lot of people, but Google enrolled everyone over 18 into their AI program automatically.

If you have a google account, first go to gemini.google.com/extensions and turn everything off.

Then you need to go to myactivity.google.com/product/gemini and turn off all Gemini activity tracking. You do have to do them in that order to make sure it works.

Honestly, I'm not sure how long this will last, but this should keep Gemini off your projects for a bit.

I saw this over on bluesky and figured it would be good to spread on here. It only takes a few minutes to do.

[sandersstudies]

So the AI ask wasn't spam. I'd highly encourage you to do some research into how AI actually works, because it is neither particularly harmful to the environment, nor is it actually plagiarism.

Ignoring all of that however, my issue is that, fine, if you don't like AI, whatever. But people get so vitriolic about it. Regardless of your opinions on if it's valid art, your blog is usually a very positive place. It was kind of shocking to see you post something saying "fuck you if you disagree with me, your're a disgrace to the community." Just felt uncharacteristicly mean.

Even if you insist AI isn’t actively harmful to the environment or other writers (and the research I have done suggests it is, feel free to send me additional reading) and you simply MUST use prompts to generate personal content, nobody has any business posting it in a creative space for authors, which was the specific complaint addressed in that original post. While I’ll never say “fuck you for who you are as a person” on this blog, I might very well say “fuck you for harmful or rude actions you’ve taken willingly,” which is what that post was about.

Ao3 and similar platforms are designed as an archive for fan content and not a personal storage place for AI prompt results. It is simply not an appropriate place. If you look in the notes of the previous ask you will see other people have brought up additional reasons they have concerns about this practice.

A note on environmental effects for those who might not know: Generative AI requires MASSIVE amounts of data computers operating. As anyone who has held a laptop in their lap or run Civ VII on an aging desktop computer, computer équipement generates a lot of heat. Even some home and small-industrial computers have water-cooling systems. The amount of water demanded by AI computers is massive, even as parts of the world (even in America) experience water shortages. Besides this, it consumes a lot of power. The rising demand for AI and the improvements demanded to keep it viable mean this problem will continue to scale up rather than improve. Of course, those who benefit from the use of AI continue to downplay these concerns, and money is being funneled into convincing the public that these are not real concerns.

I have been openly against the use of generative AI, especially for art and writing, since its popularity rose in the last couple years. I’m sorry I wasn’t clearer about this stance sooner. I have asked my followers to alert me if I proliferate or share AI content, and continue to do so.

[gatorbites-imagines]

Hi! Hi! Fiesta time requesting to ya and was hoping if can place this ask here. I made sure to read you're rules so if I do somthing wrong then ignore my ask.

So Yautja's know that humans do not have strong instics as they do but they have certain things the Yautja don't have. Like uncanny valley.

So in this, the Yautja is with their human when they suddenly freeze. When they ask their human what's wrong, they don't awnser, just stearing off at somthing that they see. The Yautja can smell the fear and panic off of them.

What does the Yautja do?

Please please please please ignore this if I went aginst you're rules! Have a good day/night

Male Yautja OC (Bako) x male reader

Headcanons

I imagined this as Bako, who was mentioned a few times in my last yautja post, which you can read here.

Bako is a very chill Yautja compared to others. Hes already had multiple offspring and is still in his prime. It gives him a good amount of confidence and comfort in himself.

It also makes him a bit of a tease to his ooman lover, throwing you over his shoulder or just moving you around as he pleased, unless it really annoys you when he does.

He loves the size difference between you as well. You’ll catch him pressing his orange scaled hand against your own every now and then just to look at the difference. Bako always grumbles happily a about it.

But just because he’s more chill than most Yautja doesn’t mean he isn’t as active and aware as everyone else, he’s just great at hiding it behind an easygoing facade. Dating a normal ooman definitely makes him even more on edge and protective.

Hed try to teach you how to at least defend yourself or how to sharpen your instincts enough to protect yourself. You might not be able to kill another yautja in their prime, but you will be able to maul them enough to give you time to get away. Then he will hunt them down and present their skull to you.

Seeing you with a weapon also makes him grumble even more, arms crossed over his chest and his yellow eyes sparkling as he watches you use different firearms. Especially the firearms hes specially kitted for you to fit your hands and size.

If you take an interest in camoflague hed be more than happy to show you too, since hes mastered the art. Even without all his gear, Bako is able to melt into the background with ease after years of practice.

Having a more colorful shade in his scales meant he had to be really good at what he did, or he would have died one way or another. He just has to figure out how to really blend the different colors on your human skin.

But even with all this, Bako is always weary like any Yautja worth their salt should be. This is also why he notices pretty much immediately that you are weirded out or weary about something.

Having a Yautja partner can be pretty damn annoying sometimes with how protective and possessive they’ll be. Even if you guys are walking through what’s supposed to be a peaceful market, you still find Bako almost glued against your back.

Maybe you spot a species that just looks… uncomfortably human. But not really. You know like those ai robots that have skin that doesn’t really fit, or they blink too slowly and more too stiffly.

It makes you freeze for a moment, immediately sending alarm bells ringing inside Bakos head. There should be no reason for you to freeze, his clan had come to this market for years and it should be safe.

But smelling the discomfort and uncomfortable fear from you makes his mandibles flare under his mask, looking down at you for a moment to see where you are looking, before snapping his head in that direction, ready to kill.

Of course, you end up having to hold him back and explain that no, that alien didn’t say or do anything, yes, you were okay. It was just a weird human survival reaction.

You end up having to explain uncanny valley to him, and how once upon a time, humans developed pattern recognition for survival reasons.

This makes sense to Bako after you explain. He mentions something about other species that looked like humans coming to earth, to hunt humans, so of course you guys developed survival instincts against them.

This has you thinking “excuse me, what?” because what did he mean by that. of course, Bako just shrugs and goes “I thought you knew” and keeps you guys moving, as if he didn’t just drop that bomb on you.

Bako keeps being extra protective the rest of the day, as if just the smell of your fear keeps him on edge. Just in case, ya know? What if something jumps out of the shadows at you? You never knew out here. You just have to accept it, and accept all the cuddles later.

[mooyuun]

Caleb's Timeline. 🍎

A timeline post, so I can write little things that I liked about the cards, and their order.

Past time.

Borrowed Promise. (4) he really likes to do things for her, comically thinking about him carrying all the bags with that super thigh grandma jacket.

Summer’s Echo. (4)

Verified Rumor. (4) “honey” other of my fav voicelines

Pathless Realm. (Anecdote) if for some kind of magic or whatever MC doesn’t like Caleb, maybe Greyson can keep him 😆 their interaction makes a good plot for a BL school life shounen ai.

Stage Observer. (4) cutest memory, Caleb + microphone + MC = Hey everybody! I’m so in love that I will add this minute of how I’m happy to have MC in my life”. Also Caleb brain freezing when MC kissed him. 😂

Rain’s Embrace. (Bond Story affinity 5) “I’m gonna open it~~~” best voice line for me.

Longtime Yesterday. (4) i like that Caleb friends are so cool with MC too, there is some occasions sprinkled in some cards where Caleb's friends helps him to take care of MC and I think is cool because they acknowledge the importance that MC has in his life.

Skyline. (4) love that they both get anxious by the thought of the other getting a gf/bf, also so sweet that Caleb supports all MC dreams and how he says that he will take the responsibility so she can keep focusing in her dream of being a hunter.

Present time.

Under Deepspace chp. 1 (main story)

Under Deepspace chp. 4 (main story) he kabooms, and is cool to see how in the next chapters she gets an unhealthy obsession of discovering the reason of explosion, but he kabooms.

All Homecoming Wings. (main story) Is curious that Caleb, for now, is the motor of the main story. The reason of why she goes to all the adventures with the guys and now the reason of her investigation towards the chip, the little kid and Ever.

Endless Summer. (5) Caleb pls kiss MC already, MC nobody thinks that you actually had something in your eye girl…

Exclusive Aftertaste. (5) I think they kissed here, Caleb kinda changes course before fading to white, but the apple sound at the end also makes me think that they didn’t

Lucid Dream. (Permanent Myth Cards 5) someone rescue Caleb, poor boy is controlled by Ever and his only defense for now is a black hole in his own brain. Also MC matches his vibe, both of them are super attached to each other. Also poor MC, sadly she doesn’t have the big picture and she doesn’t understand that exposing herself in skyhaven means a future of deaths and torture. She usually doesn’t have good plans and is too hot headed in some occasions, at the end, the boys had to help/intervene to save her from death sometimes.

Hidden Waves. (5) MC finally tells him that he’s not alone and both can fight together, it seems that Caleb is realizing that he doesn’t need to do things alone.

Longtime Moments. (4) Both fight together, I think Caleb understands more that he doesn’t need to do everything for himself 🥹

Painful Signals. (5) MC is so furious that she’s trembling, go girl defend your boy!! Also Caleb is the meme lord and Gideon I luv u, I’m sad that people went without you in Valentine’s Day XD

Intertwined Gold. (4) the card that everybody thinks about since they talk about a kiss that we don’t know if is a future card or a card where it was implied. I love too how both of them are domestic already and how Caleb is like “she’s not bullied in her work right? 🤨”

AU - Alternative Universe.

Tain ted Cuts (5). the bad ending destroyed me, all the bad ends of the boys kinda parallels how a possible bad ending would be in main story. So thinking about how MC waited for him is too sad. Also we have a nest/bird reference like it happened in past cards with the seagulls and how it seems that MC abandoned the nest/disappeared, so maybe a reference for a future card or myth. At the end, if you go for the good ending, is fluff. This AU with Caleb didn’t feel dangerous, he is so mentally restrained that MC was not afraid of him and when he actually bites her, he runs (imo he literally trows himself to danger so he can die, because he’s so scared that he hurt her that I think he preferred to die than to live with the knowledge that he almost kills her 🥲)

[thebookewyrme]

Update to the ongoing AI Copyright Saga from a few days ago. A Judge ruled in favor of Thomson Reuters that the AI company (I forget which one & wired wont let me view the article again) indeed violated copyright by training their algorithm on copyrighted works.

This is huge. I’m not enough of a predictor to know where this is going, but it’s a really important step in the right direction to force AI companies to stop just vacuuming up everything on the web regardless of consent. Of course, AI companies have already been getting wise and have started partnering with publishers to make agreements that they can train their algorithms on the works the publisher has in its inventory, whether the authors agree or not, or without telling the authors, or by making it hard for the authors to opt out without getting their paper retracted. This has been happening largely but not exclusively at academic publishers like Springer.

Still, this ruling is good news and we should all celebrate! Get fucked AI jackasses.

This really makes the Studios costing themselves even more money (and getting more unions involved) by prolonging the strike for the promise of free ai labor even more fucking funny. you dumb fucking bastards lol

[garwicbreb]

I'm so fucking sick of ai.

I don't want ai to write my stories for me. I don't want a robot telling me how to make a scene more emotional with stolen words it cannot feel and robbing it of its complexities with forced grammar and nonsensical musings. I don't want it to correct or rewrite anything for me.

I don't want ai to tell me information when I look something up and for it to be the first thing that's shoved in my face spouting false information. I don't want an 'overview' taking over the other pages of information written from heart and interest whether it be a small Wikipedia contribution or a whole blog from 2009 with comic sans and poorly formatted images.

I don't want it there and the very fact that it's pretty much impossible to disable, not even giving me the option of removing it is frankly quite harrowing. The very fact its there slurping up a power grid to steal website headings and make words that have no substance does nothing for my anxieties about the future of the world and don't get me started on ai 'art'. Its not surprising that these big corporate companies are so keen on it, but it doesn't make me any less angry.

[deoidesign]

I've been told my comic feels like it was written by AI.

I suppose I'm not trying to be groundbreaking. I'm not interested in pioneering genres. I'm not writing for the purpose of literary analysis.

But written by AI...?

I'm already someone who has my humanity questioned. My identity erased. My existence disrespected. It could be worse. Anything could be worse.

But AI?

I spend weeks writing single scenes, toiling over the implications of single lines. I have goals. My writing has intent.

If you cared to read deeper, perhaps you'd see the themes. Maybe then you'd see the value. If you tried to analyze it maybe you'd see something there.

Maybe you'd see me.

Someone told me my comic seemed like it was written by AI.

And my humanity was denied one step further in that my voice was not seen in the work I've poured years of my life into.

[casualavocados]

Learn from who? Learn from you? You are still a brat. What do you know? You're only three years older. Like you are any better than me. You're 21, and still a virgin. What are you proud of? I think you can't do it.

KISEKI: DEAR TO ME Ep. 06

[lobautumny]

Not to mention shit like the speakers that are installed in a bunch of public spaces that play extremely loud sounds at a very high pitch that are specifically designed to not be audible to adults but to be extremely uncomfortable for children, to dissuade "dangerous antisocial behaviors" like... loitering. The horror.

A bunch of shitty adults act like it's remotely surprising that kids don't go outside and hang out with their friends anymore when, like, how and when and where are they supposed to do that? This toy knows your ass is too lazy to drive your kids anywhere that isn't on the way to somewhere that you wanted to go anyways more than once per month, and nearly a century of constant "you can't trust your neighbors" propaganda (red scare, gang fearmongering, muslim fearmongering, drug fearmongering, etc.) has left a ton of adults terrified of every unattended child they see outside, as well as being increasingly unwilling to let their own kids out of their sight for anything other than going to school. Also, when a given kid does have the means to hang out with friends on a regular basis, where do they have that they can go other than each other's houses? God knows that for the last several decades, the economy's been too shit for average working-class parents to give their kids an allowance, everything is extremely expensive, and there's never been less options for places kids can simply exist and hang out at outside.

Of fucking course kids are sitting inside on they phone all the damn time. They don't have anything else to do. Adults drove them away from everything else they could be doing because allowing children to exist anywhere is just too much of a hassle for anyone to bother dealing with. I mean, fuck, kids (especially non-white kids) can't even fucking play with toys outside anymore without running the risk of a cop shooting them in the head because they thought the bright orange Nerf blaster was a real gun (treated as a simple mistake, the cop gets suspended for a couple months and then gets to return to the force like nothing happened).

The fact of the matter is that the world in which we currently live fucking hates children. Children aren't treated as people. They're treated as political pawns, scapegoats, or property at best, and active threats at worst. Their suffering doesn't matter until they die, but then when they die, it's always "a freak tragedy that we simply could not have anticipated and cannot do anything to prevent future instances of." It's all reduced to abstract numbers that adults can shake their heads at, pretend to feel bad for a while, and then proceed to do fucking nothing about while another school gets shot up every week, and we all pretend it's normal because nobody wants to fucking address the fact that the way we treat children is beyond disgusting and unhealthy. We talk all the time about the online child grooming epidemic, cleverly point out how social media algorithms massively contribute to the problem and the platforms themselves knowingly do nothing about it, and then we all collectively shrug and look the other way. "Not my problem to deal with," everyone collectively says in unison. "It's not my kid," they say, until it is their kid, at which point it's yet another fucking "freak tragedy that could not have been prevented," and so it goes.

But god forbid a kid says they're queer and receives anything other than brutal punishment and bullying for it. Then, suddenly, by magic, everyone is an activist, everyone is a fucking expert on the online grooming problem as though they aren't so tech-illiterate that they're falling for AI boomerslop on Facebook, and everyone has a PhD in biology, and everyone has Opinions and is calling up their local legislators asking for quick, decisive action to be taken against this new social contagion corrupting our youth and for kids to be ripped away from their supportive parents and put into abusive foster programs. This toy knows that it has long since left the scope of the original point, but it's just so fucking angry. Ever since it was in middle school, it's known more people who were abused as kids or otherwise have extremely strenuous relationships with the adults in their lives than people who had what most people would try to convince you was a "normal" childhood in which they developed remotely positive relationships with the adults around them and were not abused and did not develop immense trauma as the direct result of shitty actions taken by malicious, stupid, or neglectful adults in their lives.

Children deserve far better than the world we have forced them to live in.

"kids these days don't loiter or act rebellious enough any more" kids just existing in public are more criminalized and surveilled than ever. almost every western country is running a panic about youth crime and how random teens standing awkwardly are a threat to civilization, and pushing for much more punitive laws. tons of states and powerful lobbies are pushing "parental right laws" that restrict the civil rights of minors even more. policing is first and foremost targeting youths, especially from low income and majority immigrant neighbourhoods. if a kid mildly steps out of line or says something awkward online or in a public space half a dozen people can whip up their phone and start mass harassment campaigns. and tech companies are now restricting access to the internet, the last way many teens can talk to each other freely and reach out to people outside family and school.

anyhow i think people really need to start giving kids at least a tiny bit more grace instead of making smug posts about how uncool they are compared to your youth days, you fucking twats

[thelaurenshippen]

open ai made a little post about how they chose their chatbot voices and two things stood out to me:

a) I am genuinely pleased and surprised that the voices come from specific real people that they hired and paid, rather than being built off of all of the data open ai has scraped. the voice for siri did one job for one company 20 years ago and now she is literally everywhere without ever being compensated by apple or even acknowledged as the voice. there's simply no way she was paid enough in that original job. whereas, open ai says "each actor receives compensation above top-of-market rates, and this will continue for as long as their voices are used in our products." this could mean literally anything (what market rate are we going above? does continue mean they get residuals or get paid for doing more sessions?) but, christ, at least the actors are doing it with full knowledge of what their voices are being used for and can decide for themselves if the compensation is enough

b) the post talks about working with "award-winning casting directors" to get the voices. first of all, yay for paying casting directors! we love to see it. but they also say the CDs received over 400 submissions in a week and they state that like a big number and it's just...not at all. and look, without knowing the intricacies of the casting process, it's hard to know what approach the CDs took - it's very possible they were selective from the jump and 400 is a lot from the pool they were tapping. 400 would be a lot if you were going to the agencies directly and asking for names, but there's just no way in hell open ai went after big stars for this. so it would've been a pool of unknowns. in which case, 400 is laughably small. even if you're not using the big casting sites like actorsaccess, I've worked on projects with CDs and their own internal systems where we've gotten over 100 submissions for a single role. I've posted roles on casting sites and received literally thousands of submissions in just a few days

look, I have a very limited perspective on this - I am not a casting director (imo, one of the most important and undervalued jobs in hollywood) and I, in fact, hate the process of casting with a passion. but 400 just seemed like such a tiny pool to pull from and, idk, it heartens me! it's heartening to think that there's very little interest from actors and agents to be doing this kind of stuff. and absolutely no shade to the actors who did--I want actors to get their bag however they want as long as it's, like, safe sane and consensual, you know? but there's something encouraging about thinking that open ai hired some big casting agency to get their foot into the voice acting door and people didn't come running

[choking-on-roses]

Colleague called me a Luddite today because I wrote the abstract for a book chapter submission by hand without using ChatGPT

[spontaneousglitterbees]

wonder who they're talking to... 🤔

[AU Masterpost]

[just-sauntered-vaguely-downwards]

Sooooo a site was like “sign in with your OTP” and my sleep deprived dumb ass goes “how do they know my one true pairing…”

[unproduciblesmackdown]

truly lmao 2024 lambda literary award finalist wynnstannery

[dreamingofnextseason]

Just a PSA

I appreciate y’all pointing out when photos I’ve posted are AI generated 🙏

I’m not a fan of them, but I haven’t fine tuned my eyes to notice every possible discrepancy of not real life/AI generated pictures.

[lavenoon]

Imagine having a wholesome relationship with Eclipse-

Topaz resents this. She doesn’t like Eclipse or is jealous, but she has no wholesome relationship lmao

Love your self-insert stuff. Very inspiring. It’s helping me with being able to me more self indulgent more often :)

Ehehe well, I have to imagine the bounty hunter post a LOT of character development to make things work hsgbk

Love that I can inspire though! Sometimes I get embarrassed but then I remember cringe is dead, and having fun is the most important part of creating! And, well, if I learned how to draw and write and won't even indulge myself, what did I learn it for after all? 💜