#how are you going to be a creative and use technology that steals from other creatives?

[fauxnotice]

seeing writers use ai art for their covers does annoy me a bit (im a liar, it annoys me more than that)

[wordstome]

how c.ai works and why it's unethical

Okay, since the AI discourse is happening again, I want to make this very clear, because a few weeks ago I had to explain to a (well meaning) person in the community how AI works. I'm going to be addressing people who are maybe younger or aren't familiar with the latest type of "AI", not people who purposely devalue the work of creatives and/or are shills.

The name "Artificial Intelligence" is a bit misleading when it comes to things like AI chatbots. When you think of AI, you think of a robot, and you might think that by making a chatbot you're simply programming a robot to talk about something you want them to talk about, and it's similar to an rp partner. But with current technology, that's not how AI works. For a breakdown on how AI is programmed, CGP grey made a great video about this several years ago (he updated the title and thumbnail recently)

I HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend you watch this because CGP Grey is good at explaining, but the tl;dr for this post is this: bots are made with a metric shit-ton of data. In C.AI's case, the data is writing. Stolen writing, usually scraped fanfiction.

How do we know chatbots are stealing from fanfiction writers? It knows what omegaverse is [SOURCE] (it's a Wired article, put it in incognito mode if it won't let you read it), and when a Reddit user asked a chatbot to write a story about "Steve", it automatically wrote about characters named "Bucky" and "Tony" [SOURCE].

I also said this in the tags of a previous reblog, but when you're talking to C.AI bots, it's also taking your writing and using it in its algorithm: which seems fine until you realize 1. They're using your work uncredited 2. It's not staying private, they're using your work to make their service better, a service they're trying to make money off of.

"But Bucca," you might say. "Human writers work like that too. We read books and other fanfictions and that's how we come up with material for roleplay or fanfiction."

Well, what's the difference between plagiarism and original writing? The answer is that plagiarism is taking what someone else has made and simply editing it or mixing it up to look original. You didn't do any thinking yourself. C.AI doesn't "think" because it's not a brain, it takes all the fanfiction it was taught on, mixes it up with whatever topic you've given it, and generates a response like in old-timey mysteries where somebody cuts a bunch of letters out of magazines and pastes them together to write a letter.

(And might I remind you, people can't monetize their fanfiction the way C.AI is trying to monetize itself. Authors are very lax about fanfiction nowadays: we've come a long way since the Anne Rice days of terror. But this issue is cropping back up again with BookTok complaining that they can't pay someone else for bound copies of fanfiction. Don't do that either.)

Bottom line, here are the problems with using things like C.AI:

It is using material it doesn't have permission to use and doesn't credit anybody. Not only is it ethically wrong, but AI is already beginning to contend with copyright issues.

C.AI sucks at its job anyway. It's not good at basic story structure like building tension, and can't even remember things you've told it. I've also seen many instances of bots saying triggering or disgusting things that deeply upset the user. You don't get that with properly trigger tagged fanworks.

Your work and your time put into the app can be taken away from you at any moment and used to make money for someone else. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people who use AI panic about accidentally deleting a bot that they spent hours conversing with. Your time and effort is so much more stable and well-preserved if you wrote a fanfiction or roleplayed with someone and saved the chatlogs. The company that owns and runs C.AI can not only use whatever you've written as they see fit, they can take your shit away on a whim, either on purpose or by accident due to the nature of the Internet.

DON'T USE C.AI, OR AT THE VERY BARE MINIMUM DO NOT DO THE AI'S WORK FOR IT BY STEALING OTHER PEOPLES' WORK TO PUT INTO IT. Writing fanfiction is a communal labor of love. We share it with each other for free for the love of the original work and ideas we share. Not only can AI not replicate this, but it shouldn't.

(also, this goes without saying, but this entire post also applies to ai art)

[nyoaeuikhoudu]

Elite Force highschool hc's

stealing this idea from @texanmarcusdavenport because I too have headcannons that I must scream into the void.

Centium city is located close enough to Logan High that the kids all go there. Bree and Chase changed their last names so they can go to Logan without being recognized. Their alias last name is "Douglas" because they're not creative and it's hilarious to see their teachers meet Douglas Douglas during conferences.

While the bionic teens are well known around the world, there wasn't quite as much coverage of them in the Philly area because it wasn't super local, so Bree and Chase are able to fly under the radar easier since they're not household names around here.

Idk if yall know what this is, but I feel like it would be fun to have their school structured under the academy system. In short, along with required core classes like math and english, you have to pick an area of interest or career for your other classes. You get cords for completing courses in your academy and most of your electives will be centered around that area of study, plus it helps with college applications.

As always, we'll do this in alphabetic order

Bree:

After much deliberation, she decided on the Natural Resources and Agriculture academy (green). She originally wanted to do Human Services and join ROTC for drill, but Chase wouldn't let her because that would draw too much attention to them.

- her adhd makes it difficult to retain information, so she struggles with classwork, especially lectures.

- in the gifted program w/ Oliver (Chase is jealous lol) no, the gifted program is not based on grades, it's IQ based.

- not super interested in her academy, mostly just in it for the field trips.

- thrives in English classes, can whip out a grade A essay in 20 minutes.

- expert procrastinator, usually doing her homework the morning it's due or in between classes

Chase:

Part of the Business and Computer Technology academy (blue). Though he'd probably thrive more in Engineering, he mostly just joined to work towards inheriting Davenport Industries like Donald wants him to.

- very booksmart

- sacrificed his perfect GPA for maintaining cover. (He's sitting at 3.5, though he's definitely capable of 4.0)

- not the most social, trying his best to lay low.

- started working the schools coffee shop and snack hut for the finance side of things

- refused to test for the gifted program, pissed that Bree did behind his back despite his insistence that they don't draw attention to themselves.

Connie/Skylar:

Part of the Arts and Communications academy (purple). While she's not particularly skilled in the arts, she does enjoy marching band and likes spending time with Jordan and Gus (who are also both in AnC, art and film respectively.)

- gets decent grades. B average

- took an interest in theatre after Gus's Skylar Storm movie, and now helps out on tech.

- works the booth for shows, light design and helps out with mic checks

- surprisingly good at history for an alien- she convinced Chase to join her at history bowl and their team obliterated the other schools.

- involved in multiple sports, namely wrestling and dance team, but colour guard is still her favourite.

- so used to the name Connie that she doesn't even realise when people call her that outside of school, though the twins still slip up and call her Skylar in class.

Kaz:

Part of Health Sciences academy (red) to help with work, though he's less serious about it. If given a choice, he'd choose not to belong to any academy and just go home. He focuses more on the sports injury side of things, learning how to prevent injury rather than treat it for the most part.

- his grades don't reflect his intelligence

- struggles in class due to his adhd

- the only reason he's not failing his medical courses is because Oliver helps keep him on task

- tried three other academies before MM, none seemed to fit him best.

- the only elective he takes outside of HnS is shop, he especially loves welding and blacksmithing.

Oliver:

Also in the Health Sciences academy (red). Though he originally joined because of Mighty Med, he actually found a love for field, focusing on the Medical side. He's been taking extra science classes for fun along with academy courses.

- gets good grades, but definately not perfect.

- terrible at anything that requires math

- builds study dates into his schedule to spend time with Kaz and help him learn the material.- has been in the gifted program since elementary school.

- was originally part of AnC with the rest of his friend group, but switched early his sophomore year when he started working at MM

- still participates in band, playing the oboe for concert and marimba for marching season.

Ages:

Skylar is a senior, everyone else is a junior.

[girlboybird]

Was watching a video yesterday when an argument was made for ai art that rubbed me the wrong way but didn't know how to express my thoughts at the time. (I'm an art student, not an expert. Would love to discuss.)

It was a pro-ai argument for art that discussed how throughout history when new developments in art were made, it was discredited every time by people who didn't see it as "real art" (which for me brought to mind examples of the photograph, conceptual art, the shift from hand-drawn to digitized animation, etc). By being anti-ai, the argument was that people are discrediting a new technology completely that could bring about great change and completely shift the artistic landscape in the future.

Additionally, there was a mention of data usage and how they very much wanted their data used to contribute to the datasets for ai development, and had opted in, specifically mentioning that everyone should get a choice in whether or not their data should be used, which I very much agree with. This part of the argument I'm not concerned with, I think informed and consensual data contribution to companies is so important and if you want to give away your data for that cause that's just fine (... i think you should be PAID with MONEY for that data usage, but that's a whole other thing). It has to be consented to, and if people opt out, you can't use their data. Seemingly easy.

It's the part about historical movements that got to me, lumping together artistic / technological developments as positive jumps forward with a certain group of detractors who are on the "wrong side of history". I think examining what is actually at play now and what makes this situation different from previous examples is what people are so concerned about.

My issues with ai that i can think of off the top of my head:

steals from millions of people without their consent

heavily monetized and intertwined in corporate profit

destabilizes entire industries, creative unions, countless jobs

aids in misinformation and constant plagiarism

disrupts the education of students globally and the jobs of teachers

massive environmental impact and energy requirements to keep the development going

No artistic movement I can think of has had such dire consequences. I don't just hate ai as an art medium because it makes shitty garbage, because it's eliminating jobs I once thought I could have, even because it's stealing from me, actively, right now. I am overwhelmed by the amount terrible results that have emerged from the development of ai, and no matter how interesting art eventually becomes with the aid of that technology, I will never forget what that technology is taking from people across the world. Until those problems are fixed (some of which NEVER will be because exploitations is so engrained in the way ai functions), I can never call myself someone who is pro-ai.

I think of the development of photography, specifically the daguerreotype (a technology that was stolen by Dagguerre from the original inventor Niepce) which came about and changed the landscape of images. Painters who once did the job a photographer could do in a fraction of the time lost jobs, and there was a struggle to determine the legitimacy of photography as an art and a science.

I think of the growth of conceptual art, working beyond the image to create experiences, to use one's body as the canvas, to experiment with performance, perception, endurance. People criticized these movements as non-art movements, but they endure today as really important concepts in the art world.

Even the more recent shift in the 80s-90s, the shift from hand-drawn animation to digital animation. People did lose jobs, industries did shift and that form of animation became much harder as digital animation became the cheaper, quicker alternative which was preferred by companies funding projects.

These cases have never had such vast impacts as we're facing now with the growth of ai, and even though there is work being created today including the use of certain ai algorithms that I do enjoy and find really interesting (ex. Hito Steyerl, Rachel Maclean, Heather Dewey-Hagborg), this doesn't erase the constant advertisement I receive about shitty ai programs, search engines overrun by ai images, the PEERS I have around me who go to university today and write assignments using ai, and the massive water usage of tech centers dedicated to house ai systems.

This topic is exhaustive and I've only barely gotten my thoughts out on this, may or may not add onto this later. The industry is constantly changing and I know things have to get better, but the rock bottom feeling I'm experiencing when I face the subject is sooo strong. Going back to drawing comics now.

[mama-qwerty]

Warning, AI rant ahead. Gonna get long.

So I read this post about how people using AI software don't want to use the thing to make art, they want to avoid all the hard work and effort that goes into actually improving your own craft and making it yourself. They want to AVOID making art--just sprinting straight to the finish line for some computer vomited image, created by splicing together the pieces from an untold number of real images out there from actual artists, who have, you know, put the time and effort into honing their craft and making it themselves.

Same thing goes for writing. Put in a few prompts, the chatbot spits out an 'original' story just for you, pieced together from who knows how many other stories and bits of writing out there written by actual human beings who've worked hard to hone their craft. Slap your name on it and sit back for the attention and backpats.

Now, this post isn't about that. I think most people--creatives in particular--agree that this new fad of using a computer to steal from others to 'create' something you can slap your name on is bad, and only further dehumanizes the people who actually put their heart and soul into the things they create. You didn't steal from others, the AI made it! Totally different.

"But I'm not posting it anywhere!"

No, but you're still feeding the AI superbot, which will continue to scrape the internet, stealing anything it can to regurgitate whatever art or writing you asked for. The thing's not pulling words out of thin air, creating on the fly. It's copy and pasting bits and pieces from countless other creative works based on your prompts, and getting people used to these bland, soulless creations made in seconds.

Okay, so maybe there was a teeny rant about it.

Anyway, back to the aforementioned post, I made the mistake of skimming through the comments, and they were . . . depressing.

Many of them dismissed the danger AI poses to real artists. Claimed that learning the skill of art or writing is "behind a paywall" (?? you know you don't HAVE to go to college to learn this stuff, right?) and that AI is simply a "new tool" for creating. Some jumped to "Old man yells at cloud" mindset, likening it to "That's what they said when digital photography became a thing," and other examples of "new thing appears, old people freak out".

This isn't about a new technology that artists are using to help them create something. A word processing program helps a writer get words down faster, and edit easier than using a typewriter, or pad and pencil. Digital art programs help artists sketch out and finish their vision faster and easier than using pencils and erasers or paints or whatever.

Yes, there are digital tools and programs that help an artist or writer. But it's still the artist or writer actually doing the work. They're still getting their idea, their vision, down 'on paper' so to speak, the computer is simply a tool they use to do it better.

No, what this is about is people just plugging words into a website or program, and the computer does all the work. You can argue with me until you're blue in the face about how that's just how they get their 'vision' down, but it's absolutely not the same. Those people are essentially commissioning a computer to spit something out for them, and the computer is scraping the internet to give them what they want.

If someone commissioned me to write them a story, and they gave me the premise and what they want to happen, they are prompting me, a human being, to use my brain to give them a story they're looking for. They prompted me, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN THEY WROTE THE STORY. It would be no more ethical for them to slap their name on what was MY hard work, that came directly from MY HEAD and not picked from a hundred other stories out there, simply because they gave me a few prompts.

And ya know what? This isn't about people using AI to create images or writing they personally enjoy at home and no one's the wiser. Magazines are having a really hard time with submissions right now, because the number of AI generated writing is skyrocketing. Companies are relying on AI images for their advertising instead of commissioning actual artists or photographers. These things are putting REAL PEOPLE out of work, and devaluing the hard work and talent and effort REAL PEOPLE put into their craft.

"Why should I pay someone to take days or weeks to create something for me when I can just use AI to make it? Why should I wait for a writer to update that fanfic I've been enjoying when I can just plug the whole thing into AI and get an ending now?"

Because you're being an impatient, selfish little shit, and should respect the work and talent of others. AI isn't 'just another tool'--it's a shortcut for those who aren't interested in actually working to improve their own skills, and it actively steals from other hardworking creatives to do it.

"But I can't draw/write and I have this idea!!"

Then you work at it. You practice. You be bad for a while, but you work harder and improve. You ask others for tips, you study your craft, you put in the hours and the blood, sweat, and tears and you get better.

"But that'll take so looooong!"

THAT'S WHAT MAKES IT WORTH IT! You think I immediately wrote something worth reading the first time I tried? You think your favorite artist just drew something amazing the first time they picked up a pencil? It takes a lot of practice and work to get good.

"But I love the way [insert name] draws/writes!"

Then commission them. Or keep supporting them so they'll keep creating. I guarantee if you use their art or writing to train an AI to make 'new' stuff for you, they will not be happy about it.

This laissez-faire attitude regarding the actual harm AI does to artists and writers is maddening and disheartening. This isn't digital photography vs film, this is actual creative people being pushed aside in favor of a computer spitting out a regurgitated mish-mash of already created works and claiming it as 'new'.

AI is NOT simply a new tool for creatives. It's the lazy way to fuel your entitled attitude, your greed for content. It's the cookie cutter, corporate-encouraged vomit created to make them money, and push real human beings out the door.

We artists and writers are already seeing a very steep decline in the engagement with our creations--in this mindset of "that's nice, what's next?" in consumption--so we are sensitive to this kind of thing. If AI can 'create' exactly what you want, why bother following and encouraging these slow humans?

And if enough people think this, why should these slow humans even bother to spend time and effort creating at all?

Yeah, yeah, 'old lady yells at cloud'.

[passionesolja]

Okay, I’ve started beefing with AI again, so I got some shit to get off my chest. AI bros invading creative spaces and not understanding etiquette and social rules is a huge defining factor as to why there’s friction. A lot of these AI bros think that because a machine did it, that it negates the use of plagiarism. And if you’ve ever been in any creative space for more than a week, you know how much beef is caused by people stealing other people’s work.

“Oh well the machines are advancing, technology is advancing” mf my labor, energy, and concepts are not going to be sacrificed on the alter of your bullshit robots. Dawg, you wrote “make me a fantasy book about ogres” and that robot scoured the internet until it found SOMEONE ELSE’s years of hard work, effort, and time—months and years that they’ll never get back— and repurposed it shoddily for you. Bastardized it completely without any of the thought and nuance of the person who wrote it. You don’t even know who originally wrote what that AI generated because it doesn’t credit them.

These AI bros are selfish and lazy. Like ofc your slothful ass don’t care that the genetic anime girl you AI generated only has 3 fingers, because you don’t have one sense of pride or self worth wrapped up in this. You’re not putting yourself out there when you post AI generated art, you don’t have nothing to prove. You’re not opening yourself to being seen as complete trash and cringe whenever you show the world your art. You don’t even have the disappointment of nobody caring after you poured your heart into a project for years, months, weeks, days, or hours.

Hell, you didn’t even create the AI you’re using so you didn’t learn anything new about coding, or toil with debugging and brick walls. You’re a leech who’s too lazy to produce anything but wants the fruits given to those who truly do make shit.

AI art and writing lacks the humanity and risk of creation. It’s far removed from what makes art art. It removes the AI bro from even making something of their own. Like if somebody self-made their AI and had it for personal use only, it’d still be scummy and stealing but at least they busted their ass and created something that complex. At least the person spent time and effort creating something. Like AI isn’t easy to code, it takes effort just like art does

These AI bros are leeches. They don’t create the software the use, or the art they steal.

Because how can you—somebody who can’t draw, can’t code, isn’t a team member of the AI dev team—“push technology forward”? You’re not doing anything to advance anything, you’re a parasite who merely acts as a tester for software but you don’t implement the changes and do the work of actually translating metadata into the code.

Do not let these people lie to you, or themselves, they’re doing anything remotely productive by stealing peoples’ art and writing.

[doberbutts]

ok ok ok so i grew up with tons of big farm dogs. i haven't had a dog for a while now bc running away from home, poverty, etc etc. life might be settling into a place in the next few years where i could get a dog.... and i'm thinking about a chi when that time comes. do you have good info on them? how to find a (relatively) healthy one from a breed rescue or reputable breeder? anything about them that should be known if you dont have one? any quirks they have? feel free to ignore this but this is a chance to spread chihuahua propaganda if you want :)

If you are looking for good information on the breed, I would locate the website for the breed club in your country and start reading. If there's not much of a website, see if you can find any events put on by the breed club in your country so that you can go and learn more in person. Unfortunately the dog world is half people old enough to be our grandparents, so there's not always a lot of technological knowledge to make information readily available to the public in the way we're typically used to.

In the US, that would be the Chihuahua Club of America, but of course you're on anon so I have no idea what country to look for.

I do not have good luck with rescue so I will not be advising you there. Finding a responsible breeder can be quite difficult, especially in this companion breed that is ridiculously popular. In general, you are going to want the breeder that health tests to at minimum the standard laid out by the breed club. Here, that would be heart, knees, eyes, and a basic genetics test. Showing vs not showing, sports vs no sports, those are things that personally I think matter less to the average buyer who just wants a nice pet.

Personally I look for people who at least take their dogs to events and have fun, because I think temperament is incredibly important in any dog breed, but "events" doesn't need to mean "dog events". My chihuahuas' breeders take their dogs to their Buddhist meetings, where they sit on the laps of attendees and run around the temple freely. This tells me a lot more than "does sports", because it means the dogs are capable of being around a large group of strangers and in a strange area completely offleash and are not only safe but happy to be doted on by whoever is delighted by the presence of a billion tiny dogs. They do also take their dogs to fun run sporting events, and they show their dogs too, but I think in a companion breed the hanging out at the temple provides me more information.

As far as quirks go... they're pretty clannish. A good chihuahua is a friendly dog that may square up and fire off at an incoming challenger- they are pretty similar to terriers after all, and my girls will try to chase coyotes off my property despite very much being snack-sized- but at the same time they shouldn't be little asshole rat dogs that no one wants to be around. They prefer to hang out with other chihuahuas or similarly-sized dogs, though with good socialization you can convince them that bigger dogs are okay too. They're very affectionate and needy, but also have their own independent streak, and when training you may need to be creative when convincing them you're worth listening to. They're pretty cold-intolerant and seek heat and comfort. They come from feral pariah dogs, so they have a lot of "primitive" traits seen in other frequently loose, roaming dogs. They can be hard to potty train as they're avid markers, even the females. They tend to steal and hoard and bury things. Despite a reputation for being yappy, mostly my chihuahuas are pretty quiet until there's a reason to bark, but Fae does do a single bark at passersby when out on a walk.

[pixxyofice]

god wow that ai post really WAS that bad. and from such a promising artist too!! And while I can somewhat see the point of originality cause fanart is based off preexisting stuff, trying to say someone's fanart isn't someone's own true art is so fucking stupid. Like I'm so serious that's so godamn stupid. Inspiration is an inherit human thing! Ofc every piece of media ever is inspired by something, even old shit like superman, dragonball and mario! Acting like that doesn't mean it's someone's "true art" is so arrogant and dumb, especially when trying to make the case that ai isn't bad.

wow it's been a while since a post annoyed me that bad but seriously ai has been the enemy for writers, voice/live-action actors, and artists for months! How is the point missed that badly!

YEAH RIGHT???? like uhhh inspiration comes free with your fucking creativity!! ai has none of that, just algorithms.

Tracing isn't even like ai either, it's practice- knowing how shapes work, and with enough of it, can influence a style... or can simply help inform you how to change it up! Which AI inherently can't do on it's own. It's aggregate date things.

And I'm also tired of ai defenders saying it frees things up for disabled people to make art. Which is wrong! They can always make some type of art without the use of complicated stealing ai which scours places for data sets to smash into itself.

Art can be anything. AI maybe could've been handy- a system to see something similar about your own art, a system that provides something you want to put your own spin on

But no. AI is stealing, and AI is being used to PUT ARTISTS OUT OF JOBS COMPLETELY. I saw a post that claimed that there's been scares like this before, but none of the technology before then just outright made """"new"""" looking art...

We don't need copyright protection, we need restrictions on those AI systems. And if they want to work on making AI better after we make sure employers, uh, Don't? Try to replace artists with things that can make """new""" art, then I think that's fine.

Not to go even further on a tangent but uhhh you know the gay sex cat picture that was ai created and the creator made a bit of a point about which I forgot because once others figured out it was ai generated I deleted and ignored?

Well I was just thinking about that and it's like. If it weren't for the fact that AI has been just rampantly stealing from artists, it would've been a pretty funny post. It's fuckin gay sex cats. But because of the AI thing, we tossed it.

'Stop training the system that will only be used to further devalue artists' kinda thing.

Remember right when the thing started, where there wasn't much data and it was just kinda freaky? People used that for inspiration. That's not stealing, that's exercising creativity, and I just. Ughh.

Thanks for ranting and enabling this rant now uhhh I'm not tagging this except for long post.

[not-terezi-pyrope]

Folks are going to have to decide whether they want to rethink AI tools and the reasons for their attitudes towards them pretty quick, because both Adobe and NVIDIA just released massive suites of tools for individual creatives and enterprise respectively, and the image generating components for both are apparently sourced from the massive proprietary image databases these companies can arrange access to. So the objection that these models are unethical because they "steal" from public data (they really didn't, but that's sort of besides the point with these now) is null and void. (N.b.: It does put the power to control these tools almost exclusively in the hands of large companies who can license image datasets though, so. Decide how you want to feel about this becoming the standard.)

NVIDIA's offering sounds particularly impressive. They say incorporate multimodal capacity, including text, images, videos and 3D models. Adobe on the other hand has a demo of their tech integrated into Photoshop and Illustrator.

These aren't emerging technologies anymore, these are becoming universal tools that are being deployed at scale, and people are going to need to decide where they stand real quick on their use. The vast majority of people and all of companies that are presented with access to these systems are going to be using them to streamline their pipelines, for better or ill, and if you conscientiously object to their use that will potentially come with consequences in terms of keeping up in your field.

Personally I still think that these can be made into useful developments for society. I think objecting outright to these tools existing now that they do exist is asking for an impossible reversal and throwing out the possibility of working to leverage the tech to benefit the public rather than the corporations who will be using it anyway. No, we should be leaning in and working together in order to shape how these tools are integrated, instead of abjuring and clinging to our current dystopia until machine learning overtakes us.

No, we should be preparing to use these tools constructively, and, Jesus fucking Christ, people need to be organizing to lobby and elect their governments such that we can institute and automation tax and/or UBI now. The expectation that there will be paid work for every human to support themselves is already unrealistic, and clinging to it is the only thing preventing automation via cognitive tools from becoming a massive labour saver instead of the looming scary spectre many people treat it as today. Make no mistake, a policy like that will almost certainly be forced through by sheer necessity if increasing automation makes the current model unsustainable, but we need to get out ahead of it if we want to avoid a transition crisis and unhelpful widespread backlash.

[wyvolf]

Stop using beta.character.ai

Reminder that character AI is still trained off the same models that AI like ChatGPT and MidJourney uses. It's still stolen data, It is still stealing from artists. But this time using fanfiction and roleplay posts as its "training". Role-play with real people and not yes men bots that’s mostly if not always out of character and immersion breaking that changes the plot every few minutes.

Trust me as someone who’s been role-playing for 11~ years it’s so much better role-playing with real people. Sure it can suck sometimes when it could be days without a response, a way to combat this? A friendly once a day bump, or you know go outside and touch grass, do other activities while you wait for their reply since… gasp! They’re not machines and have life outside the internet.

Role-play in groups, while daunting yes, can lead to much more fun, more character development, more potential, etc. On discord there’s thousands of roleplay servers. Use a site like Disboard, use the search feature by typing what you like (such as “pirate-RP” for example), and read the available public servers that’s been recently bumped, if there are reviews read them! Hell join them, see if its right for you: if it ain't you're allowed to leave and search on. Or create your own!

If you somehow constantly have to rely on these bots for social interaction then um? I’m going to ask you to get help. Make real friends! Yes I get the social anxieties about it, I have social anxiety and I am on the spectrum but trust me it isn’t fucking healthy relying on bots as social interaction, if you’re of age go to the local bar!

This is the future plenty of media warned about (which yes I get pointing to video games or TV shows or movies ain’t good but literally? So many stories warn of this potential now very likely future. There’s no good ending here unless we do something about regulation)

Sora AI is scary ChatGPT getting this new 0.4 update is *scary* (AugustTheDuck video about it) Unregulated AI that has the very real potential to make socializing with real people harder, Unregulated AI has the potential to scam your grandparents, Unregulated AI has the potential to create blackmail and false evidence.

You are complicit if you use character AI or chatgpt. You cannot be anti-AI and still use character ai. There is no ethical 'creative AI', yet. There is no way to create your own AI that is fed your own work without using the same model that has thousands if not millions of stolen data. Character AI does not use this.

buzz tags so people can see this. AI-bros you can cry about it, touch grass. I am anti-AI but so people can actually read this goofy positive tags.

AI-Phobia does not exist. Cool links! Protecting Artists from AI Technologies (Alt Link for EU) And a google doc with how AI is bad and links with sources and support.

[symposiumofcorvus]

I've been hesitant to post. I heard from my brother that Tumblr allows the content here to feed AI. I am, by no means, paranoid about the limits of this technology. Not one bit. But I can't help feeling agitated about its use in the arts. I think about the use of AI for art nowadays and how so many people defend it. I think it's disgusting that the hard work of so many artists gets stolen to feed a program. All so talentless clowns can claim that their generated images are equivalent to art produced by real artists and demand that their "work" is recognized.

I have yet to find any convincing piece written by AI, though. I don't think it could ever approximate a work by a real writer. That gives me some level of comfort, but I still don't want my writing to be used for a machine that will steal parts of, essentially, my soul and mush up with a bunch of other people's work. If that happens, I'll have to find solace in humor and call it what it is: Hot Dog Writing!

Either way, I fear feeding AI will become impossible to avoid. One way or another, if any of my works are out there in the digital world, I think AI would take from them. Am I to cling to my works and never share them? What's the point in writing without sharing? If that's the case, I might as well stick to journaling. But that is not enough for me. I need to write to get the creative juices going. I need to write to express complex ideas and explore them through interesting characters. While, at the end of the day, I do write for myself, I would be lying if I said I don't want anyone to read my works.

Well, that being said, I'm finishing up a short story that I will post here soon. I don't know how soon that will be, since I am working on a couple of other things. For now, this little entry will do. What do you think? Is AI crossing into areas where it shouldn't be? Do you think a program can write a piece that feels human? Can it create any art with true essence? If so, would that mean we have created a new humanity? Or will AI always be too obvious in these areas, despite being technically good?

[glasshalftrue]

as both an artist and a programmer (though not one working in machine learning so i won't claim anything close to expertise), the anti-ai takes i see from artists are really frustrating to me. the two most common criticisms i see about it are that it's 1. stealing 2. not art regarding the first point, it's clear that most artists don't understand the general technology behind it at all. they constantly claim that it does stuff like just collage different parts of images together, when that's very much not what it's doing! the process that neural nets use is incredibly complex and it's much more about pattern matching than storing and replicating exact sets of pixels. i definitely don't like it when ai artists specifically target an artist who voices their discomfort with having their art being used that way, if only because it's simply mean and rude, but unfortunately, i can't say that i'd consider it plagiarism. and for the people who want stronger copyright laws to protect artists' rights: believe me, it will not at all be helpful to "the little guy" like you think it will. regarding the second point, it seems like there's a couple things going on. one part of the critique seems to come from the quality of the art itself, which is an obviously losing battle. remember a year ago, when people were making fun of how bad ai was at generating hands? they seem to have pretty much solved that now, and whatever little nitpick you might be able to point out next, it's almost certain they'll eventually figure out that one too. i see a lot of tips floating around about how to tell if a piece of art is ai-generated, and while the tips usually do work well, the fact that the people need to use these increasingly specialized perceptive skills makes it pretty clear that it's becoming more and more indistinguishable. i've seen plenty of cases at this point of real artists having their work being accused of being ai-generated, which to me seems like the logical conclusion of people's assumptions that they can always tell when something is real or not, and i think it's only going to get worse and worse. the other part of the critique is about the artist's intent, an appeal to some illusory idea of "the soul", which seem like transparently bad arguments to me, and are clearly motivated from an emotional-driven place. because it seems so obvious to me that prompters do, in fact, have an intent when they're generating ai art, some sort of vision of what they want to create. it doesn't matter that their idea is vaguely defined rather than fully-formed in their head; plenty of existing art forms involve a creation process that is similarly stochastic, from Jackson Pollock-style drip paintings to experimental generative digital music. hell, even when i draw i often don't know exactly what i want to the end product to look like and figure it out as i go along! now, the incredibly low-barrier to entry and the general motivations and sensibilities of a lot of typical ai art enthusiasts mean that, in practice, a lot of (maybe most) ai art is indeed dumb garbage. but just like how the reality that most mainstream superhero movies these days are boring and soulless doesn't mean that the superhero genre is inherently without merit, the existence of bad ai art isn't good evidence of the medium itself being creatively bankrupt.

ultimately, i do agree and sympathize with a lot of artists' concerns and criticisms about ai art and what its possible effects on the world will be. like i said, in practice a lot of ai art really is soulless trash, but the ease of creation means that i can very easily see a world where most of the art we see today in our everyday lives is replaced with bland, insipid ai generated shit that is just good enough for the general public, and i really don't want to live in that world. and for that same reason, it'll also likely have a very bad impact on the art industry and people's abilities to do art as a career, and while the disruption of industries due to technological innovation is a tale as old as time, the potentially rapid pace of this disruption will certainly lead to a lot of suffering along the way. i just wish that artists had a better idea of what they're actually fighting against.

[catgirl-catboy]

hi! since you seem pretty pro-ai, i have a question. how do you reconcile that stance with the growing threat ai has on creative jobs? especially right now with the wga strike, when one of their main issues is ai. not trying to trap you or start a fight, just genuinely curious as someone with a foot in both fanfic and professional writing who doesn’t fully know how to feel.

I wouldn't say I'm pro ai in the sense that I think ai is uncritically great.

I think ai is morally neutral, and that it is only getting misused under capitalism.

I am absolutely down for ai being improved upon to progress society, and think ai could actually be a helpful tool for a lot of jobs humans don't want to do!

(Look me in the eye and tell me the current youtube auto generated captions are acceptable. Look my Hard of Hearing ass in the eye.)

That being said, the current people that are funding and working on the ai are scumbags that are clearly in it for a cheap buck and not to progress humanity forwards!

(maybe I'm an optimist, but I want to program something great one day. Something that other programmers build upon, and eventually people are still benefitting from my existence long after I'm gone!)

That being said, it isn't as easy as "magically hope the people behind chatGDP grow a spine or replace them with better people" I feel the the government should regulate ai more, so it isn't down to the morality of the current big name cooperations!

This will likely not happen, since governments always wait to pass laws on technology until it is far too late. I'd say:

If an Ai was used, it has to be disclosed and the programmers who wrote the ai credited.

In order to train a commercial ai on something, you have to either get consent from the people that made it (same as reference photos) or pay them. It should be like stock photos.

The companies shouldn't be able to tell users what they can and can't use the ai for. This is a slippery slope, and I could very easily see it leading to the "sorry, we refuse to write anything thats anti-big company! Sorry (suck my dick)

I think it should be under the same copyright law as fanfiction. You can use an ai to make whatever the fuck you want, but if you sell it the people that came up with the idea can come after you. As for ai completely stealing human jobs, it doesn't seem very likely. Ai automating people out of a job has always been a fear, and writing/art is the least likely field for this to happen in. The ai can't make anything original. If, lets say, the dataset goes up to 2020, then the ai won't be able to comment on modern events in the slightest. An ai can make SW fic, but once a new movie drops, its dataset will no longer be accurate. Therefore, the ai depends on humans to keep datasets up to date. Also, current ai is not good enough to recreate a modern TV show. Have you tried Ai? Do you think you can get it to keep a plot going for more than 1-2 prompts? Let alone an entire 22 minute episode? It'll be all tangential and clunky. even if some person actually wanted to write a show in this way, they'd need human editors to make it make sense. And at that point, if you're already paying humans, there's no point in relying on the ai. Another flaw in this "using ai to write shows approach" is that the ai isn't static? Like, if a new update roles out, the writing of the show can be completely off and that may not be fixable. I don't think anyone in Hollywood would want to put their faith in the competency of a bunch of random programmers.

We should have debated the morality of ai before we made it, if thats what tumblr wants. Its too late now. Can't put the genie back in the bottle.

There's no way that random internet users will have the same impact on the way ai plays out, since its up to the government and big cooperations.

I advise anyone who feels strongly about the subject to lobby to their government (or maybe the ai creators, but the government is your best bet.) instead of trying to peer pressure internet users into a boycott that will not affect shit in any way.

[asklittlepip]

Things have certainly happened, and normally I woulda commented on yesterday being "Fallout Day", or more specifically, the date on which the Great War happened, though it isn't exactly 2077 yet. But a whole buncha family health drama happened I don't want to get into, so that dulled the week for me. And then you've got what's happening overseas as I alluded to with the last post, as well as a certain criminal who still roams free..

Ugh. I just wanna play videogames and talk about stupid nerdy stuff that only affects those into that! We live in an age of technology and social progress, yet there continues to exist those who'd drag us back into the darkness, bereft of freedom and innovation. A somehow even more fucked up dystopia where the machines steal creative jobs and the humans do the manual labor, instead of the reverse..

And on that note, stop calling it "AI" generated. It's automated theft! These are just algorithims that are assembling pieces of things they copied from others. They aren't creating it out of anything they didn't steal. Nobody taught these things how to paint, or proper techniques on artistry. And while everybody is inspired by something, if you just start lifting others' work, without permission or payment, that is unacceptable.. so why make excuses for this being ok?

I'm not saying the technology is completely without merit (unlike, say, NFTs, which are utterly pointless and fortunately, continue to fail). A good "AI" art tool could be used by an actual creator to, say, correct seams in textures on a 3D model, or to add more randomness to a repeating surface in a game. But in those cases, it's not really intelligent, is it? It's simply another thing you click in [art program of your choice], that isn't scouring the Internet to rob others of their career or even their OCs.

As for voice-based "AI", which, again, I hate the use of that term since it.. isn't.. more like a VI, really.. there's a small number of uses that aren't wrong. Remember how Stephen Russell recorded a few hundred names for Fallout 4, so that Codsworth could address the player properly? Then had to be called back to the studio for even more, and it still barely scratched the surface of common names, let alone silly ones? That's an application I can see vocal algorithims doing their work in, without impacting the career of actors; it could dynamically construct names based on player input, and respond appropriately.

This is where a computer could actually do it better, because the idea that you're going to get a human to speak tens of thousands of names, all in the correct cadence and presentation, and also store all that.. is absurd. Or using this knowledge to improve text-to-speech programs for the disabled. But when you're having the machine do their actual line readings for them in movies or games, or you're making yet another stupid Youtube video / mod that's having them say absurd or even offensive things.. yeah, no. Stop. Just stop.

Anyways, just some random thoughts, as it were. Hope you're all doing well and continue to DO good, too!

[writtenbygracewilliams]

AI: how to protect fanfics, and is it stealing our google docs?

I have someone close to me in my life who works in tech/cyber security (and also understands fanfic and online writing/community), and about once a month I call them in shambles about AI; and how to best protect my work from being scraped.

Spoiler: there is nothing we can do. Even if it’s explicit—despite the fact they don’t want explicit content on their programs. Even if it’s private to users only—Google and Open AI could easily have multiple ao3 accounts, and it only takes one.

Unless you can very tangibly prove that your specific work was stolen, like the programs that put Getty watermarks in ai ‘art’, then you have no legal recourse. Until some smart lawyer works out how to class action this shit.

It is a contemporary failing of technology, that what should make lives easier is only existing because it stole the work of thousands and millions of creatives. Open AI have freely admitted that their program cannot exist without theft. It relies on stolen content exist.

While we publish on the internet, which we have every right to, and which we have built amazing communities from, we cannot be safe or protected from AI bots scraping every word.

Ultimately, the aforementioned tech/cybersecurity pro said that all we can do is what makes us personally feel better. Right now it is not affecting us directly/individually, and we can’t prove otherwise.

I’m going to continue to fully abstain from any use of ChatGPT or other generative AI software, and encourage others in my life to do the same.

Lastly, I’ve seen suggestions that Google may be scraping private docs for ai learning. I’ve been assured that this is incredibly unlikely, given the potential for them to then accidentally reveal highly sensitive confidential information that could land them in a world of trouble. There is enough already on the internet; scraping docs would be way riskier than it’s worth.

[protagonistheavy]

I think my opinions overall on AI art fit firmly in the area where I'd piss off everyone simultaneously.

It's become that sort of issue where I know generally what side of the argument I'm on, but while my direct oppositions have arguments that are rather predictable for their stance, it's the people on my own side that I'm constantly hearing the worst arguments/misinformation from. There are unfortunately a lot of people who oppose AI art for pretty much all the worst possible reasons.

I think the anti-AI side of things can benefit a lot from understanding why people would use AI art instead of ~hiring an artist~, and then arguing on that playing field. Because if I see another argument that just boils down to "see??? if you just spend part of a lifetime practicing art and then schedule most of your life around it, you can make art too!!! easy!!!" i'm going to blow up into smithereens. Not everyone is a full-career artist, nor do they intend to be; I know that's hard for a lot of artists to comprehend because their whole life has been about drawing pictures, but other people are busy with other things. Some people do not have the time or energy to add a whole new craft to their capabilities -- even less people want to do that just so they can make an icon for a website they're making, or to create a book cover for the book they're writing, or whatever. If your argument to anyone of these pro-AI people is that they should just start learning to draw, please just shut the fuck up, you've failed to understand the core basic reasoning why people find AI art appealing: extremely quick production, passable quality, and the only person you have to work with is a computer, not a human being that has their own schedule, passions, etc. to consider.

This isn't a pro-AI argument I'm taking either, I'm just sick of seeing these terrible arguments coming from people I should theoretically agree with. So much of this mindset is pure gatekeeping of all visual arts, and from a position that is bound to fail; this technology isn't going to disappear, and there's plenty of uses for AI generation that isn't just wholesale stealing art from people. It's going to be used more and more, especially as industry artists learn how to utilize it in conjunction with their own abilities.

Man seriously, BOTH sides I think have GOT to accept that AI art generation is never going to reach a point where one prompt gets you the perfect picture. To me it seems like its best use is for creating outlines or references, or filling in non-vital indications of details. You still have to be an artist to then take that image and manifest something unique from it. The companies behind AI art generation really want you to believe that it can do that, that you just put in one prompt and out comes a complete picture, but it really doesn't work that way -- it's a boogeyman concept, that one day we're just gonna have computers shitting out all of our visual elements in the world, and no artist will ever dare lift a pen again in such trying times. Professional artists are already adapting to the new tech and learning how to use it as a tool for full-scale projects, rather than just a novelty to spit something out in 20 seconds. It's very much overselling the capabilities of AI art to believe that this is the bad timeline where all artists go extinct and their talents are simply never needed.

Now I do have some fears about AI art and how it will effect artists in the industry, and how some corporations will try to use AI art in the sloppiest ways possible. It will be a turbulent time, but far from the dark age of creativity that some people are expecting.