#that isn't trying to steal your work and say it's their AI who did it?

[piovascosimo]

Blur | To The End (2024)

"i can't wait to decipher more words, but the singing is fucking ace, your voice sounds really good... but it's an expensive microphone."

[xenocorner]

(If you're someone who enjoys my work, and also happens to like/support AI generated images, please give this a read? Just hear me out, please. This is not a bashing post, I promise. It's not pro-ai either though. But please hear me out)

This whole AI art stuff is just getting... Honestly exhausting. If you are someone who supports AI generated images, I beg of you, hear me out? I'm not here to bash, to say you're a bad person or a thief. I know it's more complex than that. I'm just, trying to express how I feel about this whole ordeal. I'm not here to get angry either. I don't have the energy for that. I'm also not trying to change your mind. Just, hopefully help you see/feel a different perspective? That's all.

Long rant under the cut because. There's a lot.

I'm not even angry anymore. I don't have the energy for that. But I keep seeing AI images all over, everywhere. The thing is getting better (because of course it is). And I see more and more people support it. And sometimes those people are also artists or people who like art and support artists.

And then I also see artists be laid off. I see how it gets harder and harder to make a break in the industry. And even after you make it you get laid off because... People don't wanna bother with it anymore. Corps would rather cut costs.

And then I see people defend AI images. Say it's okay, that it isn't stealing from artists, that it is just a tool, ignoring a huge part of the problem (whether willfully or not).

And it just makes me so incredibly sad. So utterly devastated.

I was angry. I really used to be angry. I'm just hurt now. Hopeless for the future. And tired. Really really damn tired.

Tired of artists having to justify their existance in the professional world. Tired of people just saying... No.

No, you don't get to thrive. And you're selfish and entitled for wanting to thrive. No, you don't get to feel hurt when your work gets scrapped without your permission to feed a data base designed to replace you. No, you don't get a say in this. Don't like? Bohoo, don't see.

Well, how can I not see when this issue directly affects how I live? How can I not see when this issue affects my future? It's not just a matter of "Don't like x kind of content, don't interact with it". It really is not. I really wish it was, I wish it was that simple. But it's not. Because this is not something like a ship or a trope that one can ignore and not be affected. This is like trying to ignore a dumpster fire in your neighborhood. Yeah, you can avoid looking at it. You can avoid talking about it. But the smoke is still getting into your house. You're still breathing it. It's still hurting you. It will have effects on your life, whether you like it or not.

I threw away 12 years of my life building up my skill to work in a field that feels like it's dying out. Am I (and countless other artists) just supposed to start over? How? Time is unforgiving.

Bohoo for your bad choices, suck it up. Your fault for pursuing art as a career.

Was I supposed to just, KNOW, somehow, that the career I choose, that used to be viable, would just... Take this turn? Was I supposed to have a 10 year look into the the future?

You should create for the joy of creating!

I do. I love creating. I love making people happy with my work. Work I spent years perfecting. It's the most beautiful feeling in the world to know that someone smiled or cried or felt something because of something I did. It makes me smile and cry too.

But I also like to be able to eat. To have a roof. To pay for my meds. And the joy of creating honestly dwindles each time I see people talk about AI images the same way they talk about a painting in the Louvure.

Becaus they do. I've seen people talk about images generated by a machine (built upon stealing artwork from unconsenting artists) like they're the work of God. And they write such beautiful things too. And I'm left baffled, confused, uneasy.

And then I go to see artists, living, breathing, feeling artists, who create marvelous pieces, who pour their heart into their work, who shed sweat blood and tears to get their skills to where they are, who are still shedding sweat blood and tears to keep improving... And they don't even get a 'nice'. They've been job searching for 3 years. They can't get a steady flow of commissions. They're scrambling to be able to get a table at a con.

And it hurts to my very core.

It hurts in a place I don't even know how to describe, because it's so deep and so personal and so raw that I don't think there's a name for it.

I love art. I love it so damn much. I love making it, I love sharing it, I love teaching it.

I think many other people love art too. I think many other people who love art don't even consciously realize they do.

And it hurts seeing art just... Become this.

It hurts seeing the artistic souls of this earth be pushed down and down again and again over and over and be told to just. To just suck it up.

To die off.

Because when people support AI images, they are telling us to die off. It feels like they are telling us to die off.

And I don't think the people who do realize it at all, because a lot of people who support AI images are not bad people. They are not. They enjoy art too. But they are, consiously or not, directly or indirectly, hurting the artists whose work made the data base AI generators use possible.

They're telling us to die off because they already have our work. And they can use it to generate new, regurgitated work faster, cheaper. They don't need us. So while they may like what us, artists, do, they're feeding a system that is killing us off. Both metaphorically and literally. Metaphorically by killing the will to create. Literally by taking our living off of us (or at least to those who's art is their living. Like myself).

And again.

It hurts so damn much.

And I don't think a lot of people manage to see the hurt past all the anger.

I, personally, have grown exhausted and there's no anger left in me, only sad and hurt.

But I promise you, behind every angry and fighting and barking and bitting artists there is out there, there's hurt. There's some form of hurt behind each and every one of them. Of us.

I really hope this reaches the right people. Whether that be a fellow artists struggling to get their feelings into words to let them know they're not alone. Or someone who supports AI images, and supports artists too, and can maybe get a glimpse into a side of this whole issue. Not necessarily to change their mind but, maybe help them understand better where all the anger from artists may be coming from.

Please, I'm not here to start any fights or debates. I really am not. I just need to get this sort of thing out there, because I think talking about it is important.

[chaos-in-deepspace]

Hi, I'm really sorry if i am troubling you with this, but you’re the only person who had made detailed posts about ai writing and plagiarism and i've had so many thoughts ever since I read them.

I'm sorry for using anon. actually i wasn't sure who i should talk to this about, but i hope you can understand me.

i don't know/not sure if what i did is wrong, but i think there might have been some wrong turns I took while writing. but I'm not sure, so that's why I'm asking for your opinion.

i really love reading and i really really want to get into writing, and I'm hoping one day i can write my own book when i am good at it and confident in my skill. But for now, my grammar and language skills are very limited, so I'm trying to write fanfics, not just because it's fun but because it helps me with learning.

I've only ever posted one story, and I will admit that i used chat gpt when writing it. but not in the way you think, but I'm sure it is still wrong. I don't know lot of words, and sometimes I don't know how to write some phrases. While I have all these ideas and plots about a wonderful story, it's still hard for me to convert them into beautiful sentences. so I often use google translate, translating the sentences from my language and then use chat gpt to correct the grammar and rewrite if it's wrong.

I didn't realise it was wrong then. But now I do. And I'm sorry.

I know plagiarism is bad, and I have never supported it and I will never ever steal from another creator's work, but until I read your post about ai, I didn't know I have been doing that myself. And I'm really sorry for that. because I never thought of it that way, and thought 'I'm just translating, it's still my ideas and all' but it's still wrong

I have deleted the story now. and I am trying to write every story without a translator as much as possible, and absolutely no ai. I'm trying to improve (even though my now story drafts look like gibberish lol) but yeah.

I just also wanted to say, you're doing a great job, thank you for speaking up for authors and their hard work. I know some people disagree with you, but you've been an eye opener for me. thank you for spending your time reading this, i hope I didn't take much of your time. Have a nice day ♡

Alright so here's my two cents on this situation: What you did wasn't wrong at all. In fact, if someone is going to use AI for writing, this is how it should be used.

I have never believed that AI is the most terrible thing in the world. It can be rather helpful in certain aspects, and if someone wants to use it in order to help them, then so be it. I'm adding a cut here because this post is rather long, so feel free to continue reading if you want to hear my explanation about why using tools like this isn't inherently bad.

I assume English isn't your first language from what you've told me. You're trying to write an entire story in a language that can be rather difficult with finessing the right words and phrases to get your thoughts across. Using something like google translate to write in your language and then converting it into English isn't bad. People use google translate all the time on websites in order to read the things.

Putting it into ChatGPT to help with the phrasing also isn't an inherently bad thing. You were the one who wrote those words in your language, had to translate it, then realized perhaps you needed a little extra help and had ChatGPT clarify it, because google translate is very rough when it comes to getting words across and it often is broken English in a sense.

You were using tools accessible for you in order to get your ideas across in a language that takes even Native English speakers years to write and understand perfectly. I'm still learning new things about grammar all the time and I've been writing since I was 13. I've been writing for 13 years and I still make mistakes with my grammar and have to learn new things.

If you were using ChatGPT to write the fic itself, then that's bad. That's not a good thing to do. You were writing it yourself and just needed some help making it right. It's the same as using a tool like grammarly to check your work for typos or grammatical errors. It's not writing for you, it's assisting in areas a lot of people lack in. People have been using editors for centuries to go over their writing, and now and days we just happen to have software for it.

My issue and what I'm fighting against is the use of Generative AI. To make it simple, I'm just showing how my brain works with different AI uses for writing. I'm sure there's proper technical names for them, but this is simple for me to understand it:

Grammatical AI: Things like Grammarly who's sole purpose is to go through a document and correct grammar, and even suggesting better ways to write a sentence. This is a great tool, and while it can't compare to having a human editor, it definitely can help make things clearer. Translation AI: These are things like Google Translate or other translator APPs. It takes things from one language and converts it to another. Most of the time when this is used it does things word-for-word without much mind to how grammatically something would be set up. We all know every language has it's own ways of speaking and writing in a grammatical sense, and often times translator apps don't take into account of these nuances. The entire purpose is to simply translate, and yes, sometimes it doesn't get things across correctly. Idea AI: Things like ChatGPT can actually be used to help get ideas. If you have writer's block you can ask ChatGPT to perhaps give you some prompts to help you write. This is one of the ways I agree AI can be used for creativity. While a lot of them are very generic, it's up to you to actually make it into a reality and add your own spin to it. Generative AI: This is the form of AI I have issues with. All AI programs have to take learning from somewhere, that's just how AI works. Grammarly, Google Translate, and ChatGPT all take information from the internet in order to generate things. Something like Chatbots, however, really takes the cake. I say Chatbots are more like toys. They're fun to playa round with when bored, but that should be the end of it. It can generative entire stories and conversations, dialogues, etc by ripping things from say: Tumblr, AO3, alongside other platforms where people post their writing.

When I say using Generative AI is bad, I mean it. Those words are not your own, you're allowing AI to completely write everything. It's not "helping" you, it's doing the work for you. It does this by stealing from other people who did put in the effort to write things.

While using ChatGPT to reword sentences is a form of Generative AI, it's a lesser version. You're feeding it information that you wrote and asking it for help. Again, you still wrote it. If you ran your entire fic through google translate and then asked ChatGPT to help clarify things and fix grammatical errors, it's still your writing in a sense. While it's definitely not good to do this, it's not nearly as bad as having a Chatbot write everything for you. Again, you had put in the work and needed assistance.

If you'd like a good example of Generative AI that does all the work, and what many people are doing (although they might be RPing with it, so about a quarter of the writing is done by a human), then check out this post. My friend Atty did a phenomenal job in showing in real time how a fanfic can be made simply by using a Chatbot. It's giving a bot the most simple instructions and writing entire paragraphs that, if he wasn't an honest guy, could've copy/pasted and then posted to tumblr while claiming he wrote it.

That's the AI I don't like. The ones where people don't put in any effort to get their fic "written" and then have the audacity to claim it as their own. What you did wasn't bad, but if I can make a suggestion for moving forward:

Make friends who are willing to help you. There's so many writer communities out there who are more than willing to help others. Not only can they read your fics before you post them and let you know how amazing they are, they can also:

Help you reword things that don't sound correct.

Explain why they would do something in order to help you grow as a writer.

I know I've helped a friend out who learned English on her own. I went through her entire fic and wrote notes as to why I would change something, why I do things grammatically, amongst other things. You'll learn a lot more and improve as a writer if you have help from others. People are willing to help, trust me.

I hope you're not kicking yourself over what you did, though. I'd say go and repost the fic, and all you have to do is add a little disclaimer of:

"Hey, English is a second language and I'm still learning. I had to use Google Translate and ChatGPT in some sentences to help me structure it better. All writing was done by me, and the idea is my own."

Or something along those lines. Honesty is always the best policy. I hope you have an absolutely wonderful day, and I wish you the best of luck on your writing journey!

-------

Apologies for typos. I am absolutely exhausted today and did not go back to reread anything to make corrections.

[skzoologist]

HI HI HIIII! IS YOUR REQUEST STILL OPEN? (checked your profile but I had to ask again because what if u forgot to close it? 😭) ANYWWWWAY

Can I ask the reaction (crack or fluff just skz being proud of our bby bae) of skz to Bae dancing EXO's 'The Eve' or 'Artificial Love'?

TENCHUUU (づ￣ ³￣)づ

word count: ~1.2k

warnings: sensual dance (for the shy ones like me)

genre: crack

a/n: Hey-ho anon, don't you worry! I basically live on this hellsite, I'm here everyday, updating my blog. Now, onto your request. The way I just watched the videos so I knew what to write about like this: 😳🫣. What can I say, I get flustered easily too. Also I wasn't sure in what format you wanted the reactions, in a little drabble like this, or written down per member, so I'm sorry if this is not what you wanted (i'm still not versed in the ways of running a blog). I hope you'll enjoy this! (Also yes, I know the gif isn't matching, I just couldn't find one from this dance)

Please let me know if I left a warning or anything out, I will add it in! Reblogs, likes and feedback are greatly appreciated!

!I don't condone anyone stealing my work and posting it anywhere without my permission, or feeding it to AI!

!This is just fiction, my interpretation of Stray Kids. By no means is this how they are and how they behave in real life!

‧˚₊꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹‧˚₊꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹

‧˚₊꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹‧˚₊꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒷꒦︶︶︶︶︶꒦꒷‧₊˚⊹

The band was on their 3rd Fanmeeting, the crowds overly ecstatic wherever they went. There was a certain buzz in the air, amplifying the cheering and shouting even more than usual.

And the boys were absolutely thriving on it, adrenaline coursing through their veins in dangerous amounts, pushing them to perform on those bright stages for endless hours with no problem.

Bae was no different, his stage persona flawless, the perfect and cold mask on his face never even wavering. Fans shouted his name with all their might amidst their performances to different songs, trying to grab his attention, even if it was only for a split second. It never worked, the male too focused on doing well and dancing with all his might, executing the moves with scary precision. The fans were used to it by now, never expecting the idol to actually smile at them with a finger heart or even a wink sent their way, those actions suiting the other members much more. The tall otter was way too shy to do that, especially amidst dancing. 

After the band performed the well-known and fan favourite dances that belonged to a few of their selected songs in Seoul, it was time for a little break and fanservice. Small chairs were brought up onto the stage, easily lifted and moved thanks to their light build. Everyone took their respective seats, Bae having his between Chan and Changbin. Not like it mattered anyway, the boys always kept switching up their seats and who they sat next to amidst the chaos.

And chaos, it was.

Bae knew what was going to happen, of course he did, having helped the others practise with the choreography, but it still didn’t take away the shock factor of seeing it live, right in front of him up on the stage.

It started with ‘Queencard’ by (G)I-DLE, the two males next to him standing up and walking to the centre of their little half-circle they had decided to sit in. Bae couldn’t help the smile that broke out on his face, seeing his bandmates perform so wonderfully, all those practices having paid off. But he also couldn’t help the way his eyes widened at certain moves, the skin on his ears undoubtedly already turning red. It only became worse once the song ended, Chan and Changbin going to sit back down and noticing his slightly flustered state.

He tried his best to ignore those giggles around him.

Focusing back in front of him, Bae suddenly wished he didn’t. The sight of Felix and Hyunjin dancing to ‘The Eve’ by EXO caught him off-guard, still not having fully recovered from the previous dance. Their moves were flawless, of course they were, being proud members of Danceracha, and the watching idol was extremely proud of them. He remembered which parts were tricky for who, both proudly skipping over to him when they had finally pulled them off.

But the moves were also sensual, way too much for the shy little otter. Yet, he couldn’t take his eyes off of them, gaze stuck in place and meeting with Hyunjin’s. The younger winked at him just as he performed the last hip roll, not knowing how much damage he had done to Bae’s brain.

By the end of the song Bae’s skin became several shades darker, the red extremely evident and vibrant on it. This naturally meant that everyone could see it easily, teasing him endlessly and with no mercy. It was a miracle in itself that he hadn’t exploded at all.

“Come on Bae hyung, why not dance it as well?” - Felix slyly added, wiggling his eyebrows. “N-no, I couldn’t–” - Bae tried to defend himself, only to have Hyunjin cut him off. “You’d basically learnt it with us, with how much you helped us. Come on Hyung, please?”

And who was he to say no to those eyes?

With a silent sigh, Bae closed his eyes and tried to cool himself down. Those boggled thoughts slowly detangled from each other, leaving his mind tidy and focused. The memories of each practice flashed before his closed eyelids, all in perfect order and great detail.

When he opened his eyes again he had already been standing in Felix and Hyunjin’s place, the attention of the crowd and his members all on him. A quiet breath left his lips, a hand carding through his hair as the song started up again, signalling that it was time.

Bae’s body moved in perfect rhythm, as if it was a well-oiled machine. Not a single step or flick of a hand was out of place, his mind on autopilot with only the thought of dancing floating in its entirety. He felt the tight leather pants constrict with each movement, the slit on the back of his shirt opening and flashing a bit of skin when he turned around.

As the song ended so did his focus, eyes blinking and seeing the cheering crowd as he was putting his hand down from his ending pose. Although somehow the ones next to him were much louder, something that should have been impossible to achieve.

“I TOLD YOU YOU COULD DO IT!” - Felix shouted, a smile on his lips so wide, Bae was afraid it would split his face in two. “Wah, I never knew our baby otter could dance like that!” - Chan said, all giggles and chuckles as he affectionately squeezed Bae’s shoulder. “I think you just killed a few people here, Dal hyung.” - Jeongin added in, Seungmin wholeheartedly agreeing.

At the head tilt of the flustered member, the puppy pointed at the remaining four members who laid on the floor, seemingly dead. Jisung kept glancing up occasionally, successfully catching Bae’s gaze.

“Yah, warn us before moving like that! Those hips are deadly, man.” - he accused, even pointing a finger at the poor man.

“I don’t think I can recover from this.” - agreed Hyunjin, dramatically draping an arm over his forehead.

“Guys, I think Binnie and Lino hyung actually died. They haven’t moved since then.” - Felix added in, sweatdropping at the situation.

The boy was right, as the two didn’t react even when Chan and Seungmin had shaken them. Only when Bae was nearby did they seemingly resurrect, latching onto his legs and gazing up at the blushing male with stars and adoration in their eyes.

“Marry me, jagi.” - the two said almost perfectly at the same time, even the petname they used matched.

Minho and Changbin glared at each other, all the while Bae became an absolute flustered mess, skin flushed all the way down to his neck and chest. The others enjoyed the show, maybe a bit too much, relishing in the fact that Bae had finally let up on stage for a bit. Most of them didn’t hesitate to join in and shower the tall idol with praises, only worsening his condition as he just stood there, hands covering his face so at least STAY wouldn’t see him.

He couldn’t let that happen, not in a million years. Let him have the remains of his dignity, if not anything else.

[ohbo-ohno]

20 questions for fic writers

thankssssss @ceilidho for the tag <333 i'll tag anyone who sees this and wants an excuse to do it lmao (also @vanderilnde)

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

a measly 10

2. What's your total Ao3 word count?

a less measly 215,864

3. What fandoms do you write for?

call of duty!!! + a couple wips from a couple scattered fandoms, but really just cod

4. Top five by kudos.

kinktober, don't leave me locked in your heart, i'll eat you whole, run until you feel your lungs bleeding, and then my collection of x reader drabbles

5. Do you respond to comments?

i kinda wish i did more, and i usually respond to my friends! but tbh i noticed when i first started posting that i would feel like crazzzyyyy guilty if i didn't respond to every comment, so i decided it was better to respond to none. also i kept saying the exact same things again and again

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

personally i think it's either "run until you feel your lungs bleeding" or "i'll eat you whole", just because i feel like both of those have my meanest version of ghost? so it feels angstiest to leave johnny/reader with him lmaoo

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

ummmm maybe my price x reader meet cute drabble? or this kinktober gaz x reader? could be this 141 x reader kinktober drabble?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

no!!! not on ao3! i've gotten a few comments here and there that are pretty clearly making fun of me, but never a straight up capital-h Hate comment

9. Do you write smut?

exclusively

10. Craziest crossover.

couldn't do it, sorry!!! however if someone out there wants to write a moon knight x hannibal crossover where will is one of marc's alters, link it to me and i'll give you my life savings

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not that i know of? but i've had at least one uploaded into an ai bot, which i count as stealing personally

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

not that i know of!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

i have not! i would be totally totally willing to, if i could get over my personal crazy low writing self-esteem lmaoo

14. All time favorite ship?

klaus and caroline from the vampire diaries and it's not even close. i don't think it's a lie to say i've read over 600 fics of them. they're my everything

15. What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

an old abandoned konig x reader. gave up on it about 2.3k

16. What are your writing strengths?

i genuinely could not tell you lmaoo. i've got a really negative view of myself so i have a crazy difficult time evaluating my strengths and weaknesses!

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

i really struggle with anything that doesn't actually lead to sex, as much as it makes me sound like a gooner lmaoo. i have a hard time moving Plot along without it feeling super obvious that that's what i'm trying to do

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

i hate hate hate when it's not translated immediately. sorry, even when the perspective character isn't supposed to know, i get really annoyed when i don't know what a character is saying lmao

19. First fandom you wrote in?

god, maybe shadowhunters? i tried my hand at writing a few pages for pretty much everything i liked when i was younger, so i'm really not sure what was really the first one. could be shadowhunters, grey's anatomy, five night's at freddy's, harry potter, percy jackson.... any one of those is totally possible

20. Favorite fic you've ever written?

it's probably my least popular fic but i wrote a werewolf soap x monster hunter ghost drabble that i still love so much. but i also really really love i'll eat you whole still :)

[tempesttz]

unnecessary rant about an

unnecessary (but very odd) debate

i know this is not my usual post but tumblr just suggested me another account (as it does), so i went to check them out. openly endogenic, wonderful. inclusive, check. "if i block you, you're probably not inclusive enough." sure? then i scrolled down a bit more, and... tw: mentions of discourse, nazis, the holocaust, and ai art. i'm also just not very nice, so tw for that too.

".....ai art is still art and arguing otherwise is spreading nazi bullshit regardless of if you personally like it or not...." ....what? at this point i'm thinking okay, op has no clue what a nazi is or something. right? right??? there was a link, so i, an unwitting fool looking for more elaboration on this take, clicked it.

"blocked a long time follower because they were being reactionary. here is your reminder that regardless of your stance on copyright, as soon as you start regurgitating that ai art isn't art, you are spreding the rhetoric authoritarianism. you are being reactionary and conservative. in fact, you are literally spreading nazi shit. read up if you have the spoons for it: link here. the focus should be on mitigating harm to those more directly impacted, not on trying to erase the art now exist.s not on ai arts legitimacy as art." i'm not going to just sit here and say "oh wow weird take, point and laugh guys." that would be weird and frankly no better than places like r/fdc and r/systemscringe. so instead, we're gonna break this down: first off: what is degenerate art? well, let's check their wikipedia link.

"Degenerate art (German: Entartete Kunst) was a term adopted in the 1920s by the Nazi Party in Germany to describe modern art. During the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, German modernist art, including many works of internationally renowned artists, was removed from state-owned museums and banned in Nazi Germany on the grounds that such art was an "insult to German feeling", un-German, Freemasonic, Jewish, or Communist in nature. Those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to sanctions that included being dismissed from teaching positions, being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some cases being forbidden to produce art." okay, so op is claiming that dislike of ai art is comparable to the suppressing and banning of large amounts of art in nazi germany. which is a wild take. but why is it wild? 1. ai generators clearly do not experience much suppression or banning in places considering that they are an active threat to artists. 2. the main issue with ai image generation is that it is stealing from actual artists to create their images and putting people who have trained for years to hone their skills at risk of losing their jobs. this diminishes the amount of artists who will actually pursue a career in that field, thereby reducing the amount of actual artists and directly harming the art community. 3. a lot of people will lie about being ai "artists," attempting to claim the work as actual art. 4. the concept of comparing something like this to the holocaust in general is just... wildly insensitive, frankly. this should be common sense, but there seems to be a distinct lack of it here anyways. 5. people are allowed to have opinions? you can think ai art is a valid form of art. i'll think you're weird, but that's a valid opinion. some people don't think certain genres of music are art. some people don't think certain kinds of art should be considered art. for example, those pendulum paintings that were everywhere, and might still be everywhere. i saw a lot of discourse about those. some people did not consider them to be art, or at least not on par with things like large, dedicated paintings. does that make the people who have that opinion nazis? .....no????? there isn't a moral to this post. it probably shouldn't exist. i just saw this and needed to rant, and decided to make you all my unwitting victims, lol. if you agree with op, then... i don't know, have a nice day? maybe stop conflating something like ai art (which is basically inconsequential unless you are in a community it effects or witnessing a downgrade of media quality due to its usage in production) to the holocaust (one of if not the worst historical event to this day in history)? okay wait, i have a moral! you can dislike things or have an opinion without it having to be taken to the total extreme. for anyone who read through this entire thing, thank you for sticking around! have a cookie. 🍪

[nightzskii]

I'm not deleting every post uugh

★ EDIT: Finally making a new pinned post ❜

SHORT INTRO; Hello! I'm panda/nightskii who alsp goes by maxwell (max for short.) My age will always be in my bio but my birthday is April 6th. I go by he/him and also they/it but I really don't mind just he/him!!! This blog is centered around art or just me reblogging important or self indulging posts! Yoyo ^_^

LONG INTRO UNDER CUT!

AN INTRODUCTION — @nightzskii

Hello, and welcome to my blog!! ^_^ I'm nightzskii [otherwise known as max/maxwell or panda].

— I use other names like Rock, Nini, Len, Craig, and many others that I'll say you can use! I'm a name hoarder, I love names.

☆; My activity on tumblr isn't much, I don't post and when I do it's not really for this blog.. I gotta get used to posting again..??! I might make a blog for all my ocs and characters and their reference sheets. I'll try to respond to mutuals/friends when I can faster than I would with strangers, but sometimes my ability to do such a thing is nonexistent. It's not on any of you!

☆; I'm Black and Puerto Rican! This is what I know because my mom told me. I CANNOT SPEAK OR UNDERSTAND SPANISH!!!?? I can say a few words [only like. two.] and understand SOME phrases, but I lost my ability to understand Spanish since I'm always around people who speak ENGLISH. I do want to relearn however, but I also want to learn Japanese!

☆; I do have disorders that effect(affect??!?) my daily life and how I perceive and understand things. I struggle with some social clues, but I'm not going to force anyone to use tone-tags, I'll just guess and respond!

☆; YOU MAY BE WONDERING WHY PAST POSTS HAVE SYSTEM STUFF IN IT!!! It's because I AM a systsm. I don't use this blog for system stuff anymore however, and I'll be @'ing most blogs I have that's NOT private! Including my altermate's blogs. I am the main host and have been here for the longest!

☆; YOU CAN USE THEY/IT OR ANY OTHER PRONOUNS BESIDE [SHE/HER] ON ME!! I may be seen using he/him for myself, but I'm not that picky on pronouns. I'm agender, and I do NOT care what term is being used for me, including feminine ones! You can call me any word with fems in mind. I don't care.

☆; Any carrds, rentrys, etc I have will be linked/put inna masterlist that I gotta fix. Thank you for your time on this part! edit; hi we have strawpage now

i also have mt personal strawpage here

MY BOUNDARIES — @nightzskii

★; DNI [CHECK STRAWPAGE FOR UPDATED DNI] [pro] Zoos/[No]Maps, Anti Mogai/lgbtqa+phobic, Racist/Colorist, Sexist/Misogynistic, Ableist/Discrimatory, Kink/Nsfw blogs, * Violent Syscourse/[Pro] endos/non traumagenic, [Pro] Ddlg+varients, HARMFUL TransID/Radqueers + anything in that corner, Pro harassment/Pro Misinformation, Villainization + Romanticizing Disorders, Violently religious, GENUINELY WEIRD stans & Fans, Anti age/pet regression. PLEASE DO NOT INTERACT.

* VIOLENT syscourse/[pro] endos/non traumagenic ((Let's not harass or be rude to each other. help.))

★; If you make jokes you can't make [examples being making a joke about being; a black slave when you're white, r//ped (a) when you weren't, m//lest//d (o, e) when you weren't, anything historical when it's not YOUR history] then please DON'T INTERACT EITHER! I can appreciate a "dark joke" when it's something you can actually joke about.

★; If you use AI to steal/generate/etc peoples actual hard working designs, then don't interact. Stay in your cage

★; IF YOU FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE WITH ME OR FEEL UPSET ABOUT WHATEVER I DID/DO/HAVE DONE/ETC, TELL ME! I don't mind talking about it and I'd rather to not strain any friendships if its something that can be talked about!

FINAL NOTES — @nightzskii

☆; I do have old blogs STILL flying about that was WAY BEFORE I FOUND OUT I WAS A SYSTEM! Some of those blogs were made by myself before i "molded" [fused, but I don't know I should use that word???] with the old OLD host at the time who ALSO ran those blogs. OUR VIEWS FROM IT HAVE CHANGED BY NOW! If you find it and link it back to us, feel free to @ the blogs its so funny looking back.

☆; I will NOT talk much about being a system with other disorders on this blog. that's for a different one!!

— BLOGS I'VE MADE! ❜

@dazyskiie-luv [writing] & @nightzskiiauz [my aus/stories]

@bluestoneau & @horrorrversee [au]

@stars4-max & @hoardzskii [personal]

@twisteddescendants & @kufflesdiamond & @huntersscythe [twst]

@kauikia [dandys world]

@moon-loves-genders [have to fix it!!] & @wat-da-hell-iz [inactive currently] & @dabackroms [inactive currently]

@vampbitesfr & @howlin4uu [monster rp accounts, inactive currently! refixing.]

— SYSTEM BLOGS! ❜

@snowdinne [MAIN SYS SIDE BLOG.]

@haruutalks & @cinooscatcafe

@ventifool & @scarafool

@ecplises-mailman & @devildomduzt (all blogs for now!)

[caspercryptid]

hey i respect u a lot and i love it when ur an asshole but i just want u to know being an asshole to someone who thinks they r trying to help w the whole gpt thing doesnt make them not wanna use gpt it just makes them think the people who want them not to use it are assholes. like fuck gpt but the cake thing is p demeaning & just shuts out the ppl ur trying to advise into ur an asshole and im not listening land. not helping the anti ai movement, just making urself look mean about it yk

While I will fully acknowledge that the "I'm sorry my follower added that comment to your post" cake Is rude as shit, what's also rude as shit is reblogging a post about Chat GPT contributing to the death of creative expression with unasked for advice about using it to replace the work of copy editors instead, especially when that work actively continues to teach chat GPT more shit about how to steal and take work away from myself and people like me.

Perhaps I should have said that in the reblog but there is so little good faith discourse on this website that the one allowance I could make to good faith was not blocking immediately and bothering to respond at all. Bluntly, I'm fucking tired. I once had a harassment brigade against me because I posted a polite reminder that people with HP urls should change those. No matter how nice and polite I am people who want to misunderstand still will, and I didn't reply because I was doing praxis or trying to help the anti-ai movement— I replied because I was annoyed and upset! But maybe that's nihilistic and i shouldn't get jaded and assume everyone I disagree with is going to ignore everything I say and/or send me nasty grams, I'm just tired of writing out long-form thoughtful responses to people who aren't going to listen.

At the core of my irritation isn't actually the anti-ai argument at all— I think people should consider the intent of the OP and if their "advice" will be welcomed, even when the advice is genuine and well intentioned. It's like that post about wanting nice mugs and to own nice things that got brigaded with advice to go to a thrift store. The post is not asking where to find nice mugs. The OP of that post did not want advice on how to correctly use Chat GPT, and I did not reblog it for that.

Thank you for respecting me, even though I'm an asshole. I was a little harsh, but I feel very strongly about this and this is my life and career. I do a lot of slush pile reading and copy editing, and asking chat GPT to do rephrasings for you is the #1 tool of plagiarists. It's really disheartening to see it in my own online space— I could have been nicer about that, I just didn't have the bandwidth this morning to assume good faith.

[talesfromsiteredacted]

Random Things Overheard On Site

Ah, my coworkers. The weird, wacky, wonderful folks who keep the wheels turning. They're a real cast of oddballs, but no one normal ever works at the Foundation, excluding Doctor Glass, of course. Dude's totally got his head on straight, and welded in place. The rest of us... yeah, we're all nuts. Even Site Command has a few loose screws, in Jack Bright's case it's every last blessed one of them. Hold on to your hope, abandon sanity all those who enter here.

On 049:

"Sure, he can kill you with a touch, but at least he'll apologize as it happens, and unlike some people, his hands are clean."

On 076-2:

"Wow. Uh... where were you keeping that axe, buddy?" A pause. "Huh. After training, mind checking over a few weapon designs? I'm doing a new character in D&D."

On the Foundation, to the new hires:

"No, you don't have to be crazy to work here. Clef and Bright will train you in that."

At target practice:

"Come on, ladies! I've seen senior citizens shoot better their first time playing Call of Duty. Eyes on the target, fingers on the trigger. Let's try this once more, with accuracy."

On 053, playing with 682:

"Aw... it's actually really cute how 682 lets her draw flowers all over him."

"Yeah. Remember the 'ballet lessons' last week? Who knew they even made tutus in his size?"

"Not me. Uh, any chance of photos?"

"Sorry, Benji... kinda dropped my camera in the scaly jerk's acid bath."

On 073:

"He's smart, funny, sweet, a total Arabic fox... why not ask him out, Sarah?"

"One. He's an anomaly, and off the approved list. Two, even if I were allowed to date him, isn't he gay?"

"Oh. Yeah. Got a brother?"

On Doctor Gears:

"Can't stop, gotta get the coffee to the Doc."

"He's out? Shit. Caffeine emergency, out of the way people! Do not block the intern, he has Gears' coffee."

On some anomalous weaponry Agent Strelnikof found:

"It took the door out. And the door behind it. And the door behind that door. And half the target range. I think the Insurgency would sooner meet 682 than face one of these guns. And I think both Doctor Clef and I are in love. With the gun."

During a Keter Breach:

"Do you HAVE to follow the anomaly while blasting 'Gangster's Paradise' by Coolio?"

"You'd prefer 'How I Can Just Kill a Man' by Rage Against the Machine?"

"I'd prefer it if you just did your job, Doctor Bright!"

On 079:

"Not sure who's more annoying... the Old Man AI or the homicidal bitch in 'System Shock'"

"Shodan doesn't have 079's sense of humor."

"And neither of them trump the Red Queen in the Andersonverse 'Resident Evil' movies in terms of creepiness."

"Kid AIs are the worst. And she is a creepy little psycho."

During training with 076-2:

"You threw a sword at my head, Abel!"

"But... did you die?"

And... finally, some Multiverse hijinks. A bit of background here: one of the reality warpers pulled a villain, well HE said he was a villain, from a place called Central City in the other universe. He has some ice powers, but... it wasn't Mr. Snart. Nope, we got an incompetent wannabe cryomancer with a stupid name. And... Iris being Iris, she told him off.

"Chillblaine? You call yourself... Chillblaine? Do you even know what a chillblain is? It's a flu symptom. What are ya gonna do, asshole, sneeze on us? Worse, it sounds like a rich spoiled white uni bro trying to get his jerkwad buddy to calm the fuck down. 'Chill, Blaine. She ain't worth it, bro.' Fuck off until you come up with something we can take seriously." Dude looks like he's gonna cry. I look over, and the rest of the team, even Big Brother, are trying not to laugh at this loser. I have no idea who the hell this Flash dude is, but he's got one pathetic nemesis here. Fifty bucks says he couldn't even steal a wallet.

[tomschoolwork]

Ai is not art

Have you guys noticed how often or how much people defend AI? They post so much about how they need to use Ai to make art because they can't do it themselves. Spoiler alert; it's not real and all of their excuses are not valid at all.

Notice this: when defending their use of Ai to make work, they defend themselves saying "We need to use Ai to make sure we can create" they are wrong. Ignore them. They don't need Ai to create, they need Ai to be able to do work without needing to actually put any effort in. They want profit without any effort. Sounds appealing, right? Well here's another term;

artist exploitation.

"Hey, how can Ai be exploiting artists? It's a computer software!"

How do you think they get their sample photos? Ai cannot create without referencing and sampling. And who are they sampling from? Artists! Imagine posting digital art just for somebody to feed it into their Ai so they can turn your work into something else. And it doesn't even look good! Here's an example.

I fed a piece of work into an Ai to rework it. It's my own work and the only person who could possibly be harmed by this is me, and I took this risk. Here is the original.

And here is the Ai's version

Notice how different they are. The Ai isn't capable of recognizing/replicating what the original image was. It is just some smiling anime girls- which is stupid because it was a brother and sister drawing I had done. It also completely reworked their eye colors and made them paler. Also it hasn't realized how color theory works. I had done every color intentionally, the pink and blue represent and complement each sibling and the black also ties them together. The Ai doesn’t understand these and sees 2 figures to turn into anime girls, which- yikes- and overall is disappointing.

Ai isn't helping artists at all.

"But Ai can give the gift of creation to those who can't create on their own!"

While that sentiment would be nice, they aren't creating with Ai. They're essentially rebranding. They rework an image to create. And often times, it isn't a good looking image. Looking back at my image, yeah of course I made mistakes but the Ai also made mistakes. It can't pose the way I had been able to, and because it couldn't it filled in gaps. Imagine seeing somebody be glad they can finally make something, just to realize they're stealing work from others. It's not gonna be a good feeling at all. Those who are really determined to create find alternatives. Some people use their lips, use their mouth to hold the paint brush, use their feet, anything besides using an online program to reuse old work and pass it off as their own.

Also, Ai is being trained to steal jobs from real artists. And it sucks. Some people have been saying Wish by Disney is Ai generated, and let me just say it's not, it's just a disappointing movie. Wish is what happens when a poorly planned movie gets greenlit. Not everything bad is Ai generated.

Artists put a lot of effort into their work, it often takes hours to make and complete. Imagine creating something that took hours for you to make, and then boom; somebody else posts something that looks similar, but took them a few minutes at longest. And what they did to make it was wait for a computer program to spit out their prompt after they opened a program and fed some art to it. Artists would get disheartened and then they would slowly stop posting. If their work gets less traction for more effort, what's the point?

"What can I do to protect my art?"

GLAZE IT

Glazing your art will not at all impact how your art looks but it will impact Ai that are trying to replicate your art. It poisons the Ai, and it warps whatever they try to generate.

And also let artists know! If you see their art being bastardized by Ai screenshot it, report the post and let the original artist know. If you don't know the artist, report the post regardless.

Remember, Ai isn't a fun tool to make art, it actively harms artists! Report it if you see it being used in any way that could possibly impact artists, or other people negatively!

[thesweetestsupervillains]

Because stealing art from people who either do it as a hobby or as a living is comparable to pirating media from billionaire companies who will stay rich no matter how much users pirate their shit. Just learn to fucking draw.

// Okay but, we're well past the stage where you can claim theft?

Because when Adobe creates a generative fill tool in photoshop, it's trained on all of the data it owns using it's stock photo library, which it legally owns. When Google introduces its 'magic eraser' which is trained on all of the data it legally gathered using things like it's own stock photo archive and street view, that's also not theft. They own that.

When you train a model using things that are entirely in the public domain, such as every piece of artwork that exists up until the modern day, which is not legally owned by anyone, that's also not theft.

Furthermore, even if you say, took an artist's work and trained a model and generated new things, that's also not theft, because nothing has been taken and nothing can be then given back. What you are describing is copyright infringement.

Beyond that, legally speaking, the courts have already decided that you cannot copyright anything generated by an AI. So the artist's copyright still holds.

Now, if someone say, did what I described and then represented themselves as making originals, that's also not theft, that's forgery. You might as well be claiming you're selling original Van Goghs.

Ultimately, I suspect that this isn't really about theft or artists at all. It's about people being really mad that what happened with video creation has now happened with image creation. If you lower the bar for entry, you're going to get a lot more awful content. The existence of the disposable camera resulted in endless amounts of bad polaroids.

In the end, people are likely afraid of being replaced, but again, that will not be done on the micro but macro level, as companies with access to massive databases of data they own train models and then sell access to those models to you, the end user.

But even in that case, that's not a flaw of AI itself, that's a flaw in how it is applied and how people use it. Much like how every phone having a camera resulted in awful things all over Tiktok, so too will AI models result in lots of bad art.

Yet the people who are good enough will both take advantage of that technology and rise above it, because when you support an artist, you're supporting them personally, not just their creations, the way you patronize a specific coffeeshop or bookstore.

You can not like that it exists, but it's here to stay, and it's only going to get more relevant. Don't try to pull the 'ethical pirate' logic here, because ultimately you're just empowering the very corporations you hate. If you were to empower copyright law, for example, you'd ban every fanart maker there is, and get tumblr shut down, because it's probably the biggest source of copyright infringement on the internet in terms of how people make gifs and the like.

In any case, your issues aren't about 'theft' as the tech can still exist without anything being 'stolen' in your definition of it. You might as well be mad we use digital cameras because people don't create dark rooms in their homes to develop film. The barrier for entry has lowered, and you just look like an ass for gatekeeping.

[the-firebird69]

Watch "Vrbo | A Place For Together - Only Your People | 30s | Combo" on YouTube

This guy next door is an ass he wants to have a meeting cuz your son is telling him off I'm saying no and he's saying never it's not going to meet with him about anything and he break the bridge over and over and yeah his clans people are using up power to try and get him to steal stuff and it hasn't worked for quite a while like a year solid of something all over everyone haven't gotten anything just wants his AI to work and things getting rid of his people doesn't and other people and stuff and he's a loser so the meeting is oh well the meeting concept isn't far we're not going to meet with the idiot he can tell everybody. Yeah these two idiots are baby killers and they eat their own babies and they're nasty they're saying Arnie did and Arnie had like two kids around so everyone knew his a liar on the way home from Maine our son pointed it out. So there might be a bunch of them that do it no it's just them and they're going to be in court before you can know it people don't like baby eaters people who eat their own are useless people and they have a massive common enemy

Thor Freya

[embarressment-erradicated]

oh my fucking god I hate chat gpt sludge appearing on ao3 SO SO FUCKING MUCH, just shut up, don't post this, if you want to explore an idea write it. don't outsource your creativity to the lowest common denominator murder bot,

"oh I just had an rp with character.ai and it was fun so I decided to post it" stop, stop right there, rping with chat bots is akin to rping with a wall. go and find people to roleplay with, they are fucking everywhere, and many people are down to atleast try it out with you "but what if I'm awake and no one else is" write something. and wait. you can do that you know, you don't have to use an ai service which drags you further from reality, and most importantly other godsdamned people

and if you feel which you aren't that creative? your lying to yourself, I swear, and even if that is true, you know what is a great way to be more creative? actually think about shit. write whatever comes to mind, take inspiration from other people, rework it to your liking, and importantly when you do that, say it don't lie and say it was entirely your idea, link to that person.

tracing isn't bad because it's stealing, tracing isn't bad because it's lazy. it's a good tool, whether in pen or or paint, however, it becomes bad when you brush the fact you took inspiration from other people off, like it's nothing, however, when you let people know what you took from, and link to it, or atleast tell people where to find it if that isn't an option for one reason or another.

but ai is lazy, it's stealing from everyone, and it's sources are jumbled up and can't be traced, it's like going on pintrest, finding a random meme, and claiming it as your own, just cause.

not only that, it's built to disenfranchise artists whether or not built specifically to do so, it's doing as such.

memes are actually a great example of a pre ai version of jumbling up sources, where is that favorite meme you like from, who made it, do they even know it's popular, did someone take it? can you know for certain, is this an edit, or the og, is know your meme reliable for this? why is this person claiming to tell you about this meme, and yet says they don't know who made it?

some people wish to remain anonymous, yes, however alot of people who made those meme templates (often small artists who can't catch a fucking break from getting their stuff stolen) would probably like it if people knew that, yes they made the funny image, or scene, or drawing or whatever. but you know what happens?

someone crops out the watermark. simply because they don't want to appear related to the person who made the thing they took from or some reason or another.

and then? a meme "curator" channel takes it and reads it in tts, or it ends up one reddit, and someone reads it in that sexy voice which doesn't even link to the posts shown, and barely shows who made the post.

memes are fun, memes are important, memes are a resource for enjoyment, messages, and ideas. but the second you make one you'll never hear about what happened to it 90% of the time, and someone else, who posts exclusively other people's stuff, is getting attention from just reposts.

and don't even get me started on ai memes, the fuck is that shit? gone are the days when people actually worked hard to make a funny parody poster? and we just accept that. NO, screw that, learn photo editing, go past the hurdle of gimp and other tools as such. have fun, fuck around and find out, make those dumb ideas, but do it with your own style and blood. if you use ai in anyway other than just screwing around with free stuff for 15 minutes and leaving (we've all done that, it's mildly humorous until you realize it's just bland) you are limiting yourself, your ideas, and your effect on the world, no one is going to care about you or your 'work' ever, simply because they can find the same exact thing elsewhere.

post scrip: [15 MT unfathoma bucks]

no economic value, redeemable in your dreams

post script:

I went on for to long, actually no I didn't all can cope, who cares if none shall read this, atleast I wrote it.

I hope you have an amazing day, and a life without the confines of latestage capitalism, even if it may not come in our lifetime, may we hope for reincarnation so we can kill that which kills our souls next time.

I think the worst part is how many book sites (royal road comes to mind) have to face the fact that either they ban ai, and allow it to run rampant, or they regulate it, even if it's not even writing at this point. that blog post I linked I think actually is a really fucking good policy right now, as ai text is nigh undetectable sometimes, and may just appear to be bland, but by giving them a corner to run around in, without poisoning the rest of the sight, you atleast heavily mitigate it, is it perfect? no of course not, will they (they being people using ai) still lie just to get some credibility? of course, but atleast it does something.

I don't want ai anywhere near my plain of existence but if stuff like this helps sort out the sludge from the rest of the internet, then that something. also every company which uses it's data to train ai can burn, die, and most importantly perish.

but hey look at these radishes which were ai generated because someone couldn't take the fucking time to draw this themselves, or even just edit a picture together cause fuck it lets just not put any effort into it at all, and just leave out any room for creative freedom. fuck it we ball I guess???

I just want to leave this planet, become a von neuman probe hivemind or something and make weird abstract art in outer space.

cya.

post script script:

oh right using ai ever for anything immediately voids all credibility your work ever has, I hope I don't need to explain why, but I thought of this while writing the tags

I hate you AI, I hate you sites making deals with souless corporations that think creativity can be replicated by an unthinking machine, I hate you money-hungry investors and ceos, I hate you opt-out models, I hate you tech bros, I hate you having to spend precious free time having to scramble our art in a desperate attempt not to getting stolen from, I hate you minimization of the hard work we put into our craft, I hate ''''machine learning''''' being compared to a very human person putting in the hours to better themselves, I hate you commodification of the very core of human's expression, I hate you scams being helped along by uber plagiarism, I hate you AI, I hate you AI, I hate you AI, I HATE YOU AI

[entropieogchaos]

All of the points you make in your essay-like answer, however much use they hold, really aren't helped by tagging that post as # all artists steal. Appreciating that people have put work into making ai art generators is one thing, and a completely fair point, but when it comes at the expense of artists? Artists who don't steal, y'know? Ai developers could've used stock images, or worked alongside artists who fully agree for their stuff to be used (an example of this not happening was when Deviant Art opted everyone in for their stuff to be used in AI art, instead of letting people choose from the get go), and that would be perfectly fine! I'd be way more comfortable using an ai like that. Sadly, that isn't quite what happened (yet!). Maybe, one day, we'll get an ai trained to only use art that artists are ok with using, instead of just using anything on the net.

Also, about ai artists putting a lot of work into their stuff (I'll try not to go on too much). Say, a coder takes four months (basing this from looking it up) to create an ai art program to generate images. That's a lot of effort and time put into this project, that I can agree with. But, assuming the programme doesn't have some sort of crippling bug, you could hypothetically create near to or unlimited images from it, at a fast rate. Compare that to a human artist, who in their lifetime would never be able to make nearly as close as many images as the ai, and perhaps it is apparent why this is being seen as an issue. Not to mention that ai is getting more human like all the time.

I shouldn't bother answering, but I'm a masochist, so here goes .... They DID train with stock images. And public domain images. And images from artists without permission. They used any and everything they could get their hands on. And all artists DO steal. If you learned how to draw or paint by looking at other people's drawings and paintings, do you pay them a royalty check for that? Nope! Why is it so different when a person directs a machine to do the same thing? And how would it not be the same thing? A photo is "stealing" (we call it "taking a photo" for good reason). A person drawing a tree they saw in real life is "stealing." All this emphasis on the ownership of intellectual property is frankly boring and lame. And this connection of work and effort to "value" is boring and lame. Using legal instruments like copyright to define whether something is "art" is boring and lame. These are the kind of discussions kids might have when they're first learning about the philosophy of art in a degenerate capitalist society, but I'm way past that point in my life and I've come to the conclusion that none of this shit about stealing or effort or originality matters, but what does matter is people being personally attacked and bullied over something that is so stupidly insignificant. Seriously, get the fuck over it and make some fucking art. The machines aren't stopping you from doing a goddamn thing, they're not stealing food from your mouth or making you homeless, so just ignore it if you don't like it. No artists are suddenly being impoverished because of this - they were impoverished anyway! Living with your parents and making maybe a few hundred $ a month on "commissions" making shitty anime ripoff portraits and unoriginal fan art isn't having a career in art. Sorry, not sorry.

[aeempress]

Apritello Express Evidences, part 1

Greetings, Apritello enthusiasts and attention! Here comes a loong post is written by totally nerd. You've been warned. Here we go.

The thing is that Apritello is a double-edged sword. The series shows us established friendship of these two, give us a lot of content with them. We can see development of relationship through interaction between the characters, their reaction about the situations they are put in. We can sense their synergy and bound through the show.

Donnie and April have incredible chemistry, and both options, brotp and otp seems fine to me.

But let me tell you why I ship them.

Apritello is the kind of pairings, which consists of small details, hints, that's hidden, but if you're sharp and attentive one, you will notice that. Apritello has a strong foundation: the best friends trope.

And from the very beginning, it works as planned.

When I start watching show, I could say that April and Donnie are best friends. It is worth noting that April is like an older sister to the other brothers, more of a sisterly figure than a friend, but with Donnie she behaves somewhat differently, namely, as best friend. Obviously, she sets him apart from his brothers, although girl tries to pay attention to all of them equally. And Donnie behaves as well.

Dee's battle shell designs for April needs as well as his. His shell transform into comfy spot for taking ride for April. Special and only for her. Because his bros are not supposed to use it (at least, he carries no one on his back), Donnie carries them by his techno-bó or his limbs.

This tiny detail shows his special treatment to her. April is a very, very special occasion to D. Don does care about her comfort, he accept the way she is. Donatello does not try to prevent her from participating in their affairs because he respects her decisions and is pleased that April can be shoulder to shoulder with him.

D is glad to be at her service.

Yeah, Dee's still playing cool, he has image to perform as tough and coolheaded guy. So Don doesn't show his intentions, interest and feeling to other people (he's tryin', but fails). Because his actions matter. They are always small, hidden, but meaningful.

April, in return, trusts Dee and depends on his tech, even knowing what his inventions are the opposite of success (usually).

Go on. Look at Donnie's facial expressions and body language when April is near.

Donnie seems more relaxed when she's around, happier. His emotional response is always different from his brothers ones.

Oh, and look, he wanted to be first to give her a high three.

They worry about each other. Look at Don. He does worry about her way more than his brothers. Yeah, they all want to protect her, but Donnie is more expressive.

Mayham has no particular sympathy for the brothers: he is afraid of Raph and behaves aggressively, he is indifferent to Leo and Mikey. Mayham immediately takes a liking to April. And then the details come back: he let Donnie touch his neck. The most vulnerable place for any living creation, for a second. Let him to study an important vial without any hesitation. Mayham depends on April trust for Donnie. When everything goes wrong for Don, the little doggie comes to his rescue, just as April would have done. Is the hint transparent enough?

We can see links with "A mystic library", wherе Donnie begins to look for solutions to save April's pet. Yes, this may seem like his next leap, "sit down, I'm smart, and now I'll solve all the problems, watch and learn," but Don says one phrase that opens up the veil of the second plan, what happens behind the scenes. "My illiteral colleagues and I was conducting a mustic research, with a life of the beloved pet, hanging in a bounce".

Strange wording, Donatello. Beloved pet? Not yours, as we can see. I can say, that everything in this sentence is true, but Donnie and Mayham has something more.

Continue. Next episode "Origami tsunami". Interactions are kept to a minimum, as April herself appears for a maximum of 5 minutes in the series itself. But devil is always in the details, dear friends.

When April was attacked and hung up, the only one who excitedly called out to her was Donny. Raph is furious that the thieves have escaped, Leo is frustrated that their plan has failed, and Mikey is worried about the salami.

Yeah, we didn't see his worries about her when she fell, because Donnie is on the mission and must be coolheaded turtle, and second, he's calm because now April life is safe and sound, out of the danger.

Dear passangers, Apritello Express arrives to the next station - episode "War and Pizza".

Bare facts:

1. April has Donnie's number on an emergency call.

2. "Anything for you"

3. Donnie is the reason why Alberto knows April's name.

No one calles April by her name (except for Donnie, while phone call, but Alberto wasn't nearby) it was "Captain O'Neil" by her chief, her badge seems blank. And yeah, you can say, that's just economy of budget, but I assure you: in the first episode we were shown the name of the delivery guy. The animators were not lazy bones and wrore "Stewart" on his badge. So if something isn't there, then it either shouldn't be there, or it really isn't, that's how this show works.

So, the reason explained in the episode. When Al has short circuit, parts of its new code flashed through its mind.

Info about April was in its memory, in its code. Alberto was a lame animatronic, and it seems somewhat outdated. I do really doubt about Alberto is being something smartass machine with complicated AI like Freddy's Pizza's ones. Quite questionable. Donatello fix Al's brain and wrote code, synchronize with his remote control. He put information about Cap O'Neil into animatronic's head. All this pictures are kind of massage: "You was created for birthday celebrations. You are machine, and there concepts of "life" and "birth". Do great party for this birthday kid and April won't be like this". Or, something like that.

So Alberto did - do a memorable party. And he do what his creator programmed him to do, but in his way.

4. In other words, Alberto was a tool to impress April. Don flaunts himself in front of her, stating how he did the upgrade while doing the upgrade, even though April is fully aware of his tech wizard. And his abilities supposed to help Cap O'Neil to finish the birthday party, so she will stay at her job, not fired. All thanks to Donnie and his upgrade Alberto. (Or not)

By the way, Donnie was the last to leave April in ruined "Alberto's". And it's not an isolated case, it is a pattern.

5. They understand each other without words.

First, Donny came at her at the speed of light. Second, she hadn't even finished speaking before Dee was taking Al apart. Third, their chaotic, well-coordinated work? Donnie was a distraction (although he wanted to just take a break from the battle or let Alberto's guard down, while April just knocked him out). Donnie and April are great team, and sometimes the DonniexApril team is much more precise, coordinated, and interdependent than the DonniexBrothers one.

D&A feel each other and anticipate each other's actions, their skills complement each other, creating an incredible synergy of their interaction. They act as a whole, while it's not always possible with his brothers, even though they're family and know each other the way more Donnie know April. And Dee hasn't trained with cap O'Neil.

Donatello didn't show his crush for April. No puppy, loving eyes, no lovey-dovey speeches, no planning schemes (at least, the audience don't see one) . He just want her attention, but stays cool and hidden. D is already her BFF, but still.

The same thing is claimed in 5B episode - Mascot Melee. Donnie has no problems with interaction with idol of his childhood - Atomic Lass. She'd put Leo in a stupor, but Donnie? He playfully challenges her to a dance duel. Yes, he adores this character, who may have become his measure of the attractiveness of others to Donatello, determined his type. But still, he's playing all cool and confident guy, he's really smooth with girls, so you will never see a puppy loving eyes from him. Only two things can betray him at this point: his voice and his body language. Remember, how's soft his voice became for Atomic Lass? Now I want you to remember the scene before, in turtle tank, when April sent guys a meme.

D is the first to respond to the message, despite the fact that Mikey is sitting closest to the screen. And the responding is a little too emotional for this situation, don't you think?

And this face of his. And he comments it. He likes her sense of humour.

The only difference between April and Atomic Lass is that the first one is a real girl who is a friend of their family, practically a member of it; and the other one is just a fictional character. It is easier to say about love for a fictional character, because it brings less problems for a teenager, especially when he is living with three brothers and a father who likes to tease as well. Donatello needs to be careful and outline the area of emotions he could show, so that he does not get hurt.

Now, dear passangers, we are returning to the previous episode, shall we?

Donnie presents to his brothers his precious Turtle tank, but she's gone, and it's really necessary to find out, who has taken her. And the first person to suspect is April.

Something is odd, don't you think? Yeah, Raphael has taken tyre for their "Midnight special", Leo claimed that Donnie's stuff is common, but they are D's beothers. It's natural for family to borrow(stole) stuff of each other. But this trend was not observed in April. She would never steal anything from Donnie, much less steal anything from him.

Actually, there is a good, logical and solid explanation here. April was number 1 in Donatello' suspect list, because he simply told her about Turtle tank. His brothers didn't know he were working at Moon buggy, except Mikey (Orange helps Dee get the vehicle from Repomantis), but they didn't know what exactly Donnie was working for. They didn't know he build the Turtle tank, he kept it a secret, to surprise his brothers. But April knew.

- Alright you! Where's our turtle tank?

- Hi, DONNIE. You have 9 seconds to say, why are you just broke my door.

- Someone's stole Donnie's turtle tank.

- Haha-ow, I see. As your best friend, you naturally suspect me.

- She gets it!

- Oh-ho, don't give me that! You're the only one could taken it!

The only one, because she knew about it.

As Splints said in this episode - "April is not a snitch"

Donatello does trust April and share with her both, sorrows and joys. But we are not shown this directly. We do not see the action itself, we do not see their calls and conversations on the phone late at night, we only see the consequence. We have no choice and take it as a given.

And the way she cooled him down? Fast, efficient, and Donnie seems to used to it. Moreover, she slapped everyone, but still, she throw Don out of window the last. However, why such a large time delay between him, being slapped and him, was throwing out of the window?

And my favourite scene. It was obvious that Donnie had taken the hardest hit (judging by his scream and the way he was putting his knuckles back in place). Don then claims that their inner circle is secure, Mikey tries to make amends for everyone, and April agrees, blowing them a kiss and closing the window. Cute and mean, isn't it? (You're cute! but mean! why do I always go for your type?! - ep. War and Pizza)

Nota bene: Donnie wouldn't apologize to April. Tough, not caring badass boy image, remember? Even to best friends. It's hard to him to express his feelings by using words, he cannot do it in proper way. But he has Mikey, who is so alike inner him. Michelangelo apologizes not only for himself, but for D mostly, because D starts suspected April.

Let's continue: the episode 8B: Hypno Part Deux

• Donnie put "Donnie's blocker" at April's phone to protect her.

It's common thing that your friend install some programs or apps on your device. But you will always ask your friend to do such a favour, and you will always know about what, when and where were installed on your phone.

And April didn't know Donnie had done something with her phone. It was a real surprise for her, to see blocker with "Donnie says no-no-no".

And you know, the interface of his app. The way he tell this current phrase. Donnie could put a huge banner "THE APP YOU WANT DOWNLOAD TO IS A REAL PIECE OF GARBAGE", as usual antiviruses do. But no, voice interface. It makes the app more personal and thoughtful. Because when Don made gifts for his brother, the program was voiced by a computer-generated female voice. Yes, the tank's interface is voiced by Donatello himself, but his voice sounds more like Google than the real Don. And, we talking about HIS BABEY, for a second. Bit still, the point remains.

• Also, Dale.

Dale is nerdy boy in purple, wow, how convenient for making a parallel with certain purple turtle.

But thing is, April doesn't like Dale. He's clingy, remora guy, who has a little obsession with April, even he's not harmful, still, such behaviour freaks girls (and not them only) out. Her classmate is usually tell her what April O'Neil is "his favourite person" and he loves her. There is little that is attractive about this behavior.

So, there is nothing new and unpredictable here that Dale was rejected. Because April didn't, doesn't and won't like him because of his lame personality and strange behaviour. Our girl in yellow do right thing: she clearly sets personal boundaries and does not allow any dubious personalities to invade them. So that's the reason she refuses to go on a date with him at the end. He's weird, obsessed, and she doesn't like him.

Donatello, as far as I concerned from different versions of TMNT, was always a little obsessive with some things. And, you know, putting a blocker inside your best friend's phone seems a little weird, because it's, in simple words, violation of privacy and personal space. And there are people who may regard this as stalking or sorta.

Yeah, for the most part, he gets away with it, not only because April's focus is in a different area, but also because their bond is stronger than April's with anyone else at school.

She has known him for years. Donnie is her best friend. I can't say that it's fine to her when Dee violates her personal space - her phone, but April can accept Donatello's personality in general.

And he does really have good intentions. Donnie installed this blocker, developed by himself only for one reason: to protect personal space April from fishy apps from nowhere, from being hacked and etc. Don knew her too well, how much she depends on stupid apps that will distract her. He also knew well, that he can't be with her 24/7 to fix problems with April's phone, so Dee put a part of himself to prevent any harm in the future.

And again, "Donnie's gifts"'s vibes. Donatello genuinely cared about April, because he wrote, coded, developed, designed, and dubbed it, turned on the database, and installed it all on April's phone. 'cause, you know, writing programs in general is a bit of a hassle, but writing an antivirus is much more difficult, because viruses are changing, and questionable applications are finding ways to bypass. Do you feel how much effort Dee put in for her?

But Donatello didn't mean to fix April, as he tried to do with his brothers. Purple turtle accepts this girl the way she is, and tries his best to play smoothly with April, by adjusting, not being passive aggressive jerk. It's his outstanding way to show his caring nature, soft side.

Remember, small but meaningful actions.

Maybe, Donnie also can foresee that April may be forced to download some suspicious program, but still, it work: he managed to prevent April being hypnotized, even if couldn't be physically with April at the this moment - Dee was working for Repo Mantis, building dog's paradise for Todd. That's why, by the way, Leo and Raph were dragged into this whole situation. Mayham would teleported literally anyone to help his hostess. Donnie just wasn't at the Lair at the moment.

And on this note, we'll take a break for now. Stay tuned, expect parsing of the series, there's a lot to discuss.

Part 2

Part 3

[purple-satan-fic]

What's Real (and What Isn't) - original fic

Guilt, as it turns out, is one hell of a mistress to get in bed with. And an even harder one to leave the morning after.

“It’s unnatural, is what it is,” your friend spits, eying the pale skin of the bot lying on your couch, now in deactivated stasis. She paces the front room as you stay seated in a chair, back ramrod straight, wringing your hands and not succeeding at eye contact.

“Does he even know? That you made him look like… that?”

You shake your head.

“I just— this is weird. Is this what you see when you look at him?”

You hesitate, shaking your head again wordlessly in reply.

No.

If you had been trying to emulate, you would have tried to capture perfect detail. You would have added every perfect imperfection. You wouldn’t have glossed over the flaws that made him who he was, made him human.

Or would you have?

The sound of your friend’s hand slamming down on the desk nearby startles you from your musings. Your eyes dart quickly to her, then back to the floor.

“I wouldn’t have expected this from—”

Names die on her tongue, as it stills. The spaces between stiflingly claustrophobic in their poignancy. “Well, not from you, anyway. You never seemed the type to harbor feelings. Not like this.”

“I—”

You open your mouth, then snap it shut with a click, realizing the tripwires and traps laid out in front of you. There’s nothing you can say to get out of this fiasco unscathed. Not after you looked into blue-green eyes that haunted you ever since, the pink bow of a mouth a perpetual pout when not slyly grinning. You’re thankful you had the common sense to deactivate it before this surprise intervention of sorts.

The bot has both its eyes and lips closed right now. You can count on two hands the small mercies life has given you lately, this being high on the list as one of them.

Deactivation, of course, is not the dead-eyed stare of being in sleep mode. No, right now he looks at peace. Hands folded on his chest, the quiet mechanical whirring of gears surround him. In the dead of the room you hear the soft whine of the processor inside still going and your stiff shoulders minutely relax knowing he’s not entirely gone. Hair flopped over one of his closed eyes, he looks serene. His eyes closed and face relaxed, he’s unchanging, immutable.

Like an insect frozen in amber, you could leave him here for someone to find years or decades later completely the same. Still exactly the same even after the persona he took on has withered and aged to an unrecognizable husk of its former beauty, rotting flesh and worm meat. One day you’ll all become brittle bones, stained and covered in dirt. Remains buried deep in the ground people barely remember the name of. And this bot, this abomination you helped create, will still have baby smooth skin and clear sea glass eyes on that day.

That is, if he isn’t destroyed in the meantime.

Your friend spares the sleeping machinery a disgusted glance. Her brown eyes flick up and then down again in quick succession, cataloging the long pale fingers of his hands, the smooth planes of his chest. The things you did and didn’t get right, the things you would have never known.

The size of his feet, the mole on the back of his left shoulder. The random details she has years of knowledge you would have never been privy to.

“How—”

Hair matted, sweat rolls down his temple to the tip of his nose. Drops onto your bare chest, right above your racing heart thumping rabbit-quick, as you struggle to breathe and blood roars in your ears.

You wake up, wide-eyed and gasping—

“—did this—”

Looking up from your plate and across the table, his eyes meet yours and his lips curl into a devious smirk that haunts you for days. He rolls the syllables of your full name in his mouth like a morsel to be savored, a fine wine accompaniment—

“—happen?”

You’re not sure how it came to this.

You already felt guilty buying it in the first place, even before you activated him. Fingers shaking, you unwrapped the tabula rasa of waxy synthskin, hauled it out of the box onto your living room floor. Unceremonious of a beginning, it was the best you could do with its weight compared to yours.

As its features began changing, morphing from a blank slate to generic and then more recognizable, what little joy you had about your purchase quickly morphed to horror as you desperately tried to think of someone else. His features began to coalesce and you tried to think of any number of shades of hair other than his, the most generic color of brown eyes. Broad biceps. A crooked smile. An imperfect smattering of freckles on the bridge of someone’s milk white skin— nononono, not his.

Not his skin.

Not that skin you’ve never touched, but has touched yours.

He’s a real person this isn’t right, this is wrong don’t do this oh god—

Then he opened his eyes and spoke, and you were well and truly fucked before any clothes were put on or shucked off. He immediately took in your strickened expression and instead of chirping out the pleasant reply promised in the activation video, his face twisted into a grimace. Hand shooting up lightning quick, his pale fingers grasped gently, encircling the bird-bones of your wrist. Tugging you close enough to notice the stillness of his chest, his unblinking eyes with their near-invisible lashes fluttered and he began.

Once he had you, the pleas for you to not turn him back off each buried themselves under your skin like a blight. Begging that he didn’t want to go back to the dark, suffocating place that was before seeing you, have some mercy— became a rotten core inside of you as his rough voice broke over the syllables in weird, disjointed ways. As though he couldn’t figure out exactly what voice was his, what his origins were.

By that time you were hook, line, sinker. Hell was too good of a place for you. Now burning would be a luxury compared to the frigidity of the room, still occupied by two other bodies. One very human and angry, the other… not.

“Is it him?” Your probably-no-longer friend finally asks, voice quivering. “Does it talk like him?”

You nod your head.

The best software on the market, an adaptive AI program. As you fed it information from your mind and gave it access to your social media, it evolved. And it was clever. So beautifully clever, as you played its game and unthinkingly lost. Grew into a persona, one you’d come to realize matched the face it was wearing a little too damn well for your liking. Convinced you to with liquid eyes and gentle, uncharacteristic smiles, to keep it well past the point of the money-back guarantee from defects.

“Does it act like him?”

You nod again.

It didn’t, at first. It does now.

A single tear rolls down your friend’s face. You’re not exactly sure what she’s lamenting. Too wrapped up in the fact all you can think of are the tears that surprised you in their life-like realism, rolling down his face after he leaned in and kissed you for the first time and you pushed him away.

The moment it became too real for you to handle. The horrified look on your face that morphed into silent determination you saw reflected in his bright eyes as he pleaded with you I’ll never do it again, just don’t turn me off, don’t send me back—

It worked the first time, but you deemed this crossing a line, this second lapse in judgment completely unforgivable on your conscience.

Still wringing your hands, you bite your bottom lip with blunt teeth until the coppery tang of blood fills your mouth. You try to cry, because it’s probably appropriate to do so. After all, your friend is crying. Your status of probably-not-friends jumps to absolutely-not-friend as you can’t find it in you to shed a tear and steal another glance at the bot.

You hear her breath hitch, then hiccup, and you wish it moved you.

You bite your lip harder.

“I can understand you’re lonely after everything that’s happened. I get that. I just don’t understand…him,” she spits out the word, something profane.

“We were there for you when you were left behind, we supported you when you needed help picking up all the pieces,” she says, words carefully measured and hanging in the air between the two of you. “But why him?”

The quiet hum of the machine drones on and she looks at the sleeping bot one last time, face stricken. It’s an ugly look, tear-stained and pinched in some amalgam of horror, anger, liberally sprinkled with disgust. She wipes her face, eyeliner smearing into a funny blob migrating towards her temple.

“How could you do this to me? To us?”

Moving to the front door, she rests her hand on the doorknob and turns it. You almost breathe a sigh of relief until she turns around, giving you a cold stare that slides like a knife into your gut. Her lips curl over her teeth and her eyes harden into a look that will haunt you far longer than his pale eyes ever did.

“Why my boyfriend?”

Your lips finally part, probably still bloody. Mouth moving, but it doesn’t form into coherent sounds or mouth shapes.

You don’t reply soon enough to compete with the sharp snap of the door slamming shut, rattling on its hinges as the military precise tap-tap-tap of her heels fades away. Now it’s only you and the quiet whirr of machinery, like it began.

The sunlight filters through the closed blinds of the apartment, the rosy hues of sunset giving way to dusk and then finally darkness. You don’t move from your chair. You still don’t know what to say.

Because you don’t know why.

You don’t know why.