In another world...

"Oh I don't normally use AI, I just wanted it to plan my trip"

You lived on this planet for decades, you know what you like, there are hundreds of websites where you can type into any search engine " things to do in [area]" and have at least a hundred different options.

"Oh I only use it so I can figure out what to make during the week with what I have"

The most popular website as you type in "recipes" into google have sections where you click dinner- quick and easy and those usually rely on staples + 1 or 2 items. I found 30 recipes on chicken alone.

"I had a writing idea, so I typed a few sentences into Chat GPT and I was able to write 20 pages with it."

You WILL love this person. It doesn't matter who you loved before; any feelings you had, any promises you made, they will become inconsequential as soon as you lock eyes with the stranger Fate has picked for you.

There's no way to stop it.

There's no way to say "no."

You will meet someone and with a single glance, both of you will become someone new, someone who's now bound to this stranger whether you like it or not, want it or not.

Glimmer claims to partially ‘offset’ the environmental harm through purchasing carbon offsets. they claim to care about artistry and cite sharing the concern of AI in fandom, but immediately throw it away with some bullshit excuse about only using AI as a ‘tool’, because they ‘don't believe machines can replace human creativity’. they also claim that their goal of butchering man-made art via injecting randomized AI slop into it is because they ‘want to live in a world where more people are making art, not fewer’. sinisterly hollow sentiments, all of it.

i am sick of AI-shills co-opting accessibility arguments to justify causing harm. art is HUMAN MADE. across ages, across abilities, across every single human variable, art can and does persist. this language spits in the face of every disabled artist. every poor person creating in the spaces between. every marginalized person crafting art under oppression. AI does not make art accessible, because it does not make art period.

AI is not a tool, it is a miserable disaster and a despicable weapon. it wreaks havoc on local communities where data centers are built. people dying at rapid rates from cancers and other preventable illnesses directly related to air, water, and land pollution. it is forcing states to go into droughts from stealing all the fresh, drinkable water. it is kicking people out of their careers and preying on vulnerable populations to work for them. it is stealing and scraping people's work, and stealing people's REAL art, including other fanfic authors who do not consent. it is also wildly inaccurate. it also sends people into psychosis and causes them to end their lives.

sites like Glimmer normalize all of that violence, and how they try to wrap it in a velvet bow further normalizes, erases, and justifies it. as an artist who sits at the intersection of many of the identities these AI-proponents claim to be helping, I am appalled. i know many others are too. it's imperative we call out leeches like these in creative spaces.

i don't give a fuck if Glimmer responds and says whatever PR statement they think will be ‘transparent’ and help weasel their way out of real accountability. i don’t care if they say every bit of money goes back into developing the site: any site that uses generative AI in fandom spaces should not exist. especially not with charging users money in direct exchange for fanfiction. it puts the entire fandom community at risk. it mocks and endangers what they insist they care about.

i don't care what reasoning, anecdotes, placation, loopholes, dismissals, or logical fallacies they may employ to rationalize their platform in their potential response to this post. the entire foundation of their business is actively causing harm to the world and the community they claim to love. unless they stop using generative AI entirely (and stop monetizing fanfiction), whatever they say is hollow. these people know they can get away with it, they have users who either don't know the damage AI causes or don't care, and have people singing the praises of the platform. a lot of people applaud bad things. it doesn't make them any less bad.

there are valid ways to create ACTUAL choose your own adventure fics that do not perpetuate violence and oppression (like Twine!). Glimmer can dig their heads in the sand and pretend they're paving a path all they want, but it's a path to hell.

Check out our AO3 collection!

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