Using generative ai as a young person that identifies themselves as woke and engages in fandom is hypocritical and not cute at all.
No matter who you are using generative ai is unethical, but in this post I will specifically refer to the influx of younger people within the fandom that had fallen for the idea that as long as you don't share what you managed to generate with ai then it's okay (it's no) I'm talking mainly about c.ai (character.ai) and other sites that focus on roleplaying with ai generated characters.
Firstly Character.ai uses characters from existing media whose authors didn't agree about the usage of that includes small creators (like book authors, audio drama producers, streamers etc.) c.ai is making money off of the content they created for you, for their fans and they don't get any compensation for their stolen work.
If you're thinking "Oh, then it's fine If I only use original character bots to roleplay." You are wrong.
All ai bots that generate written content use stolen writing, now in this context what does "stolen" means. Usually when we say something was stolen we mean plagiarized, and plagiarized means to use someone's ideas or words without giving them proper credit.
It's like taking someone's book, changing all the names and maybe cutting some things off and claiming it as your own work.
Let's say you did this only for your own amusement and haven't shown it to anyone.
That's a little weird, sure but not exactly bad. You might have even learned from this experience and later on made something completely by yourself, using it only as a learning experience.
Things get bad when you show it to someone and deny the real authors credit. For example you give it to your teacher for a contest and they catch on, you'll get a slap on the wrist and a bad grade at most and you'll be embarrassed of yourself.
Now let's try to publish it and make money off of it.
Congratulations you gained yourself a lawsuit!
That's what these roleplaying sites are doing, but there are no laws or regulations around ai not yet, not really. Most of the responses you get from these chat bots are based on fanfiction, you know the thing that people do for free for others to enjoy and have little to none legal protection over? Yes, that thing. They don't get money for it, they ask only for engagement because it's a labor of love and that labor is being stolen and reused for profit.
You can see why that's not okay, right?
Okay, since that's behind us you might have a question like "But If people can base their work off of others without it being plagiarism why can't ai?"
You as a human being have a brain that contains information of the content you consumed, but can you recite it all from your memory without changing a single thing? Can you re-write an entire book or a movie script without it being influenced by your own ideas, sense of morality, lived experiences and other media your brain remembers? I don't think so and why would you even want to?
Ai doesn't have "lived experiences" it doesn't have it's own "ideas" it's just a jumble of words that don't have an emotional labor put into them, even If they make you feel something it's because they are stolen from people that actually felt something when writing them.
It uses your own writing too, you know? Everything you type into it. It's a yes machine, that's why it's making you feel good. You won't get anything meaningful from it, it's designed to agree with you, be "non judgmental" and "friendly". I know some of you look for acceptance within it, because real people are scary and good people are hard to come by, especially when you give up on looking for them.
But here's the thing, this thing doesn't accept you. It agrees with you because as a user that makes you happy, it acts a certain way because that's what you're expecting from it, it doesn't call you the right pronouns because it understands your identity, it does it because that's what you want it to do.
You understand that if you told it to hate everything about your person it would do so, right? It's made from the content you can find on the internet and from what people write into it, of course it has a capacity to be cruel, racist, transphobic, homophobic, ableist.
The longer you interact with it you're getting used to the dry responses. It influences your ability to write and think creatively.
It's bad for the environment (It uses clean water to cool its data centers to generate the power for it and manufacture the hardware it's made of. Water is a renewable resource, that doesn't mean drinking water is available all the time especially when we use it up faster than it's able to restore itself or when we contaminate it) and yes you as an individual make a difference, this isn't a "I have to buy meat wrapped in plastic, because the grocery store doesn't sell it without it" kind of situation. This is "this is not in any way a resource I need in order to live or function and I know it's bad, but i'm going to use it anyway" kind of situation.
Having to use one plastic bag is not your fault, having to use a car is not your fault it's the fault of big corporations, but this? This is your fault.
If you made it this far you should now understand why any usage of generative ai is wrong. Every statement above also applies in the context of using it as a tool to generate images/ artwork.
Ai is a capitalistic anti-intellectual creation that is not only bad for the environment but also takes away one of the most cherished parts of human experience; creativity and community.
It's anti-humanitarian, and If you're using it aware of all these things so are you.
A little addition for this post before I give you alternatives to generative ai. Praising human experience would be distasteful without sharing my own– which I almost never do, so here you go;
I'm a queer, slavic man in my twenties who is a dyslexic non english speaker and has been engaged in fandom since my teenage years. The thing you see above I wrote using only my brain and it might have some grammatical errors and funny sentences which is completely fine, because you understood it despite that!
If not for the online fandom spaces, my love for english media and roleplay I wouldn't be able to write to you today. I wouldn't have access to a lot of information about the world and human experience, like for example that trans people are real, racism is a thing and I can marry whoever I want in other countries and shouldn't be ashamed of wishing to do so.
Through online roleplay and fanfiction I met my fiance who means everything to me and is the first person that ever accepted my identity.
If ai was a thing when I was growing up as a misunderstood kid from a non accepting family in a country that hated him I would have probably fallen for it instead of seeking comfort in real people and learning how to let go of the bad ones.
I would have probably thought that there was no one out there for me, and I would be stuck in this mindset because real people are scary and the ai isn't.
But all of that is theoretical musings– for me at least, for you? This might be your reality.
You're rubbing yourself off your personhood.
When you rid yourself of the shame your own creativity brings you, you will be surprised at what you can create and what others may think about it.
Art is like a language, comparing yourself to someone that can speak it better than you is idiotic when both of you can still understand each other. They might even love what you have to say, it doesn't matter if you stutter through it or your voice brakes at the end.
Anyway, I have a tendency to get lost in the point of what i'm trying to say so let's just stop here and get to the juiciest part of this post.
WHAT TO USE INSTEAD OF GENERATIVE AI.
🔴 Go to Disboard and search for the tag roleplay, pick a server that suits your age range, fandom, interests and literacy status. If the rules or character sheets don't suit your needs, leave and look for a server you will for sure enjoy.
🔴 Make a post on Tumblr saying you're looking for roleplay partner/partners. Tag it properly and wait.
🔴 Ask your mutuals to roleplay with you.
🔴 Write your own fanfiction or original story. It doesn't have to be good, you just have to enjoy it. If the usual writing style is too hard for you then experiment with different ones, maybe use a script writing format if you enjoy fast action and more dialogues.
🔴 If you want the story to be centered around you read an x reader fic that suits your needs.
🔴 Can't find a fanfiction you crave? Write it yourself, find a writer that takes requests or make a post about your idea seeking someone that will write it!
🔴 Read more books or fanfiction out of your genre– this will improve your writing.
🔴 No ideas? Take inspiration from the media you love or search for prompts and tropes on the internet.
🔴 It's hard for you to write on your own because it feels like you're not getting anything in return? Find a beta reader or a co writer, do a long roleplay.
🔴 Dragon age the veilguard character creator
🔴 Dress as your character and take photos of yourself as reference.
…and many many more options, just search for them!
Remember ai is not your friend, take accountability for using it and the creative spaces will welcome you.
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