Coming back to say: here’s some reasons to hold out against using generative AI as much as you can*.

On the ethics side:

The ‘free’ AI programs available to the general public are unethically trained on stolen data

(Said stolen data has been found to include CSAM/CSEM)

AI generation requires lots of electricity & is bad for the environment

AI is heavily supplemented by underpaid human labor that’s hidden on purpose

On the labor side:

AI has only one real value for companies who look to incorporate it: reducing its reliance on human labor. If it’s not doing that, then why spend money on it? It needs to be a cheaper replacement for something else, and that something is human labor. That’s its selling point.

And thus: generative AI is being sold to your boss/potential commissioner as your cheaper competitor.

Although the actual potential for generative AI’s output is doubtful, companies are eager to use AI to cut creative labor out of the production process and thus the profit structure. artists are noticing.

For example: Companies refusing to include anti-AI language in contracts, prompting strikes

AI is replacing people … but mostly making jobs for those who remain even harder than before

That last point is important to me bc if you won’t try to avoid using generative AI for the sake of the people whose work was stolen to train it, or for the environment, or for creatives getting financially squeezed by it … you should avoid it because it’s not going to be around forever.

On the economic side:

Generative AI as it stands … really can’t replace humans no matter how hard AI companies try to sell it as a replacement. If it turns out to be a useless expense, then why buy it?

If it turns out nobody will buy it … why keep selling it? & in fact that’s the problem: not nearly enough people are buying use of generative AI services/models to make it profitable.

If it’s not profitable (bc ppl actively don’t like it & it doesn’t work well), the companies selling generative AI will stop selling it, will close their doors, will stop offering generative AI for free …

And all we’ll have is a bunch of collapsed AI startups & lost creative jobs for no reason.

The AI bubble will crash, & when it does, all that will happen is a lot of wealth will have transferred to already-wealthy people who were willing to throw massive amounts of money down the drain just to make everyone else a little poorer

Outside of fandom, AI is getting rammed down our throats bc it’s all about profit. Generative AI is meant to steal what little profit artists still make commercially. Let’s not let it take up space in fandom, too!

I can’t force anyone to not use AI, of course, & I don’t expect ppl who already use it to respect any of my reasons to not use it. But i hope this post gives you some reasons to not use it.

(You know who’s actually profiting heavily from AI? Scammers.)

*doom music starts to play* I actually kindof like scheduling these kinds of appointments now...

but seriously Fellas, don't forget to schedule a pap smear every couple of years just in case. If you still have a cervix you can still get cervical cancer. ilu

it'd be a shame if this...

that doesn't count, buck says impatiently, because you don't want to kiss me the rest of the time anyway.

and eddie is all of a sudden just sitting there at buck's kitchen table feeling like he got whacked by a two-by-four, because that -

*sound of clanging pots and pans getting closer*

Most people think, “Slugs—yuk!” But I think that whenever you start to study an organism, you become overwhelmed by the beauty and complexity of it. I am always amazed and touched by the way these animals solve the  tremendous problems they have, which are always really basically the same as ours. I have come to have very strong respect and admiration for them, and I’ve also found it’s a wonderful area to involve nonscientists in. The minute you begin to show them that slugs are very complicated, interesting animals with their own needs and demands, people begin to look at them with very different eyes. I’m very moved by the slug’s ingenuity and tremendous drive to continue living. I think in the end this is what makes me go on, no matter how frustrating the experiments happen to be at that time.