#round8

M*A*S*H: 11.16 Goodbye, Farewell and Amen

In the closing days of the Korean War, the staff of the 4077 M*A*S*H Unit find themselves facing irrevocable changes in their lives.

LITERALLY the most episode ever. For American television broadcasts it remains the most-watched primetime television episode ever, beaten only by a number of Super Bowls, the moon landing, and the Nixon resignation.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodbye,_Farewell_and_Amen

Star Trek: The Original Series: 2.01 Amok Time

In the throes of his Pon Farr mating period, Spock must return to Vulcan to meet his intended future wife, betrothed from childhood.

this is the fuck or die episode

For my full detail thoughts:

It’s so baffling to me that they are hiring AI “artists”. When people use AI for their creative works, it’s because they are too lazy to hire actual people to do the work themselves, like people using AI for their games instead of hiring an artist, or people using AI for their books to edit them instead of hiring an editor, amongst other examples. Of course all of those are wrong, but what I’m trying to say is why would you ever hire someone to do AI for you? Are you even more lazy that you can’t type a bunch of words on a computer?

It’s peak laziness, literally anything just to not work with real artists.

Now something more nuanced is that we have to think of who made this decision, because I heavily doubt this was a decision that was agreed upon by everyone in the company, it’s possible this is the choice of higher ups and that the creative part of the team has nothing to do with this decision, and why we need to remain civil and not make assumptions.

To put an example of a similar situation. Overwatch is a game that had planned a PvE mode for its sequel, the people behind the PvE gave all their passion and hard work into the project, but because Blizzard didn’t think it would give them enough sales, they cancelled the work. The creative team behind it got harassment and threats over a choice that wasn’t theirs, they were blamed and demonized when more than anyone else, they wanted that project to happen.

Like think of the art book that was released a while ago, where it shows all the passion that went into creating the art direction on this game. Does it seem that the people who worked so hard on it would suddenly be a-okay with their hard work being replaced by AI?

Which is why I think it’s very important at the moment not to make assumptions. Sure it could be true that maybe everyone was on board with this choice, but if that’s not the case, then innocent people are being hurt and blamed over something they had no control over.

I think (and hope) the best case scenario is that they don’t use AI and that they make an apology. Thought even in that scenario, I think I wouldn’t blame anyone for still not wanting to support them and not thinking that they would be true to their word and not use AI. They have broken the trust people had in them and I don’t think that it’s going to be an easy thing to repair; honestly it shouldn’t be an easy thing to repair because even in the best case scenario I don’t want them to simply get a slap on the wrist for doing something that should have never happened.

I can say that I’m proud the fandom has very vocal on the official discord server and other places that they are against AI being used. Glad to know we are not one of those fandoms we’re people are either indifferent or supportive AI.

Lastly it feels needless to say but I’m saying it anyways. Support real artists, there are so many talented artists, writers or other creative types in this fandom that deserve all the support for the things they create.