Generative AI "art"
4I’ve been a big fan of Meh for a long time, but the use of generative AI images in the emails is making me reconsider my membership. I just can’t condone this. If it’s too much work for a human to create a funny image every day, I understand, but I’d rather go without the images altogether.
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I actually think their kinda funny, I like when their from movies I know.
@Star2236 call me a grammar nazi but your use of their instead of they’re (they are) can’t go unmentioned.
Hey @kittykat9180, easy on my friend @Star2236!
@ItalianScallion @kittykat9180 @Star2236 I’ll blame speech-to-text by default when I see that now, simply because it started becoming more common when that “utility” gained greater usage. .
@ItalianScallion @kittykat9180 @werehatrack
Thank you.
@ItalianScallion @Star2236 @werehatrack
Voice to text has messed up many a sentences for me.
@kittykat9180 @Star2236 @werehatrack About 15 years ago, way before voice-to-text capability was included in software distributions and as commonplace as it is now, I bought Nuance’s Dragon Naturally Speaking. It was, I think, the best voice-to-text software available at the time. After you went through its traning to recognize your voice–reading one or more of the provided passages from a book, magazine, etc.–it was wonderfully accurate then and that old version is still the most accurate software of its kind that I’ve used. Nuance aimed it, as it does now for their present products, to the business world. I’m quite sure that theirs are still top-tier.
@ItalianScallion @kittykat9180 @Star2236 @werehatrack autocorrect gets me all the time. Obviously I must be fatfingering my typing for it to correct, but so often it just pumps out bad grammar when it corrects me.
Agreed, it’s one of the (multiple) reasons I ended mine. I have multiple artist friends and to be blunt about it, it has already screwed some of them.
I get the concern, but for better or worse the consumer AI era has arrived. Boycotting a company today for using AI generated art is going to be as effective as boycotting a mail-order company in the year 2000 for converting to a web-based business because of all the bulk mail printers put out of business
@Turken It’s boycott AI or be kicked to the gutter for a hell of a lot of people, so businesses are well advised to consider their usage of it carefully.
@Turken @werehatrack
PLEASE folks for the love of God STOP “throwing the baby out with the bath water”. AI is NOT the problem. Misuse of AI is the problem.
@chienfou @Turken when has a tool ever not been misused? When has a tool with such power for damage been misused so widely? Sometimes the tool is the problem.
@chienfou @Turken @werehatrack This same “chicken little” warning is screamed from the highest roof tops any time innovation is released and we havent blown up the world yet.
It happened when assembly lines started, when automation was introduced, when computers were brought into the workplace, etc, etc, etc. Guessing it happened when the wheel was invented or someone discovered fire - think about the mass destruction that was caused if fire was used irresponsibly!!! Could have burned down entire forrests when someone just wanted ton stay warm or cook a meal. In fact, that is still a risk, but we have not banned fire yet.
That said, what has happened when technology of any kind was introduced? It forced folks to shift their areas of expertise and to study/train in new or different areas. In many cases it lifted them up, increasing their skill base and salary.
Closing yourself off from innovation makes you obsolete and forgotten. Keeping an open mind allows you to grow.
@chienfou @tinamarie1974 @Turken @werehatrack and learning how to appropriately use the new technology is a learning curve as well.
@werehatrack
Those are pretty condemning words coming from someone who just recently posted after using AI…
@chienfou @Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 @Turken People eager to exploit and abuse are often quicker to adopt a new thing (without regard to the side effects) than those who prefer to understand the tool and determine whether it really ought to be adopted at all. Modern capitalism does not reward “playing the long game”, particularly when nobody else tries to.
“Somebody has to buy these cars” applies to both making the product affordable and employing a well-paid workforce to provide the market for the product. AI doesn’t just fail on that latter point, it makes the problem instantly worse.
@werehatrack
Condemning “AI” is akin to condemning words because they can generate hate speech. AI is so much more than chatbot and computer generated ‘art’. Please learn to differentiate what it is you’re talking about.
Sorry @werehatrack, but I disagree, snf actually you are further proving my point by using fear of the unknow as a reason to avoid evolution of technology.
I can tell you from personal experience that the use of A1 and Chatgpt has made me signifigantly more efficient at my job. I literally utilize it multiple times a week to do everything from create meeting minutes from transcripts to analyzing data. It allows me to focus on more meaningful areas of responsibility.
And now a different perspective for fun! Ive used this example before, how about hammers. A hammer is an awesome tool that allows one to use brute force to create amazing things. In the wrong hands it can also be used to bash someones skull in and kill them. So, should we ban hammers to avoid them getting into the wrong hands? Of course not, so why use fear mongering to attack AI when it has so many positive benefits.
@chienfou
VAN GOGH! MANGO! TANGO! AWESOME!
@Kidsandliz @tinamarie1974 @Turken @werehatrack
I think some people need to go back to basic math and relearn their sets and subsets rules.
@chienfou @Turken @werehatrack inefficient misuse also bothers me more than it should
/showme people protesting AI art because AI art is bad and wrong.
Somewhere I go from time to time is a bull. The bull is made of caps from beer bottles.
Is it “not art” because the person who made the bull used bottle tops that someone else made and designed?
AI art is art. Individual pieces may not be valuable or contribute to human kind but it is art. Art with multiple creators. Those that created the world harvested by the AI. Those who wrote the software to chop them up and reimagine them and those who create the prompts.
The very fact people talk about it makes it art… Just like the ridiculous banana taped to a wall.
AI is going to put a lot of people out of work, but you can’t stop it any more than people could stop cars replacing horse carts or electricity replacing gas lamps. (And yes, people tried to stop those inventions too)
There is a strong case that the original artists whose work is harvested should be credited and compensated. Unfortunately, I don’t think that will happen (at least not often).
Art like science though has always been people standing on the shoulders of those before them.
Right now, there’s a lot of “art” that isn’t subjectively powerful and doesn’t provoke thought. A lot of it is created without much thought or care but that doesnt make it “not art”… It just makes it art some people don’t subjectively care for.
Do I wish AI was never invented? Yes, actually.
Do I think we should try to push it back in the box? No, it’s impossible now.
I think there is definitely added value to art made by human hands and it will be valuable because of that… artisans who create with their own hands will just become more valuable as fewer people learn the skill because it’s easier with a computer.
@OnionSoup
/image clapping
@chienfou @OnionSoup Printing presses were met with hostility at first, too:
–https://bigthink.com/the-past/printing-press-ai/
And it’s true that calligraphy is now considered a fine art, but it’s also true that it’s not practiced much anymore. Oh well. Que sera, sera …
@chienfou @OnionSoup One thing that I’m really troubled by is the amount of energy and water required by AI generation.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/technology/meta-data-center-water.html?unlocked_article_code=1.YU8.7Szq.wsNQKjlTE8Tz&smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
@chienfou @Kyeh yes current models would just not be sustainable if everyone used it. Something needs fixing with thsg
@chienfou @Kyeh @OnionSoup let the Xmas warfare commence!
(Somewhat unironically saying that. Initially, those who owned cars or motorbikes or even ATARIs were few and far. Eventually the technology will become more efficient and widespread. In the meantime, this shouldn’t be so ubiquitous.)