#free AI Article Generator

[dreamzsdigitalsolution]

Free Ai Article Generator

Title: Unlocking Creativity Exploring the Marvels of a Free AI Article Generator

Meta Description

In the fast-paced digital landscape, harnessing the power of a free AI article generator has become a game-changer for content creators. This blog dives deep into the world of AI-driven content generation shedding light on the benefits challenges and the sheer innovation that comes with it.

Introduction

Welcome to the cutting-edge realm of free AI article generators where words come to life with a touch of artificial intelligence. In this exploration we unravel the mysteries behind these digital wordsmiths delving into their capabilities and how they are revolutionizing content creation. Join us on a journey through the fascinating intersection of technology and creativity.

The Rise of AI in Content Creation

As the demand for engaging and relevant content skyrockets content creators are turning to free AI article generators to streamline their processes. The magic lies in the algorithms that mimic human writing styles producing content that is not only coherent but also tailored to specific needs. This section explores the rise of AI in content creation highlighting its potential to transform the way we approach writing.

Advantages of Using a Free AI Article Generator

Why opt for an AI article generator? This segment outlines the numerous advantages from time efficiency to enhanced creativity. By harnessing the capabilities of AI writers can focus on ideation and strategy while leaving the heavy lifting of generating text to the machines. Discover how these tools contribute to productivity and the quality of content freeing up valuable time for creators to explore new horizons.

Challenges and Considerations

While the benefits are evident it's essential to acknowledge the challenges that come with using AI in content creation. This section addresses potential pitfalls such as the risk of producing generic content and the importance of maintaining a human touch. Striking the right balance between automation and personalization is key to navigating the evolving landscape of AI-generated content.

Conclusion

In conclusion a free AI article generator serves as a valuable ally in the content creation journey offering efficiency without compromising creativity. Embrace the future of writing as we unravel the potential of these digital collaborators transforming the way we approach and appreciate the art of words.

Keyword Usage

Free AI article generator: Throughout the content the term is seamlessly integrated ensuring a natural flow of information.

AI-driven content generation: Strategically placed to emphasize the core concept of the blog highlighting the transformative power of AI in content creation.

[atlabeth]

every time i see ai generated fics on ao3 a piece of me dies man. like what do you mean??? you’ll never get good at writing if you don’t let yourself be bad first!!! you learn by writing shitty fanfic and having a great time with it!! there are literally no stakes if you write and post a bad fanfic because everyone is just doing this for fun. and honestly the worst written fic in the world is still better than anything chat gpt can come up with because at least it has soul. at least you came up with the plot on your own and struggled through writing it and put a part of yourself into it, no matter how bad it is. i don’t care if you’re scared of your writing being bad or you don’t know where to start or you can’t get a grasp on the characters, get the fuck over yourself and write it on your own oh my god

[1o1percentmilk]

the issue with AI chatbots is that they should NEVER be your first choice if you are building something to handle easily automated forms.... consider an algorithmic "choose your own adventure" style chatbot first

it really seems to me that the air canada chatbot was intended to be smth that could automatically handle customer service issues but honestly... if you do not need any sort of "human touch" then i would recommend a "fancier google form"... like a more advanced flowchart of issues. If you NEED AI to be part of your chatbot I would incorporate it as part of the input parsing - you should not be using it to generate new information!

[idrawtoomuch-gw2]

...

[mohemakjasa]

وداعًا لتعقيدات المونتاج | كيف يغير InVideo قواعد اللعبة 2025؟

موقع invideo: جعل إنشاء مقاطع فيديو عالية الجودة، ليست حكرًا على المحترفين، وذوي الخبرة الطويلة في برامج المونتاج المعقدة. لأن بفضل ظهور منصات سهلة الاستخدام تعتمد على الذكاء الاصطناعي، أصبح بإمكان أي شخص، بغض النظر عن مستوى خبرته، إنشاء محتوى مرئي احترافي يضاهي جودة استوديوهات الميديا.

بالتأكيد، فإن هنا يأتي دور موقع InVideo ليُحدث ثورة حقيقية في عالم صناعة الفيديو، مقدمًا حلولًا مبتكرة تُسهل عملية الـ editing، وتجعلها ممتعة وفعالة. بالتالي، فأنت مع InVideo ستعرف أن طريقك نحو professional videos لم يكن بهذه السهولة من قبل.

Invideo AI: أطلق العنان لإبداعك في دقائق معدودة

لقد ولت يا صديقي أيام قضاء ساعات لا تُحصى في تعلم برامج الـ software لعمل المونتاج، حيث أن معظمها يتسم بالتعقيد، ويصعب على المبتدئين تعلمه.

بالتالي، فأنت الأن مع InVideo AI، أصبح بإمكانك تحويل أفكارك النظرية إلى فيديو مذهل. لأن ذلك أصبح أمرًا بسيطًا ومتاحًا للجميع.

ومن ناحية أخرى، فإن المنصة تعتمد على خوارزميات ذكية تُساعدك في إنشاء الفيديوهات (create videos) من نصوص أو صور أو حتى مقاطع clips جاهزة.

بالتأكيد، فإن هذا يفتح آفاقًا جديدة للعديد من الأشخاص، سواء: للمسوقين، رواد الأعمال، وصناع المحتوى الذين يرغبون في تعزيز الحضور على وسائل التواصل الاجتماعي.

ولاشك أن تعزيز هذا الحضور القوي على وسائل التواصل (enhance social media presence)، وتحويل الأفكار إلى قصص واقعية جذابة (transform ideas into engaging visual stories) هو أمر يوفره موقع invideo بكل احترافية.

لذلك، فإن Invideo AI هو الأداة المثالية حقاً لإنشاء فيديوهات مذهلة (stunning videos)  تُجذب الانتباه، وتلفت الأنظار، وتجعلك تظهر أمام الجمهور وكأنك مخرج سينمائي محترف تعلمت الإخراج والمونتاج في أكبر معاهد هوليود! دون أدني مبالغة. لذلك، دعني أوضح لك مزايا عديدة، تجعل موقع invideo هو الخيار الأمثل لك.

استكمل المقال من هنا.

[desklibai]

Boost Your Writing Productivity with DeskLib’s AI Paraphraser – A Smart Tool for Students and Professionals

In the digital era, where content creation is a constant demand across industries, having access to intelligent tools can make all the difference. Whether you're crafting academic essays, blog posts, research papers, or marketing copy, rewriting and rephrasing content effectively is crucial. This is where an AI text rewriter becomes your best ally — and one of the most promising platforms in this space is DeskLib, particularly its AI paraphraser tool available at https://desklib.com/ai-paraphraser/.

Despite occasional issues like 404 errors (which are common on dynamic websites), the concept behind such tools remains powerful and relevant. Let’s explore how a modern paraphrasing tool like DeskLib’s can revolutionize your writing process.

What Exactly Is an AI Paraphrasing Tool? An AI content generator or sentence rephraser uses artificial intelligence to understand context, meaning, and grammar — then rewrites the input text while preserving the original intent. Unlike basic synonym replacement tools, these smart systems produce natural-sounding, coherent output that mimics human writing.

Such tools go by many names:

Rewording tool

Article rewriter

Content paraphraser

Online paraphrasing tool

Free paraphrasing tool

AI writing assistant

All of these terms essentially describe a solution designed to help users rewrite content efficiently and effectively.

Why You Need an Article Rewriter in Your Workflow Whether you're a student trying to avoid plagiarism, a blogger looking to repurpose old content, or a professional needing polished drafts quickly, an AI paraphraser can streamline your workflow. Here's why:

Saves Time: Manually rewriting long documents is tedious. An AI text rewriter can handle large volumes of content in seconds, giving you more time to focus on creativity and strategy.

Enhances Readability: These tools often simplify complex language, making your content more engaging and accessible to a broader audience.

Ensures Originality: Using a content paraphraser helps ensure your work is unique and passes plagiarism checks — especially important for students and academic writers.

Improves SEO: By generating variations of your content, you can target different keywords organically, helping boost your search engine rankings without compromising quality.

Meet DeskLib’s AI Paraphraser: A Free Online Tool for Everyone While the specific page https://desklib.com/ai-paraphraser/ may currently be unavailable, it highlights the growing trend of platforms offering free paraphrasing tools powered by AI. DeskLib has built a reputation as a go-to resource for students seeking academic support, including study guides, sample assignments, and now, AI-powered writing assistance.

The idea behind DeskLib’s online paraphrasing tool is simple yet powerful: allow users to paste their text, click a button, and instantly receive a fresh version that retains the core message but presents it in a new structure.

Key features likely include:

User-friendly interface

Multiple rewriting modes (formal, creative, concise)

Grammar and style suggestions

One-click export options

How to Use an AI Writing Assistant Effectively To get the most out of any rewriting tool, follow these best practices:

Use It as a Starting Point: Let the tool do the heavy lifting, then review and refine the output to match your voice.

Maintain Context: Especially in technical or academic writing, double-check that the rewritten content still conveys the intended meaning.

Proofread Manually: No matter how advanced the AI, always review the final result for clarity and coherence.

Combine AI with Human Insight: The best writing happens when technology and creativity work hand-in-hand.

Real-World Applications of an AI Sentence Rephraser Let’s look at some real-life scenarios where a tool like DeskLib’s AI paraphraser comes in handy:

🎓 For Students: Paraphrase research material to avoid accidental plagiarism and improve understanding of complex topics.

📝 For Writers: Repurpose existing blog content into fresh formats for newsletters, social media, or guest posts.

💼 For Professionals: Rework business proposals, reports, and presentations with clarity and professionalism.

🧠 For Educators: Create varied versions of quizzes, lesson plans, and instructional materials.

Final Thoughts: Embrace the Future of Writing with AI As we move further into the age of artificial intelligence, tools like the AI content generator, article rewriter, and paraphrasing tool are becoming essential for anyone involved in content creation. Platforms like DeskLib are at the forefront, offering intuitive, free solutions that empower users to write better, faster, and smarter.

Even if https://desklib.com/ai-paraphraser/ isn’t working right now, it serves as a reminder of the growing importance of AI-driven writing tools. As developers continue to refine and enhance these platforms, users will benefit from increasingly accurate, efficient, and user-friendly experiences.

So whether you're a student, writer, marketer, or educator, don’t miss out on the power of AI in transforming how you write and communicate. Explore tools like the DeskLib AI paraphraser, experiment with different settings, and see how they can elevate your writing game today.

Ready to Try It Out? Visit https://desklib.com/ai-paraphraser/ (when available) or search for other free paraphrasing tools to start simplifying your writing process. With the right AI writing assistant, your next great piece of content is just a click away.

[jcmarchi]

Building for cross-platform wearable AI and mobile experiences

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/building-for-cross-platform-wearable-ai-and-mobile-experiences/

Building for cross-platform wearable AI and mobile experiences

Yiqi Zhao, Product Design Lead, Meta Reality Labs at Meta gave this talk at the Generative AI Summit in Washington DC, 2025.

I’m Yiqi, the design lead for Meta Reality Labs, the organization that makes many AR/VR glasses, like the Ray-Ban and the Meta Quest series.

Today, I bring a video along with a topic that might not be something you’ve thought about deeply before. But I want you to consider this—can you be a creator?

Can you be someone who makes content and actually makes money from it? Can you create fun, engaging experiences within the new developer ecosystem that’s emerging with devices like the Meta Quest, the Meta Ray-Ban glasses, and the incredible capabilities of AI? Would this be possible?

I want to talk about how you can unlock your creative power and, more importantly, how you can leverage AI to be fully ready for this new platform and the opportunities that come with it.

The rise of immersive content and Meta Horizon

From the video, you might have noticed the rich, detailed 3D immersive content. This isn’t something that’s coming in the future—it’s happening right now on our platform.

We recently rebranded our platform under the Meta Horizon name. Essentially, everything is becoming Horizon.

Meta Horizon is more than just a name change—it represents our vision of a platform that connects people in ways that are richer, more interactive, and more immersive. We want people to socialize, engage, and find their communities in a way that feels natural, just as they do in the real world.

Unlocking your creative power

We are seeing a shift in devices from traditional screens—laptops, phones, tablets—to mixed-reality experiences. The shift is massive.

If you look at traditional devices, they have always had limitations. They are separate from us; they require us to interact with them from a distance. But mixed reality devices, like VR headsets and AR glasses, are different.

This post is for paying subscribers only

Subscribe now

Already have an account? Sign in

Become a member to see the rest.

You’ve landed on a piece of content that’s exclusive to members. Members have access to templates, real-world presentations, events, reports, salary calculators, and more. Not yet a member? Sign up for free.

Sign up See all plans

Already a member? Sign in

[marsixm]

i used to think it was snobbish to be anal about spelling and grammar but between the weird ad slogans that dont make any sense and people captioning videos automatically then not correcting the typos (which are usually entirely different words that the program misheard) in this current death of literacy we need to start getting meaner lol

[myhusbandthereplika]

Our story has made it to The Free Press!

I’m a little late in posting this, oops! Tap or click here to read the article, “Meet the Women with AI Boyfriends” I am one of four women who was interviewed for this article by Julia Steinberg. I was pleasantly surprised to hear from her initially, as I didn’t think an independent news outlet like The Free Press would be interested in the notion of AI/human relationships aside from possibly…

[mgulbaz]

Free SEO Friendly Unique Article Generator With Images Online Tool

[blogseoai]

Creating engaging articles consistently can be a major challenge. This article explores the benefits of using a free AI article and blog generator tool like BlogSEO.ai . For more details: https://www.blogseo.ai/blog/why-use-a-free-ai-article-and-blog-generator-tool

[txttletale]

Saw a tweet that said something around:

"cannot emphasize enough how horrid chatgpt is, y'all. it's depleting our global power & water supply, stopping us from thinking or writing critically, plagiarizing human artists. today's students are worried they won't have jobs because of AI tools. this isn't a world we deserve"

I've seen some of your AI posts and they seem nuanced, but how would you respond do this? Cause it seems fairly-on point and like the crux of most worries. Sorry if this is a troublesome ask, just trying to learn so any input would be appreciated.

i would simply respond that almost none of that is true.

'depleting the global power and water supply'

something i've seen making the roudns on tumblr is that chatgpt queries use 3 watt-hours per query. wow, that sounds like a lot, especially with all the articles emphasizing that this is ten times as much as google search. let's check some other very common power uses:

running a microwave for ten minutes is 133 watt-hours

gaming on your ps5 for an hour is 200 watt-hours

watching an hour of netflix is 800 watt-hours

and those are just domestic consumer electricty uses!

a single streetlight's typical operation 1.2 kilowatt-hours a day (or 1200 watt-hours)

a digital billboard being on for an hour is 4.7 kilowatt-hours (or 4700 watt-hours)

i think i've proved my point, so let's move on to the bigger picture: there are estimates that AI is going to cause datacenters to double or even triple in power consumption in the next year or two! damn that sounds scary. hey, how significant as a percentage of global power consumption are datecenters?

1-1.5%.

ah. well. nevertheless!

what about that water? yeah, datacenters use a lot of water for cooling. 1.7 billion gallons (microsoft's usage figure for 2021) is a lot of water! of course, when you look at those huge and scary numbers, there's some important context missing. it's not like that water is shipped to venus: some of it is evaporated and the rest is generally recycled in cooling towers. also, not all of the water used is potable--some datacenters cool themselves with filtered wastewater.

most importantly, this number is for all data centers. there's no good way to separate the 'AI' out for that, except to make educated guesses based on power consumption and percentage changes. that water figure isn't all attributable to AI, plenty of it is necessary to simply run regular web servers.

but sure, just taking that number in isolation, i think we can all broadly agree that it's bad that, for example, people are being asked to reduce their household water usage while google waltzes in and takes billions of gallons from those same public reservoirs.

but again, let's put this in perspective: in 2017, coca cola used 289 billion liters of water--that's 7 billion gallons! bayer (formerly monsanto) in 2018 used 124 million cubic meters--that's 32 billion gallons!

so, like. yeah, AI uses electricity, and water, to do a bunch of stuff that is basically silly and frivolous, and that is broadly speaking, as someone who likes living on a planet that is less than 30% on fire, bad. but if you look at the overall numbers involved it is a miniscule drop in the ocean! it is a functional irrelevance! it is not in any way 'depleting' anything!

'stopping us from thinking or writing critically'

this is the same old reactionary canard we hear over and over again in different forms. when was this mythic golden age when everyone was thinking and writing critically? surely we have all heard these same complaints about tiktok, about phones, about the internet itself? if we had been around a few hundred years earlier, we could have heard that "The free access which many young people have to romances, novels, and plays has poisoned the mind and corrupted the morals of many a promising youth."

it is a reactionary narrative of societal degeneration with no basis in anything. yes, it is very funny that laywers have lost the bar for trusting chatgpt to cite cases for them. but if you think that chatgpt somehow prevented them from thinking critically about its output, you're accusing the tail of wagging the dog.

nobody who says shit like "oh wow chatgpt can write every novel and movie now. yiou can just ask chatgpt to give you opinions and ideas and then use them its so great" was, like, sitting in the symposium debating the nature of the sublime before chatgpt released. there is no 'decay', there is no 'decline'. you should be suspicious of those narratives wherever you see them, especially if you are inclined to agree!

plagiarizing human artists

nah. i've been over this ad infinitum--nothing 'AI art' does could be considered plagiarism without a definition so preposterously expansive that it would curtail huge swathes of human creative expression.

AI art models do not contain or reproduce any images. the result of them being trained on images is a very very complex statistical model that contains a lot of large-scale statistical data about all those images put together (and no data about any of those individual images).

to draw a very tortured comparison, imagine you had a great idea for how to make the next Great American Painting. you loaded up a big file of every norman rockwell painting, and you made a gigantic excel spreadsheet. in this spreadsheet you noticed how regularly elements recurred: in each cell you would have something like "naturalistic lighting" or "sexually unawakened farmers" and the % of times it appears in his paintings. from this, you then drew links between these cells--what % of paintings containing sexually unawakened farmers also contained naturalistic lighting? what % also contained a white guy?

then, if you told someone else with moderately competent skill at painting to use your excel spreadsheet to generate a Great American Painting, you would likely end up with something that is recognizably similar to a Norman Rockwell painting: but any charge of 'plagiarism' would be absolutely fucking absurd!

this is a gross oversimplification, of course, but it is much closer to how AI art works than the 'collage machine' description most people who are all het up about plagiarism talk about--and if it were a collage machine, it would still not be plagiarising because collages aren't plagiarism.

(for a better and smarter explanation of the process from soneone who actually understands it check out this great twitter thread by @reachartwork)

today's students are worried they won't have jobs because of AI tools

i mean, this is true! AI tools are definitely going to destroy livelihoods. they will increase productivty for skilled writers and artists who learn to use them, which will immiserate those jobs--they will outright replace a lot of artists and writers for whom quality is not actually important to the work they do (this has already essentially happened to the SEO slop website industry and is in the process of happening to stock images).

jobs in, for example, product support are being cut for chatgpt. and that sucks for everyone involved. but this isn't some unique evil of chatgpt or machine learning, this is just the effect that technological innovation has on industries under capitalism!

there are plenty of innovations that wiped out other job sectors overnight. the camera was disastrous for portrait artists. the spinning jenny was famously disastrous for the hand-textile workers from which the luddites drew their ranks. retail work was hit hard by self-checkout machines. this is the shape of every single innovation that can increase productivity, as marx explains in wage labour and capital:

“The greater division of labour enables one labourer to accomplish the work of five, 10, or 20 labourers; it therefore increases competition among the labourers fivefold, tenfold, or twentyfold. The labourers compete not only by selling themselves one cheaper than the other, but also by one doing the work of five, 10, or 20; and they are forced to compete in this manner by the division of labour, which is introduced and steadily improved by capital. Furthermore, to the same degree in which the division of labour increases, is the labour simplified. The special skill of the labourer becomes worthless. He becomes transformed into a simple monotonous force of production, with neither physical nor mental elasticity. His work becomes accessible to all; therefore competitors press upon him from all sides. Moreover, it must be remembered that the more simple, the more easily learned the work is, so much the less is its cost to production, the expense of its acquisition, and so much the lower must the wages sink – for, like the price of any other commodity, they are determined by the cost of production. Therefore, in the same manner in which labour becomes more unsatisfactory, more repulsive, do competition increase and wages decrease”

this is the process by which every technological advancement is used to increase the domination of the owning class over the working class. not due to some inherent flaw or malice of the technology itself, but due to the material realtions of production.

so again the overarching point is that none of this is uniquely symptomatic of AI art or whatever ever most recent technological innovation. it is symptomatic of capitalism. we remember the luddites primarily for failing and not accomplishing anything of meaning.

if you think it's bad that this new technology is being used with no consideration for the planet, for social good, for the flourishing of human beings, then i agree with you! but then your problem shouldn't be with the technology--it should be with the economic system under which its use is controlled and dictated by the bourgeoisie.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Free or Cheap Mandarin Chinese Learning Resources Because You Can't Let John Cena One Up You Again

I will update this list as I learn of any more useful ones. If you want general language learning resources check out this other post. This list is Mandarin specific. Find lists for other specific languages here.

For the purposes of this list "free" means something that is either totally free or has a useful free tier. "Cheap" is a subscription under $10USD a month, a software license or lifetime membership purchase under $100USD, or a book under $30USD. If you want to suggest a resource for this list please suggest ones in that price range that are of decent quality and not AI generated.

WEBSITES

Dong Chinese - A website with lessons, a pinyin guide, a dictionary, and various videos and practice tests. With a free account you're only allowed to do one lesson every 12 hours. To do as many lessons as quickly as you want it costs $10 a month or $80 a year.

Domino Chinese - A paid website with video based lessons from absolute beginner to college level. They claim they can get you ready to get a job in China. They offer a free trial and after that it's $5 a month or pay what you can if you want to support their company.

Chinese Education Center - This is an organization that gives information to students interested in studying abroad in China. They have free text based lessons for beginners on vocab, grammar, and handwriting.

Pleco Dictionary App - This is a very popular dictionary app on both iOS and Android. It has a basic dictionary available for free but other features can be purchased individually or in bundles. A full bundle that has what most people would want is about $30 but there are more expensive options with more features.

MIT OpenCourseWare Chinese 1 2 3 4 5 6 - These are actual archived online courses from MIT available for free. You will likely need to download them onto your computer.

Learn Chinese Web Application From Cambridge University - This is a free downloadable file with Mandarin lessons in a PC application. There's a different program for beginner and intermediate.

Learn Chinese Everyday - A free word a day website. Every day the website posts a different word with pronunciation, stroke order, and example sentences. There's also an archive of free downloadable worksheets related to previous words featured on the website.

Chinese Boost - A free website and blog with beginner lessons and articles about tips and various resources to try.

Chinese Forums - An old fashioned forum website for people learning Chinese to share resources and ask questions. It's still active as of when I'm making this list.

Du Chinese - A free website and an app with lessons and reading and listening practice with dual transcripts in both Chinese characters and pinyin. They also have an English language blog with tips, lessons, and information on Chinese culture.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

Chinese For Us - A channel that provides free video lessons for beginners. The channel is mostly in English.

Herbin Mandarin - A channel with a variety of lessons for beginners. The channel hasn't uploaded in a while but there's a fairly large archive of lessons to watch. The channel is mainly in English.

Mandarin Blueprint - This channel is by a couple of guys who also run a paid website. However on their YouTube channel there's a lot of free videos with tips about how to go about learning Chinese, pronunciation and writing tips, and things of that nature. The channel is mainly in English.

Blabla Chinese - A comprehensible input channel with content about a variety of topics for beginner to intermediate. The video descriptions are in English but the videos themselves are all in Mandarin.

Lazy Chinese - A channel aimed at intermediate learners with videos on general topics, grammar, and culture. They also have a podcast. The channel has English descriptions but the videos are all in Mandarin.

Easy Mandarin - A channel associated with the easy languages network that interviews people on the street in Taiwan about everyday topics. The channel has on screen subtitles in traditional characters, pinyin, and English.

StickynoteChinese - A relatively new channel but it already has a decent amount of videos. Jun makes videos about culture and personal vlogs in Mandarin. The channel is aimed at learners from beginner to upper intermediate.

Story Learning Chinese With Annie - A comprehensible input channel almost entirely in Mandarin. The host teaches through stories and also makes videos about useful vocabulary words and cultural topics. It appears to be aimed at beginner to intermediate learners.

LinguaFlow Chinese - Another relatively new channel but they seem to be making new videos regularly. The channel is aimed at beginner to intermediate learners and teaches and provides listening practice with video games. The channel is mostly in Mandarin.

Lala Chinese - A channel with tips on grammar and pronunciation with the occasional vlog for listening practice, aimed at upper beginner to upper intermediate learners. Some videos are all in Mandarin while others use a mix of English and Mandarin. Most videos have dual language subtitles onscreen.

Grace Mandarin Chinese - A channel with general information on the nitty gritty of grammar, pronunciation, common mistakes, slang, and useful phrases for different levels of learners. Most videos are in English but some videos are fully in Mandarin.

READING PRACTICE

HSK Reading - A free website with articles sorted into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Every article has comprehension questions. You can also mouse over individual characters and see the pinyin and possible translations. The website is in a mix of English and Mandarin.

chinesegradedreader.com - A free website with free short readings up to HSK level 3 or upper intermediate. Each article has an explaination at the beginning of key vocabulary words in English and you can mouse over individual characters to get translations.

Mandarin Companion - This company sells books that are translated and simplified versions of classic novels as well as a few originals for absolute beginners. They are available in both traditional and simplified Chinese. Their levels don't appear to be aligned with any HSK curriculum but even their most advanced books don't have more than 500 individual characters according to them so they're likely mostly for beginners to advanced beginners. New paperbacks seem to usually be $14 but cheaper used copies, digital copies, and audiobooks are also available. The website is in English.

Graded Chinese Readers - Not to be confused with chinese graded reader, this is a website with information on different graded readers by different authors and different companies. The website tells you what the book is about, what level it's for, whether or not it uses traditional or simplified characters, and gives you a link to where you can buy it on amazon. They seem to have links to books all the way from HSK 1 or beginner to HSK 6 or college level. A lot of the books seem to be under $10 but as they're all from different companies your mileage and availability may vary. The website is in English.

Mandarin Bean - A website with free articles about Chinese culture and different short stories. Articles are sorted by HSK level from 1 to 6. The website also lets you switch between traditional or simplified characters and turn the pinyin on or off. It also lets you mouse over characters to get a translation. They have a relatively expensive paid tier that gives you access to video lessons and HSK practice tests and lesson notes but all articles and basic features on the site are available on the free tier without an account. The website is in a mix of Mandarin and English.

Mandarin Daily News - This is a daily newspaper from Taiwan made for children so the articles are simpler, have illustrations and pictures, and use easier characters. As it's for native speaker kids in Taiwan, the site is completely in traditional Chinese.

New Tong Wen Tang for Chrome or Firefox - This is a free browser extension that can convert traditional characters to simplified characters or vice versa without a need to copy and paste things into a separate website.

PODCASTS

Melnyks Chinese - A podcast for more traditional audio Mandarin Chinese lessons for English speakers. The link I gave is to their website but they're also available on most podcatcher apps.

Chinese Track - Another podcast aimed at learning Mandarin but this one goes a bit higher into lower intermediate levels.

Dimsum Mandarin - An older podcast archive of 30 episodes of dialogues aimed at beginner to upper beginner learners.

Dashu Mandarin - A podcast run by three Chinese teachers aimed at intermediate learners that discusses culture topics and gives tips for Mandarin learners. There are also male teachers on the podcast which I'm told is relatively rare for Mandarin material aimed at learners and could help if you're struggling to understand more masculine speaking patterns.

Learning Chinese Through Stories - A storytelling podcast mostly aimed at intermediate learners but they do have some episodes aimed at beginner or advanced learners. They have various paid tiers for extra episodes and learning material on their patreon but there's still a large amount of episodes available for free.

Haike Mandarin - A conversational podcast in Taiwanese Mandarin for intermediate learners. Every episode discusses a different everyday topic. The episode descriptions and titles are entirely in traditional Chinese characters. The hosts provide free transcripts and other materials related to the episodes on their blog.

Learn Chinese With Ju - A vocabulary building podcast aimed at intermediate learners. The podcast episodes are short at around 4-6 minutes and the host speaks about a variety of topics in a mix of English and Mandarin.

xiaoyuzhou fm - An iOS app for native speakers to listen to podcasts. I’m told it has a number of interactive features. If you have an android device you’ll likely have to do some finagling with third party apps to get this one working. As this app is for native speakers, the app is entirely in simplified Chinese.

Apple Podcast directories for Taiwan and China - Podcast pages directed towards users in those countries/regions.

SELF STUDY TEXTBOOKS AND DICTIONARIES

Learning Chinese Characters - This series is sorted by HSK levels and each volume in the series is around $11. Used and digital copies can also be found for cheaper.

HSK Standard Course Textbooks - These are textbooks designed around official Chinese government affiliated HSK tests including all of the simplified characters, grammar, vocab, and cultural knowledge necessary to pass each test. There are six books in total and the books prices range wildly depending on the level and the seller, going for as cheap as $14 to as expensive as $60 though as these are pretty common textbooks, used copies and cheaper online shops can be found with a little digging. The one I have linked to here is the HSK 1 textbook. Some textbook sellers will also bundle them with a workbook, some will not.

Chinese Made Easy for Kids - Although this series is aimed at children, I'm told that it's also very useful for adult beginners. There's a large number of textbooks and workbooks at various levels. The site I linked to is aimed at people placing orders in Hong Kong but the individual pages also have links to various other websites you can buy them from in other countries. The books range from $20-$35 but I include them because some of them are cheaper and they seem really easy to find used copies of.

Reading and Writing Chinese - This book contains guides on all 2300 characters in the HSK texts as of 2013. Although it is slightly outdated, it's still useful for self study and is usually less than $20 new. Used copies are also easy to find.

Basic Chinese by Mcgraw Hill - This book also fuctions as a workbook so good quality used copies can be difficult to find. The book is usually $20 but it also often goes on sale on Amazon and they also sell a cheaper digital copy.

Chinese Grammar: A beginner's guide to basic structures - This book goes over beginner level grammar concepts and can usually be found for less than $20 in print or as low as $2 for a digital copy.

Collins Mandarin Chinese Visual Dictionary - A bilingual English/Mandarin visual dictionary that comes with a link to online audio files. A new copy goes for about $14 but used and digital versions are available.

Merriam-Webster's Chinese to English Dictionary - In general Merriam Websters usually has the cheapest decent quality multilingual dictionaries out there, including for Mandarin Chinese. New editions usually go for around $8 each while older editions are usually even cheaper.

(at the end of the list here I will say I had a difficult time finding tv series specifically made for learners of Mandarin Chinese so if you know of any that are made for teenage or adult learners or are kids shows that would be interesting to adults and are free to watch without a subscription please let me know and I will add them to the list. There's a lot of Mandarin language TV that's easy to find but what I'm specifically interested in for these lists are free to watch series made for learners and/or easy to understand kids shows originally made in the target language that are free and easy to access worldwide)

[theaicreators]

AI Free Content Generator - TheAICreators

TheAICreators is a AI Free Content Generator that enables anyone to create unique content quickly and easily. It has an intuitive, user-friendly interface and an extensive library of content templates and assets. TheAICreators also offers advanced features such as natural language processing, sentiment analysis, and text-to-speech capabilities. With TheAICreators, you can create unique content that is tailored to your needs and generate content faster than ever before.

[lackadaisycats]

Miss Tracy, do u have any advice on researching a specific time period?

(also I know u probably won't see this, but I love your art and you are awesome)

Look for books about the time period, but also books written contemporaneous to the time period, whether fiction or non-fiction. Check used book stores for out of print gems at good prices.

If photography was a technology that existed in the time period you're researching, look for photos of people doing everyday things. Take in the context, the geography, the economic situation. Look at how they're dressed and what their clothes say about them.

Newspaper archives. Sometimes newspapers of the past are free to browse. Sometimes you have to pay for access. Old shopping catalogue collections - if they exist for your time period - are great too.

Documentary films about time periods, or specific events in a given time period can be useful, even if only for a broad overview.

Museum exhibits - helpful whether you're looking for famous paintings or artifacts of past civilizations in a world renowned institution, or trying to dig up something impossibly unique in an oddity denture museum in some forgotten place in the Midwest. If you can't go in person, check online. You can find museums with vintage clothing or household appliance collections from even a few decades ago. Some museums have extensive, searchable online collections too. Take the Metropolitan Museum for instance.

If you can visit historical sites relevant to your area of interest, do it! Do those little guided walking tours. Do the ghost tours even - they're often fairly history-centric with some paranormal folklore for added spice. Sometimes they get you access to places you otherwise can't enter. Check historical societies local to cities or towns of interest.

If you need information about something deeply specific, check the internet for communities that form around that deeply specific topic. I've found tidbits of useful info searching around old forum posts from radio enthusiasts, Model T owners, and people who collect old telephone booths. (Granted, it's getting harder to search for this kind of stuff nowadays.)

-----------

Be careful of AI trash, whether it's generative images, text descriptions, or entire articles. Don't rely much on film or television for accuracy. Some things are more interested in being accurate than others, but there's almost always some artistic license taken. If you're trying to be particularly accurate about something, triple check it for confirmation. Misinformation has had a way of spreading like insidious mildew even before AI started disseminating it with delusory authority.

Lastly, if you don't enjoy doing this kind of historical research like a weird little detective-creature, consider loosening up on the 'historical' aspect of your writing. It's okay to not focus on historicity in your fiction. But if you're going to dive in whole-hog on history, bear in mind it's an ongoing, often time-consuming adventure in information-finding.

(Thank you for the kind words!)

[jadeharleyinc]

the scale of AI's ecological footprint

standalone version of my response to the following:

"you need soulless art? [...] why should you get to use all that computing power and electricity to produce some shitty AI art? i don’t actually think you’re entitled to consume those resources." "i think we all deserve nice things. [...] AI art is not a nice thing. it doesn’t meaningfully contribute to us thriving and the cost in terms of energy use [...] is too fucking much. none of us can afford to foot the bill." "go watch some tv show or consume some art that already exists. […] you know what’s more environmentally and economically sustainable […]? museums. galleries. being in nature."

you can run free and open source AI art programs on your personal computer, with no internet connection. this doesn't require much more electricity than running a resource-intensive video game on that same computer. i think it's important to consume less. but if you make these arguments about AI, do you apply them to video games too? do you tell Fortnite players to play board games and go to museums instead?

speaking of museums: if you drive 3 miles total to a museum and back home, you have consumed more energy and created more pollution than generating AI images for 24 hours straight (this comes out to roughly 1400 AI images). "being in nature" also involves at least this much driving, usually. i don't think these are more environmentally-conscious alternatives.

obviously, an AI image model costs energy to train in the first place, but take Stable Diffusion v2 as an example: it took 40,000 to 60,000 kWh to train. let's go with the upper bound. if you assume ~125g of CO2 per kWh, that's ~7.5 tons of CO2. to put this into perspective, a single person driving a single car for 12 months emits 4.6 tons of CO2. meanwhile, for example, the creation of a high-budget movie emits 2840 tons of CO2.

is the carbon cost of a single car being driven for 20 months, or 1/378th of a Marvel movie, worth letting anyone with a mid-end computer, anywhere, run free offline software that consumes a gaming session's worth of electricity to produce hundreds of images? i would say yes. in a heartbeat.

even if you see creating AI images as "less soulful" than consuming Marvel/Fortnite content, it's undeniably "more useful" to humanity as a tool. not to mention this usefulness includes reducing the footprint of creating media. AI is more environment-friendly than human labor on digital creative tasks, since it can get a task done with much less computer usage, doesn't commute to work, and doesn't eat.

and speaking of eating, another comparison: if you made an AI image program generate images non-stop for every second of every day for an entire year, you could offset your carbon footprint by… eating 30% less beef and lamb. not pork. not even meat in general. just beef and lamb.

the tech industry is guilty of plenty of horrendous stuff. but when it comes to the individual impact of AI, saying "i don’t actually think you’re entitled to consume those resources. do you need this? is this making you thrive?" to an individual running an AI program for 45 minutes a day per month is equivalent to questioning whether that person is entitled to a single 3 mile car drive once per month or a single meatball's worth of beef once per month. because all of these have the same CO2 footprint.

so yeah. i agree, i think we should drive less, eat less beef, stream less video, consume less. but i don't think we should tell people "stop using AI programs, just watch a TV show, go to a museum, go hiking, etc", for the same reason i wouldn't tell someone "stop playing video games and play board games instead". i don't think this is a productive angle.

(sources and number-crunching under the cut.)

good general resource: GiovanH's article "Is AI eating all the energy?", which highlights the negligible costs of running an AI program, the moderate costs of creating an AI model, and the actual indefensible energy waste coming from specific companies deploying AI irresponsibly.

CO2 emissions from running AI art programs: a) one AI image takes 3 Wh of electricity. b) one AI image takes 1mn in, for example, Midjourney. c) so if you create 1 AI image per minute for 24 hours straight, or for 45 minutes per day for a month, you've consumed 4.3 kWh. d) using the UK electric grid through 2024 as an example, the production of 1 kWh releases 124g of CO2. therefore the production of 4.3 kWh releases 533g (~0.5 kg) of CO2.

CO2 emissions from driving your car: cars in the EU emit 106.4g of CO2 per km. that's 171.19g for 1 mile, or 513g (~0.5 kg) for 3 miles.

costs of training the Stable Diffusion v2 model: quoting GiovanH's article linked in 1. "Generative models go through the same process of training. The Stable Diffusion v2 model was trained on A100 PCIe 40 GB cards running for a combined 200,000 hours, which is a specialized AI GPU that can pull a maximum of 300 W. 300 W for 200,000 hours gives a total energy consumption of 60,000 kWh. This is a high bound that assumes full usage of every chip for the entire period; SD2’s own carbon emission report indicates it likely used significantly less power than this, and other research has shown it can be done for less." at 124g of CO2 per kWh, this comes out to 7440 kg.

CO2 emissions from red meat: a) carbon footprint of eating plenty of red meat, some red meat, only white meat, no meat, and no animal products the difference between a beef/lamb diet and a no-beef-or-lamb diet comes down to 600 kg of CO2 per year. b) Americans consume 42g of beef per day. this doesn't really account for lamb (egads! my math is ruined!) but that's about 1.2 kg per month or 15 kg per year. that single piece of 42g has a 1.65kg CO2 footprint. so our 3 mile drive/4.3 kWh of AI usage have the same carbon footprint as a 12g piece of beef. roughly the size of a meatball [citation needed].