#(looks at the list of websites that don't use AI) OH yeah definitely not them

[doodlingwren]

It's again that time of the week where I have to go and report the spam and/or porn bots from the tags I follow because every time I see one of their posts on my dashboard I die inside a little bit

[donjuaninhell]

So we're all familiar with the obvious SEO'd websites written by AI and engineered to appear at the top of any search result and just how fucking awful they are and how they're clogging the internet with garbage making it more difficult to find relevant information. I hate them. Well, all of them except for this one I came across recently, I can't remember how, but it's in the running as one of the most unintentionally hilarious websites of all time.

Ladies, gentlemen and those who identify as the secret third thing, may I introduce to you, Fluentslang.com.

Fluentslang is an attempt to do with ChatGPT what Urban Dictionary did with thousands of witty, funny, gross, and sometimes brilliant user submissions: provide a definition for slang and internet terms. Except Fluentslang does this poorly, extremely poorly. So let's take a look (underneath the read more).

Let's look at what fluentslang says about the internet acronym "kys":

It even offers conversational examples:

All of the articles on Fluentslang follow the same format, there's a definition, a conversational example, and then it suggests what this might mean coming from either a boy or from a girl!

The whole site is like this, it's baffling. Okay let's do another one, how about their page for "Daddy":

Don't we all strive for to have someone who calls us Daddy and we call Daddy in turn? Okay, how about something a little more niche and weird, let's go with "unbirth":

I don't think that's what that means but okay. Let's try another one, this time "Boof":

Helpfully it also offers conversational examples:

I think I've seen all of those videos.

It's a little strange how many of the entries have this weird sort of "corporate therapy speak" sort of vibe to them. It's a little like a middle manager who took a course on CBT trying to be helpful in the most condescending way possible. The best example of this is the definition for "Netflix Bipolar":

Oh but definitions aren't the only thing that Fluentslang does, it also does listicles! Let's look at the list for "Top 47 Slang for Fucking":

I've only ever heard the term "diddle" when used as a euphemism for child molestation, which I guess is a form of fucking, albeit one that is non consensual and morally abhorrent but uh... yeah that's weird. What else is on here?

I'm confident that no one has used this phrase since 1929.

Let's look at one more listicle, this time "Top 29 Slang For Straight Person", hands down the funniest article on the website:

Okay this one is just hilarious the whole way through.

Alright that's enough. I got a laugh out of it, but seriously this is probably the least harmful AI generated fake SEO'd website out there. All sites like this are harmful by varying degrees, at their least harmful they're a hindrance to finding useful information, at the other end they're serving people faulty medical advice. Most are somewhere in the middle, simply giving bad information that is liable to ruin your day. Recently I was looking up whether WD40 would be safe for lubricating the tuning machines on my classical guitar, a vintage RamÍrez with a value of close to $3,000 CDN based on similar eBay listings (I bought it from my former teacher for much less than that amount). The first page that came up in my search suggested yes that would be fine, but I clocked it as AI generated almost immediately, and it took a bit more searching before I came across a forum post from fifteen years ago that definitively stated "no, WD40 will destroy the wood finish, use graphite". Thankfully I'm internet savvy, but if I wasn't I might've damaged an instrument I dearly love. These sites are cancer. I hate them.

[deathemayor]

i hope you don't mind me adding onto your post, i'm fairly outspoken/rambly about this topic and my tags would be way too loaded if i just kept it there.

but yeah, this. with the term ai being a big bad word that people are understandably wary of on an ethical standpoint, its hard [for me at least] to bring up vocal synth without someone impulsively jumping to the conclusion that it's ai [the unethical/stealing people's voice kind] or a means to replace human singers. on the surface, 'oh yeah this program basically gives you a vocalist that you can use freely instead of a human one' might set off some alarm bells depending on how ya put it.

but anyway, what doesnt help is that vocaloid 6 does use ai [the chill kind, mainly for cross-language support and smoothening i believe [i dont use vocaloid myself whups]] and of course they list that as a feature on the website. but unfortunately people who may do surface-level research on the topic of Vocaloid may notice the scary AI word on the website and not look further, or again jump to conclusions.

once saw a tumblr exchange between two people arguing about whether or not vocaloid [more specifically, miku] is ai. and one party saying the answer was obvious because vocaloid on its website lists ai as one of its features. so its obviously an ai thing... not accounting for the fact that though miku is colloquially referred to as a vocaloid [the term 'vocaloid' refers to both the actual program and the fan culture it's created, which is likely why Miku and other non-vocaloid synths are still lumped in with that word], she hasnt been updated since vocaloid 4 FAR before ai support. of course, people googling the vocaloid program likely won't find this out. but it further contributes to the spread of confusion and misinfo from people still trying to wrap their head around the concept of vocal synthesizers, some even becoming outright hostile [in rare cases but again i can see it happening] which is unfortunate :[

i don't expect people outside of the community not fully understand it right off the bat, nor do i even expect them to even like it at all. but the thing that kills me the most is how easily misinfo can spread with this sort of thing

anyway, shoutout to that one article i read about miku at coachella that called miku an ai program/part of an ai program 🤩 directly linking back to the vocaloid 6 website which mentions ai. even though miku does not have a dedicated v6 nor ai support at all. that will definitely not scare unknowing people reading that article trying to learn about miku. hahaha

anyway yeah that's my piece... hope you understand why i couldnt just keep this in the tags 😭

i feel like way too many of you dont actually know what a vocaloid/Miku is nor how they work and still trying to talk about them in regards to ai

They're just voice-banks, some modern ones using AI for assistance in making them sound more natural, that are ethically made by recording whoever is the original voice and made into separate syllables for use as essentially a "synthetic" voice. The voice actor is compensated and it's all done with their express permission/consent and everything making it entirely ethical and fine.

You don't just hit a "music" button it's not generated you have to actually put together and pitch the voice to make anything. Just calling it "AI" is disingenuous at best. Songs made with it aren't just random slop made by an algorithm, they're basically an instrument like any other to create vocals.