#AI tools offline

[themorningnewsinformer]

ChatGPT Outage 2025: What Caused It & How to Stay Prepared

Introduction On June 10, 2025, millions of users across the globe were met with a frustrating reality—ChatGPT outage was down. OpenAI’s flagship tool experienced one of its most significant outages to date, affecting both web users and API services. The incident raised concerns about our growing dependency on artificial intelligence and the need for reliable AI alternatives. This blog breaks…

[ao3scrapesearch]

This tool is optional. No one is required to use it, but it's here if you want to know which of your AO3 fics were scraped. Locked works were not 100% protected from this scrape. Currently, I don't know of any next steps you should be taking, so this is all informational.

Most people should use this link to check if they were included in the March 2025 AO3 scrape. This will show up to 2,000 scraped works for most usernames.

Or you can use this version, which is slower but does a better job if your username is a common word. This version also lets you look up works by work ID number, which is useful if you're looking for an orphaned or anonymous fic.

If you have more than 2,000 published works, first off, I am jealous of your motivation to write that much. But second, that won't display right on the public version of the tools. You can send me an ask (preferred) or DM (if you need to) to have me do a custom search for you if you have more than 2,000 total works under 1 username. If you send an ask off-anon asking me to search a name, I'll assume you want a private answer.

In case this post breaches containment: this is a tool that only has access to the work IDs, titles, author names, chapter counts, and hit counts of the scraped fics for this most recent scrape by nyuuzyou discovered in April 2025. There is no other work data in this tool. This never had the content of your works loaded to it, only info to help you check if your works were scraped. If you need additional metadata, I can search my offline copy for you if you share a work ID number and tell me what data you're looking for. I will never search the full work text for anyone, but I can check things like word counts and tags.

Please come yell if the tool stops working, and I'll fix as fast as I can. It's slow as hell, but it does load eventually. Give it up to 10 minutes, and if it seems down after that, please alert me via ask! Anons are on if you're shy. The link at the top is faster and handles most users well.

On mobile, enable screen rotation and turn your phone sideways. It's a litttttle easier to use like that. It works better if you can use desktop.

Some FAQs below the cut:

"What do I need to do now?": At this time, the main place where this dataset was shared is disabled. As far as I'm aware, you don't need to do anything, but I'll update if I hear otherwise. If you're worried about getting scraped again, locking your fics to users only is NOT a guarantee, but it's a little extra protection. There are methods that can protect you more, but those will come at a cost of hiding your works from more potential readers as well.

"I know AO3 will be scraped again, and I'm willing to put a silly amount of effort into making my fics unusable for AI!": Excellent, stick around here. I'm currently trying to keep up with anyone working on solutions to poison our AO3 fics, and I will be reblogging information about doing this as I come across it.

"I want my fics to be unusable for AI, but I wanna be lazy about it.": You're so real for that, bestie. It may take awhile, but I'm on the lookout for data poisoning methods that require less effort, and I will boost posts regarding that once I find anything reputable.

"I don't want to know!": This tool is 100% optional. If you don't want to know, simply don't click the link. You are totally welcome to block me if it makes you feel more comfortable.

"Can I see the exact content they scraped?": Nope, not through me. I don't have the time to vet every single person to make sure they are who they say they are, and I don't want to risk giving a scraped copy of your fic to anyone else. If you really want to see this, you can find the info out there still and look it up yourself, but I can't be the one to do it for you.

"Are locked fics safe?": Not safe, but so far, it appears that locked fics were scraped less often than public fics. The only fics I haven't seen scraped as of right now are fics in unrevealed collections, which even logged-in users can't view without permission from the owner.

"My work wasn't a fic. It was an image/video/podfic.": You're safe! All the scrape got was stuff like the tags you used and your title and author name. The work content itself is a blank gap based on the samples I've checked.

"It's slow.": Unfortunately, a 13 million row data dashboard is going to be on the slow side. I think I've done everything I can to speed it up, but it may still take up to 10 minutes to load if you use the second link. It's faster if you can use desktop or the first link, but it should work on your phone too.

"My fic isn't there.": The cut-off date is around February 15th, 2025 for oneshots, but chapters posted up to March 21st, 2025 have been found in the data so far. I had to remove a few works from the dataset because the data was all skrungly and breaking my tool. (The few fics I removed were NOT in English.) Otherwise, from what I can tell so far, the scraper's code just... wasn't very good, so most likely, your fic was missed by random chance.

Thanks to everyone who helped with the cost to host the tool! I appreciate you so so so much. As of this edit, I've received more donations than what I paid to make this tool so you do NOT need to keep sending money. (But I super appreciate everyone who did help fund this! I just wanna make sure we all know it's all paid for now, so if you send any more that's just going to my savings to fix the electrical problems with my house. I don't have any more costs to support for this project right now.)

(Made some edits to the post on 27-May-2025 to update information!)

[mortalityplays]

You need more free art.

I quit my job yesterday. Well, actually I quit my job eight weeks ago, but they finally released me yesterday for good behaviour. Don't get me wrong, I love what I do - but I do it for the wrong reasons. Working for major charities, you learn very fast that 'I want to make the world a better place' is a phrase you use to ask people for money, not to give them things. I was an ass-backwards fit for that world.

You need more free art. I need more free art. Everyone has felt the shift in our media landscape over the last ten years, away from access and towards nickel-and-diming the human experience. That lack of access is making life and culture worse for all of us, across the board. Paywalled news sites leave us less informed, attacks on the Internet Archive leave us less capable of research. Algorithmic social feeds and streaming walled gardens trap us inside smaller and smaller demographic bubbles, where we are increasingly only likely to encounter ideas that have been curated for us by marketing departments. Hasty efforts to resist AI commodification have only led to more artists locking their work away and calling for even more onerous systems of copyright law. This is not good for us.

We all need more free art.

So what am I going to do about it?

This is a question I have been asking myself for years. It's easy to sit here feeilng frustrated and thinking 'boy I hope SOMEONE does SOMETHING'. It's harder to take action in a world where I still have rent to pay. But hard doesn't mean impossible. Sometimes hard just means time-consuming, frustrating and slow. And sometimes it's worth doing something time-consuming, frustrating and slow because...I want to make the world a better place.

I'm going to do this:

1. From April 1st, I am relaunching as a freelance writer and editor.

This is the one that will (hopefully) help to pay the bills. I am a very good and experienced editor. I've worked on hollywood movies, I'm a member of the Chartered Institute of Editors and Proofreaders, I have clients who have been coming to me exclusively for more than 10 years.

Alongside bigger contract jobs, I am going to refocus on offering my services to small-press creators at a reduced rate. That means you, graphic novelists. That means you, itch and amazon writers. I want to help you develop your work, the same way I help large organisations. You can learn more about what an editor even does and what kind of pricing you can expect here.

2. I'm also going to start giving shit away. Like, constantly.

Next week I'm going to launch a new free shop. If you're unfamiliar, a free shop, giveaway shop, swap shop, etc. is an anarchist tradition of setting up a storefront where anyone can take what they like for no cost. Offline, this often means second-hand clothes, tools, furniture, food etc. Online, I am going to be giving away digital art. Copyright-free, no strings attached. It will (eventually) feature everything from print-res posters to zines, poems, tattoo flash, t-shirt designs and anything else we come up with.

Yes, I said 'we' - while this is a curated collection, it will feature work from a variety of credited and anonymous artists and activists, all of whom have agreed to give their work away to the public domain. Some of it will be practical, some of it will be political, but a lot of it will be decorative or personal. This is, in part, a response to recent difficulty I had finding somewhere that would print a one-off joke poster for a friend that featured the word 'faggot'. Enough. No middlemen - no explaining ourselves. Just print our shit and enjoy it.

I'm very, very excited about this project. I'll have more to say about it closer to the launch, but you can expect it to go live on March 27th.

2.2 I forgot to mention the ACTUAL LAUNCH GIVEAWAY

To celebrate my launch, I am going to be giving away a ton of physical prints. When I went looking for my old stock to see if it was worth setting a new (paid) storefront up, I realised I had way more old work in storage than I thought. This will be announced in its own right on Monday, but this is why I've been hinting you should go follow my Patreon.

On April 1st, I will pick 8 random patrons (from across all tiers including non-paying followers!) and mail them a bundle of assorted prints and postcards. The prize pool includes A3 and A4 posters, packs of A6 postcards, and printed minicomics that I've previously sold for up to £12 each.

You don't have to be a paying subscriber to enter - this is strictly no-purchase necessary. It is purely and entirely a celebration of the concept of GIVING ART AWAY FOR FREE.

3. PORN, YOU PERVERTS

Because I still have to pay to stay alive, I am going to be subsidising all this free art with the introduction of Fuck You Fridays. Starting from March 29th, I will drop a new 18+ short story on the last Friday of every month, over on itch.io (yes I know my page is desolate right now, don't worry I'll get there).

The first edition, Go Fuck Yourself, is about, well - telling your boss where to stick it. Julia has had it with her millionaire man-child manager, and is just about ready to let him know what she really thinks. It's a short and steamy 5k words, with a gorgeous cover illustration by @taylor-titmouse, and you can pick it up for $3 starting from March 29th.

4. ANOTHER BIG SURPRISE

I'm keeping this one under wraps for now, but April 1st will also play host to one more (FREE) launch. If you've been following me for a long time, you might remember the other significance of this date (no not April Fool's day, though that is certainly thematically relevant to this entire effort). That's all I'll say right now. Watch this space.

tl;dr: I'm sick of paywalls and career ladders. I'm literally putting my money where my mouth is. More free art for everyone and I'm not kidding around!!!

[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].

[crabsnpersimmons]

this is Jack! you may have seen him in a recent magma i did with @starriegalaxy! i was inspired by Starrie's precious Head Chef Bot that i wanted to make my own S.T.A.F.F. Bot OC!

Jack is a S.T.A.F.F. Bot that suffered a head injury but was able to continue working, so in order to avoid getting deactivated, he makes himself useful and continues to rotate through the roster of S.T.A.F.F. Bot jobs in the Pizzaplex as a "jack of all trades". the head injury damaged his wires, which now hang exposed over his face (they're a little sensitive). this damage also disconnected him from the S.T.A.F.F. Bot network and altered the default S.T.A.F.F. Bot personality AI in him.

so now he's a grumbly guy with a weird voice and an acute awareness of what is going on with the Pizzaplex's animatronics. but without the ability to actually do anything about it, he just goes about doing his jobs until the inevitable day he goes offline.

rolling past temperamental glamrocks, glitched out S.T.A.F.F. Bots, and a nighttime attendant with a penchant for tearing apart S.T.A.F.F. Bots, Jack equips himself with a dufflebag of tools and a a fazerblaster that he always has at the ready

he's not part of a larger AU yet... i've had some ideas, but still thinking

[leam1983]

Annoyances

Whenever I see a "if you like AI, pls die" post, a part of me wants to take a big, gigantic breath and blurt out the following, Wall of Text style:

Narrow AI is vital to several scientific fields and refers to algorithms that are geared towards the collection, classification and proper identification of datum. It doesn't steal, it doesn't crib from anyone else, but it certainly helps with overlaying false colours on CAT scans and MRI results, for example.

Narrow AI is in your spreadsheet documents. If a spreadsheet is based on a few formulae to keep track of your budget, some measure of AI is involved.

Narrow AI is your average spell-checker's brain, as well. Not Google's - Google Docs just outsources Gemini for some truly godawful proofreading - but your average offline, dumb-as-bricks spell checker qualifies as Narrow AI.

Narrow AI is in your GPS and in your phone's voice-activated commands. Remove it, and you'll have to lug maps around again, or run searches on your own.

When you excoriate someone for using an AI-based tool, you're referring to the more recent years' developments in the field of Wide AI - as in, generalist Artificial Intelligences. AI scientists the world over have all agreed that, by and large, the usefulness of Wide AI is limited.

Later evidence proves that even without the use of poisoning tools like Glaze, Wide AI is poisoning itself, all thanks to the excessive eagerness of content producers who see AI as a means to drive Search Engine Optimization. The Dead Internet Theory isn't quite proven yet; but what is is that AI-generated content is increasingly eating up its own generated slop. ChatGPT has, point in fact, already consumed every scrap of genuine human content there is to access.

So give props to your local neckbeard who wants to make sure we'll one day no longer need to remove someone's thyroid in the case of detected malignancies, because he's looking to use AI to save lives.

Artificial Intelligence isn't the problem, what is is the McDonald's-ized version of it that's being bandied about by publications like The Verge and TechCrunch.

[drarryspecificrecsdaily]

Seeking solution

One reader kindly informed me about posting/reccing some works suspected of AI-generated, which I didn't even realized if they hadn't told me. I never want to promote those stuff, but I must admit that I don't know how to filter them (not the sharpest tool in the shed, I'm afraid lol).

*They regularly post lots of words daily, but I naively think that they must have written them before (offline, wattpad, etc.). Their AO3 account have names like some bots, and I blindly justify that in case the number has meaning to the authors? The works are in good grammar/structure, and I don't judge the writing style, so I couldn't figure them out.

I need some input from you, dear reader. If you have any advice, or any suspicion, or some thoughts about this, please share with me, so that I can continue this road with better knowledge and a keen mind. Thank you 💗

Have a nice weekend! (And sorry for the delay in posting daily recaps; I'm quite busy at the end of the year.)

Yours truly, Cag

[kunosoura]

You aren’t putting the cat back in the bag on LLMs and TTIMs, sorry. You could have the People’s Army For The Protection Of Intellectual Property Rights And Class Signifiers Artists And Academic Integrity seize and destroy the servers for every major player in “AI” overnight and within a week people would be circulating and hacking the most recent offline models to fill the same niches. You might put a dent in the sheer volume of its usage but there are models that run on consumer laptops now. “AI” art tools, from full image generation to photo editing, are here to stay. College essays and internet content are definitely gonna keep being written by LLM and with tools that help spoof a personal writing style, it will always be a losing arms race to try and reliably catch it. Find a better way to address the underlying problems or kick rocks.

[vvickedarts]

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT AI

most people who know me or have been on my page know this, but I want to make it VERY clear, ai is not welcome on my page and NEVER will be. ai is not meant to replace the creative fields, the artists, the routine and process of creation, none of it. art is one thing that humanity has had for a very long time, and it's something that connects us and helps document history, stories, people, and much more. seeing ai infiltrate fandom spaces, in any regard, is frustrating. fan works should come from the heart and from the passion you have for the thing you are a fan of, the love for the process of creation, the satisfaction of the end result. that's what make fandoms so special. to have a program do it for you creates a lack of passion. it's redundant and it's boring. not to mention its stealing whose art/writing/likeness has been stolen by these programs. it's unfair to those creatives who work their ass off to create and try and make a living. "the starving artist" is a very real and true statement in a lot of cases.

and not to mention, that specific type of ai is HORRIBLE for the environment, and it is burning a hole into the ozone layer. sites where this ai sites are being built are sitting in places where resources like clean water is being tainted because of it. (look up elon musks supercomputer in memphis.)

ai is supposed to be a tool that can help like scan for early signs of cancer and assisting in risky surgery in which human error can be dangerous, not stealing from creative minds and artists. if you are looking for ways to avoid ai on social media, or try and keep ai out of your life as much as you can, you can do the following: * create your own works! "but i don't know how to draw!" neither did most artists once upon a time. the point is to learn and experiment. the mind is full of capabilities, and you are more creative than you might think. "but art has rules!" true, but you need to learn the rules before you can break them! "i'm not a good writer" to who? to yourself? to that one loser on the internet you said you suck? fuck 'em! keep writing!! creative fields need to keep flourishing and just because some person said you suck, doesn't mean everyone else in the world thinks that. most cases, they either don't create or they are just miserable. * when on search engines, such as google, when you type in the search bar, add " -ai " to the end of it, to stop ai search results from coming up. ai summaries are not always accurate. * AVOID CHATGPT, CHARACTER.AI, AND ANY OTHER "CREATIVE" AI! just avoid it. don't acknowledge it, do not use it. there is NO excuse to use it. these sites STEAL from creatives on a daily basis. talking to a digital ai character is NOT the same as a person. i know it's hard to talk to people, as i tend to be introverted myself, but i will not talk to an ai character. write a private self insert story, and consider what your character might say back to you. it's more creative, and it will most likely be even more therapeutic in the long run. * if you are being asked to told to use ai, say NO. REFUSE. saying no is a terrifying concept, but trust me, when you start learning to use the word no, the easier it will become. ask to not be involved, find an alternative, or even walk away.

"i use ai to generate ideas" FIND ANOTHER WAY. go support your local library, buy or pirate books, go out in the world, talk to people, FIND RESOURCES. ai is not the solution to finding inspiration. you have a whole world in front of you. people have done is for YEARS before the computer/ai was a concept, and we are still able to go offline and experience life. everyone's life is different, which also provides different perspectives. that perspective is going to be much more influential and more expressive then anything ai can provide. in short, there is so much creatives and especially young creatives should know: your mind and your experiences are much more interesting and passionate than anything ai can create. as preachy as that sounds, it's very true. you are much more valuable than a supercomputer or an ai program. keep creating from your own mind. it's much more rewarding, i promise.

[yansim-newsletter]

Man Down!

Over the weekend, it seems that our beloved game hosting site, Itch.io, has been attacked by brand Funko Pop and their usage of the AI tool called "Brand Shield". Sunday night, the site spent hours completely offline.

"[Brand Shield] created some bogus phishing report to our registrar, iwantmyname, who ignored our response and just disabled the domain," (— itch.io (@itchio) December 9, 2024) said Itch on social media, but not before taking a moment to brand the software as "trash." The software allegedly used by Funko that took the itch.io site down is made by a company called BrandShield. BrandShield describes itself as an “AI-powered online anti-counterfeiting solution” that monitors for “trademark infringements, phishing attempts, brand abuse, and counterfeit activity.”

Itch.io claims to have taken down the “disputed page” that triggered the phishing report immediately on receiving a takedown notice, but said no-one at iwantmyname appeared to have read the email confirming the page’s removal.

An iwantmyname representative said, “The domain name was already reinstated earlier today after the registrant finally responded to our notice and took appropriate action to resolve the issue.” At the time iwantmyname’s reply was sent, itch.io appeared to have been back online for less than 40 minutes. The ability to reinstate a domain name in such a short time frame is currently unconfirmed.

Luckily, the website at large appears to be up-and-running again, as of our reporting this, and the company behind Itch.io has noted that their servers haven't shown any signs of impact from the incident.

Itch decided to hold tight before taking any drastic measures, such as putting up a new domain, but did offer a workaround for indie developers to use: "There are implications with third party services that make [switching domains] not a trivial swap. In the meantime, if you know how to tweak your hosts file use: 45.33.107.166."

"If you do edit your hosts file, please remember to remove all the lines after domain is restored. Although we typically hold an IP for a while, it can change if we update our back-end infrastructure. If the downtime exceeds 8 hours then we'll likely prioritize deploying a new domain. Hopefully things are able to get sorted out before then." Itch came back online between 5 and 6 a.m. EST on Monday morning, after at least three hours during which it was completely offline for most users, including both players and developers who use the open platform. Games and other products already bought from itch.io can be used without issue, but the storefront outage will likely be a significant problem for creators who use it for distribution.

We here at YanSim News urge creators to double-check their games to ensure nothing has been lost or corrupted.

Other's reports referenced: - https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/itch-io-taken-down-by-collectible-maker-funko-and-ai-tool-brand-shield - https://www.polygon.com/gaming/492791/itch-io-funko-takedown

[ao3scrapesearch]

I used the tool to search my username and every fic I have ever posted under that username came up. does that mean that EVERY SINGLE ONE of my fics were scraped? I'm not even sure if I understand fully what scraping is or what I'm supposed to do now. does the person that did it still have/is using the data?

Unfortunately, yes. Any fic that shows up in the tool was scraped this time.

Scraping means they downloaded most of the content of your AO3 work, including the writing itself, and they placed that work into a file with a lot of other AO3 works. They uploaded a large batch of files like that on a website that is known for hosting data for amateurs to use to train AI models. The data being on that site doesn't mean that it has been used to train AI, but it means that the data could have and could still be used to train AI.

At the moment, I don't know of anything else any of us should be doing. The good news is that the most popular site that was hosting all this data has now removed all of the AO3 works, and this is definitely on the OTW's radar.

The person that did it does still have the data hosted in at least one other online location as well as through a torrent. As far as I can tell, it's just a few people on 4chan keeping the torrent going out of spite with zero intention of using any of the data in it. Most likely, the scraper has an offline copy for themselves too.

Personally, I don't expect anyone to actually use this data for anything, but you can never be sure. The data quality isn't as good as it could be, but it was targeted toward amateurs who probably take whatever they can get.

[blood-and-pizza]

Funko was already on thin ice for making too many POP figures that end up in the landfill. Now I find out they used a shitty AI program to take down someone's itch.io fanpage for Funko Fusion, which caused the whole site to temporarily go down.

Fortunately, itch.io is back up, but... for me, this is the final straw. I'm never buying Funko products new from stores again. I'm not buying Funko Fusion, either.

In fact, considering future FNAF merch is going to be made by Jazwares, who openly supported Israel's genocide of Gaza, it's probably not in my best interest to buy most FNAF products brand new.

I guess this is just what happens when you have a franchise as big as FNAF. You're gonna partner up with huge soulless companies who are too destructive to exist, and yet they do, because capitalism rules the world, and capitalism only cares about maximizing profit, not who they have to harm to get it.

[vague-humanoid]

Remember a couple years ago when everyone was talking about how Bitcoin alone was using as much energy as a medium-sized country to enable rampant speculation and financial scams? The demand was so high in some jurisdictions that it was keeping fossil-fuel power plants from being taken offline, and even reactivating some defunct polluting generation infrastructure. Crypto’s environment toll was rightfully seen as unconscionable to many people following the industry. But the generative AI boom is taking it to a whole new level.

Since the launch of ChatGPT in December 2022, the entire tech industry has reoriented itself to try to get a boost from the interest in generative AI and many sectors beyond have pretended they’re doing something with artificial intelligence (AI) too in the hopes of increasing their share price. But if there are any winners from the AI hype, it’s the companies running the data centers — especially Microsoft, Google, and Amazon — and those making the chips that power it all. Nvidia is the standout example in that category, given its ascent to become one of the most valuable publicly traded companies in the world and the questions that’s prompted about the AI bubble.

All those generative AI tools are incredibly computationally intensive, which means they require a lot of dedicated hardware within massive hyperscale data centers owned by the cloud oligopoly, and all that computing power requires a immense amount of water and electricity to keep it running. If you’ve followed tech investment news over the past year, you’ve been seeing the effect of that as Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have dropped billions of dollars every few weeks on new communities around the world for new data center projects.

[kristynguyen7]

Blog Post #2 - Week 3 (due 2/6)

Cyberfeminism, Technology, and Digital Inequality

Does cyberfeminism help fight gender and racial inequality online, or does it sometimes reinforce these inequalities? 

Cyberfeminism aims to create online spaces for gender equality, but it can also overlook racial differences. Some cyberfeminist ideas assume a white, middle class perspective, leaving out the voices of women of color. Fernandez and Wildling note that much of cyberfeminist writing is targeted toward an “educated, white, upper-middle-class, English-speaking” audience, which can unintentionally exclude others (Daniels, 2009, p. 104). This highlights the need for a more inclusive approach that considers race, class, and access to technology. Additionally, digital activism led by women of color often operates outside mainstream cyberfeminist discourse, reflecting a broader need for intersectionality. While some platforms provide opportunities for marginalized voices, others replicate offline hierarchies, limiting real progress. By expanding cyberfeminism to actively address these exclusion, the movement can become more effective in advocating for digital equity. 

Can people truly escape gender and racial identity online, or do digital spaces still reflect real-world inequalities? 

Some early cyberfeminists believed that the internet allowed people to leave behind gender and racial identities. However, research shows that digital spaces often reflect real world inequalities. Daniels explains that instead of changing identities online, people “actively seek out online spaces that affirm and solidify social identities along with axes of race, gender, and sexuality” (Daniels, 2009, p. 110). Additionally, many online platforms use algorithms that reinforce existing biases, making marginalized identities more visible and subject to scrutiny. While some individuals may feel a sense of anonymity, structural inequalities persist in the ways people interact, build networks, and gain access to digital resources. 

How do cyberfeminist practices differ in the Global North and Global South, and what challenges do women in developing nations face when engaging with digital technologies? 

Cyberfeminist practices vary significantly between the Global North and Global South due to differences in economic resources, access to technology, and sociopolitical contexts. In industrialized nations, cyberfeminism often focuses on online activism, digital art, and gender representation in media. In contrast, women in developing nations frequently use digital technology as a tool for survival, resistance, and economic empowerment. Daniels highlights that “while it is true that many affluent women in the global North have ‘depressingly familiar’ practices when it comes to the Internet, this sort of sweeping generalization suggest a lack of awareness about the innovative ways women are using digital technologies to re-engineer their lives” (Daniels, 2009, p. 103). However, barriers such as limited internet access, censorship, and economic inequality continue to restrict their engagement. Addressing these disparities requires cyberfeminist movements to integrate global perspectives and advocate for digital inclusivity on a broader scale. 

How do race and technology intersect to perpetuate systemic biases in digital spaces, and what can be done to address these issues? 

Nicole Brown discusses how racial biases are embedded in technology, from facial recognition software to algorithmic decision making. These technologies often reinforce systemic inequalities rather than eliminate them. Brown highlights that “facial recognition software has been proven to misidentify Black and Brown individuals at significantly higher rates than white individuals, leading to real world consequences such as wrongful arrests and surveillance” (Brown, 2023). Addressing these issues requires greater accountability in tech development, including diverse representation in AI design, policy changes to regulate biased technologies, and increased advocacy for ethical digital practices. By critically examining the intersection of race and technology, we can work toward creating digital spaces that are equitable for all users. 

How does automation in public services contribute to inequality, and what are its impacts on marginalized communities? 

Virginia Eubanks argues that automation in public services disproportionately harms low-income and marginalized communities by making access to essential resources more difficult. Automated decision-making systems in welfare programs, housing assistance, and healthcare often reinforce pre-existing biases, leading to further exclusion. Eubanks notes that “they are shaped by our nation’s fear of economic insecurity and hatred of the poor; they in turn shape the politics and experience of poverty” (Eubanks, 2018, p.7). These technologies strip people of their autonomy and create barriers rather than solutions. To address this issue, we must push for transparency in algorithmic decision-making and ensure that automated systems are designed with fairness and social justice in mind. 

Word Count: 603

Daniels , J. (2009). Rethinking cyberfeminism(s): Race, gender, and embodiment | request PDF. Project Muse . https://www.researchgate.net/publication/236786509_Rethinking_Cyberfeminisms_Race_Gender_and_Embodiment 

Eubanks, V. (2018). (PDF) Virginia Eubanks (2018) automating inequality: How high-tech tools profile, police, and punish the poor. New York: Picador, St Martin’s press. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/337578410_Virginia_Eubanks_2018_Automating_Inequality_How_High-Tech_Tools_Profile_Police_and_Punish_the_Poor_New_York_Picador_St_Martin’s_Press 

[Nicole Brown]. (2020, September 18). Race and Technology [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8uiAjigKy8

[lulu2992]

Exploration of the now-offline Far Cry 5 official websites

Part 2: Game Info 1 (America)

Recovered content

Here are screenshots of what we could find on the official American website on May 27th, 2017, between an invitation to watch the Announce Trailer, some news, and a link to pre-order Far Cry 5 (which, at the time, was scheduled to come out on February 27th, 2018). For the first time, there was information about the game:

THE CULT Whether through coercion, starvation or forced baptisms, this fanatical cult will use every resource available to build a following in preparation of The Collapse.

THE RESISTANCE Committed to restoring freedom to Hope County, The Resistance has rallied together in order to stop the Father and his followers. And they’ll only succeed with your help.

TOYS From shotguns to slingshots, plus a few trusty farm tools, this toy chest is stocked, locked and loaded with every piece of steel you’ll need to take down the Cult.

GAME FEATURES There's no shortage of mayhem to be had in Hope County. Whether taking down the cult solo or with a wingman, you’ll find adventure around every bend – not to mention some seriously boss rides. Build your character and carve your path through the largest, most customizable Far Cry game ever.

Between June 10th and June 17th, 2017, two of the images (for The Cult and Toys) were replaced:

The text, however, stayed the same, and the appearance of the homepage remained unchanged until it was modified sometime between May 1st and June 10th, 2018. The Game Info section then looked like this:

ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. EVERYTHING WILL. Game Info: Discover The Weapons, Vehicles, and Features of Far Cry 5. Story & Characters: Hope County has been taken over by a doomsday cult. Join the Resistance and restore freedom to Hope County! Far Cry Arcade: Jump into Far Cry Arcade and enjoy infinite Far Cry experiences built by a robust community of creators. Far Cry 5 Season Pass: Face off against hordes of zombies, ruthless Vietcong soldiers, and Martian Arachnids with the Season Pass.

This is what we got if we clicked “Learn More” for Game Info (I split the page into 4 parts):

ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN. EVERYTHING WILL. Welcome to Hope County, Montana, land of the free and the brave, but also home to a fanatical doomsday cult—known as The Project at Eden’s Gate—that is threatening the community's freedom. Stand up to the cult’s leaders, Joseph Seed and the Heralds, as you spark the fires of resistance that will liberate the besieged community. Join the Resistance now with Far Cry 5. Available now on PlayStation 4 system, Xbox One, and PC. STORY & CHARACTERS You’re the new Sheriff’s Deputy in town. The only problem is, your badge is pretty much useless. Cut off from the outside world, you’ll need to use your wits, willpower and the helping hands of Hope County’s townsfolk to remove the plague that is The Project at Eden’s Gate. TOYS Your arsenal is vast, and the way you wield it even more so. Throughout your campaign, you’ll gain access to weapons mods based on the folks you meet and progress you make. GAME FEATURES Far Cry 5 is a massive gameplay arena that’s filled with something new around every bend. The enemy AI behavior is more realistic, and the exploration is endless. Even when you feel like taking a break from the campaign, you can take in some leisurely fishing before diving back into your quest. It’s your mission. With it comes to freedom to take on a world that hits back by any means necessary. RALLY THE TROOPS THE RESISTANCE NEEDS YOU There’s no better time than now to start rallying your cult-fighting friends, dialing in your arsenal and planning your strategy to take back Hope County from Eden’s Gate.

What I mostly wanted to “Learn More” about were the Story & Characters, but there was interesting information on the Game Features page as well.

Commentary

The initial description of the cult said the “coercion, starvation or forced baptisms” were ways for them to “build a following in preparation of The Collapse”. This is still close to what we see in Far Cry 5, but they already had a following when the Reaping began and the open violence started. The vast majority of the cultists we encounter in the game joined because they had faith in Joseph, not because they were forced to. NPC dialog from the E3 2017 demo suggests, like this text, that the early version of Eden’s Gate wouldn’t hesitate to literally beat people into following and believing in the Father long before the Reaping began.

Under the cut are all the available source files, saved directly from the website, of the images you see in the screenshots:

[one-of-many-journeys]

Day 64 (2/3)

Eleuthia-9

This was the door they could never pass, sealing away the other chambers of the Cradle, within sight but out of reach. They scored the door with angry red crosses in their rage. I passed through without problem.

Inside were workstations, each equipped with a Focus, sitting here untouched for centuries. I picked up all those that were still functioning for later use. I'll use Sylens' technique of backing up data to other Focuses as well. They're fragile things. Each Focus held only one message, an address from Samina Ebadji welcoming the children to Apollo and the beginning of their education. Then the message cut out, a voice saying that Apollo was offline. Sylens was eager for a way to bring it back online again. If there is one, I'll try to restore it, but finding out the truth about Gaia and my origins is more important.

Further on there was a hologram projector; a smaller version of those in the Zero Dawn facility. The machine announced a priority message for Elisabet Sobeck. For me.

Unlike the other holograms, this one covered the entire room; it was like being transported somewhere else. Darkness all around, and a glowing dome like the scanning radius of a Focus. The subordinate functions appeared first, each emitting a ray of holographic icons that coalesced to form Gaia. This time, nearly a millennia after her initial conception, she resembled the form from Elisabet's presentation, her dress shifting between shades, her movements like that of a human.

Gaia spoke of an unknown transmission that struck her systems—as sudden as a bolt of lightning, by the images she showed me. She said it...transformed her subordinate functions into intelligent, distinct, self-governing entities. Made them into AIs? I didn't know they could be created so quickly. From the data I've found, it used to take years, and they had to learn, but the functions were given intelligence and will out of thin air.

Given control over its own actions, Hades activated itself and began taking control away from Gaia as it was meant to in the event of a botched biosphere. By reversing terraforming operations, it could render life extinct in fifty days. To prevent this, Gaia resorted to destroying herself and Hades with her. This would buy time, but eventually the terraforming system would break down without a central governing intelligence. She said it would become 'increasingly erratic' in the meantime—the Derangement, I gathered, and the chaotic weather too.

Her solution was to generate a...reinstantiation of her creator. A copy; a clone. She said that 'high-level directives' prevented her from communicating directly with humans. I wonder why—is it because Apollo is offline, or was she never intended to speak to us in the first place? Gaia hoped that I would reenter the Cauldron in adulthood—perhaps the scan wouldn't have worked when I was young—take one of the Focuses and use it to view her message to me. From there I would be able to enter the other ruins of Zero Dawn facilities across the lands and repair the terraforming system before it was too late.

Gaia spoke to me as if I was Elisabet, used her name, relied on and believed in me as if I really was her. Did she understand that I'm not—that I don't remember, don't know anything about how to fix her?

Repair couldn't come until after Hades' destruction anyway, or it would only attempt to resume where it left off. Gaia directed me to the 'master override'—a tool in the facility where she operated from for all those centuries. With it, I would be able to purge Hades permanently.

Before Gaia could finish her instructions, Hades made its move in response to its imminent destruction. It dissolved the 'shackles' keeping it and the other subordinate functions within the system. They fled from Gaia's reach, escaping. Then Hephaestus wasn't the only other function to escape—they're all out there, hiding in ancient ruins, wreaking havoc wielding ancient machines. Are they all as dangerous and murderous as Hephaestus?

In its final act before fleeing itself, Hades corrupted data throughout Gaia's systems, including the Alpha registry in the Cradle. From that, Gaia knew I wouldn't be able access her instructions. Her final words as she burnt away into embers, the explosion destroying her central intelligence as her functions soared free, were words of hope. She believed that I, Elisabet, could succeed against the odds, as I once did long ago.

I guess she was right.

As the hologram faded out, it hit me all at once. I was never a person, just a tool forged with intent, something Gaia made to fix her systems in the fire of her death. There was never anyone waiting for me. The curse that the Nora speak of really did begin at my birth—the machines going rabid, the world spinning into chaos. Made by a machine to remake that machine that I once made in a life I can't remember.

Sylens snapped me out of it. There were two sides to this revelation. I have a mission, a purpose, and my path forward is clear. It's the only path. If I don't walk it, everything will die. Gaia was my mother, in a way, and Elisabet was too.

When I exited the hatch, half the onlookers were already kneeling. When Teersa asked me if I spoke to the goddess, I could find no better way to explain the truth. I was born to lift a curse, I told her. I was born to kill Hades, the Metal Devil of a new age.

Before I could stop them, the Matriarchs declared me Anointed of the Nora, calling for the faithful to praise me. They all fell to their knees, heads and palms pressed against the ground. Maybe I should have just stood there and taken it, but I couldn't. The anger I'd been harboring all my life came to the surface and I yelled at them, grabbed them, hoisted them to their feet, as many as I could reach. All those years they shunned me, ignored my existence or worse, and now they're using those very same backwards, cruel, nonsensical myths to set me apart above instead of below, call me their saviour, their prophet, theirs. I never was, and I never will be.

For centuries they've stayed here, kissing the ground that spat them out into a world that wasn't ready, forcing fear and ignorance onto all their people. I won't represent that.

I knew they would listen to me, for better or for worse, and so I told them what I'd learned. There's a whole world out there. Not a valley, not the sightlines of a single mountain, a world larger than they can imagine all coming to an end, full of people who deserve to be saved, no less favoured by the 'goddess' who created them. I told those who could fight to meet me in Meridian to do battle against the Eclipse when they launched their invasion. I thought it was a long-shot, but having been proven right, Teersa was looked to by the other Matriarchs to give orders. She bid them follow me into the west. I suppose they'll justify it by saying the blessing of an Anointed is far more powerful than the blessing of a mere Seeker.

I sought out Teersa once the crowd dispersed, though I could still feel their eyes on me. Even if Teersa's faith clouds her true understanding of what I am and why I was made, she's still the only reason I wasn't left in the wilds to die as an infant, and she's been kind to me. She always believed in me.

She told me Rost's story as well, finally. As the Anointed, which I guess is a thing, she didn't have much of a choice. What are oaths before the will of the goddess?

Rost committed no crime. Instead, he became a Death Seeker in a Nora rite that separates soul from body—whatever that means—to preserve the soul in All-Mother's protection while the body wanders from her sight. Once gone, the body is never permitted to return. Rost went through this ordeal to seek vengeance for a group of hostages taken and slain by outlanders, their corpses left in open mockery just across the border of the Sacred Lands. Teersa said the tribe never discovered who the outlanders were or what they wanted, but they delved in the ruins of Devil's Thirst, emitting strange, metal noises in their search. One of the hostages was Rost's six year old daughter, Alana. He never said.

On his quest for revenge, he journeyed north to Ban-Ur, further west to the Claim, through the Sundom and further still, to Utaru lands and Tenakth, then even deeper into the Forbidden West. He killed all twelve of the outlanders for their crimes. Rost returned to the Sacred Lands on the brink of death. He didn't even make it over the border on his own; another Nora broke taboo to drag him across. Law said he should have been left for dead, but knowing all that he had sacrificed for the tribe, the tribe couldn't follow through. They nursed him back to health and the Matriarch's 'compromise', in their infinite generosity, was to outcast him for life. Can't have a man without a soul in your village, that's just logical. And convenient, when the time came to get rid of me. Instead of leaving me to die, they left me in the care of a man who had lost a young daughter of his own. Teersa saw wisdom in that act, not cruelty, and said she was grateful for all Rost had done to raise and train me in the ways of Nora faith. He was so devout, I suppose no one else could have done better. I must just be resistant to that sort of thing.

Talking about Rost brought back old feelings. I should go and visit him again.

And I thought of Olin, too. Both Rost and I embarked from the Sacred Lands seeking revenge, but while the twelve outlanders displayed plain, remorseless cruelty—at least the way Teersa told it—Olin only obeyed the Eclipse to protect his family. His own young child. Killing him was a senseless act. Maybe's Rost's revenges were senseless too—the outlanders were unlikely to return, and all that was preserved in their continued existence was the injustice, the unhealed wounds of pride. He did it for the honour of the tribe, that nebulous thing. I thought myself distant from it, yet bent to its demands like all the rest. If I had let Olin live, he would have helped me take on the Eclipse. I had nothing to gain in slaying him, and far more to lose.

No sense in dwelling on it. There are worse crimes; I believe he forgave me.

I went to Lansra next. It was difficult to ignore her, with her wailing for my forgiveness as I walked past, bowing her head and raising her arms in half cower, half worship. She lamented her misreading of the signs—honestly I was expecting her to double down and say I'd gone into All-Mother's domain to plant a curse in her core. With the rest of the tribe against her, it's hard to tell whether she earnestly believes she was wrong, or is just going along to maintain her position. But she's likely too stupid for such elaborate deception. She doesn't think, doesn't care to look—just fears and lashes out against all things new or confusing to her. She grovelled, begged, touched her head to the floor in supplication. I couldn't stand it. I tried to tell her to open her eyes, to try and learn, but she took my advice literally. I told her to shut her mouth. She took that literally too. All of a sudden the cave was far more peaceful.

I met Arana and her father nearby. Thok tried to stop Arana from speaking so openly to the 'Anointed'. Great, more reasons for the Nora not to speak to me. I assured them it was alright, and to drop the titles, but I'm not sure they will. Arana brought her mother's spear all the way to the mountain, and I thanked them again for the improvements they made to my own.

I took some enjoyment in facing Resh as well. He stuck to his principles where Lansra failed to. Now that the tribe had accepted me as their figurehead, it was his tribe no longer. He said he would be leaving these lands first chance he got. Who's the outcast now?

I also spoke to Teb again, and though I tried to dissuade him from calling me the Anointed, he did so only outwardly. I could tell he idolised me, but he had done so since the Proving; my entering the mountain only solidified his belief. I asked him to stay here in the Embrace, at least, but he refused and said he would join me in Meridian. It would be a shame to see him killed for a cause I promoted after saving his life all those years ago. I wish he'd just stay safe.

Varl was waiting further on. He said he would join me in Meridian, and I would've expected no less of him, but what I did expect was...some sort of curiosity. I offered to show him the inside of the mountain, but he shut that down quick. Even my offer to tell him what I'd learned, to explain my mission, he said he would hear only if the 'goddess willed it'. I thought he was different to the others, that maybe...I thought I could rely on him, that's all. But he's just as willfully ignorant as the rest.

I couldn't stay after that, especially not with all the Nora staring, whispering prayers as I passed. I left the mountain and walked through the cooling ruins of Mother's Watch, taking the long way around to Rost's lodge on the western side of the cliffs enclosing the Embrace. Walking these roads now is even stranger than before. It's not just the charred ruins, the corpses of Deathbringers dotting the valley, it's what this valley means. What all of it means. It was on these lands that the first people born into a new world stepped, and made sacred. Everything that came after was made from the stories they spun to explain their existence. Only Sylens and I know the truth.