#So a bit of an internal conflict there.

[upfrog]

An AI-generated art hot-take

Time to get some people mad at me.

I just saw a post where someone was expressing their frustration at generative AI, specifically the risk it poses to artists, and how it continues/worsens/partakes of a tradition of reducing art to a finished product. There was a particular piece of it that made me very annoyed, and I've seen this piece in a lot of posts about generated art. Well, it's past midnight where I am, I'm tired, and I'm tired of shutting up about my view on this.

"It's [AI art's] entire central premise is built on the grim truth that many people don't see artists as skilled laborers using years of practiced skill to create something unique, but as data to be exploited"

Some other posts also emphasize a perceived sense of entitlement to art; that AI art advocates feel it is unfair for artistic creation to be limited to the elect few.

I would like to give a very strong rule. Like all rules, no doubt you could come up with exceptions to it. But this rule is foundational to the world around us, it's development, and it's future.

Making it easier to create things is good. Period. Making it take less time, effort, people, and training to create things is good. Period.

Technology making jobs redundant is a good thing. It is the foundation of almost all human progress. We are all descendants of farmers who were cruelly put out of work by new technological developments. The day when one person and a computer can do the work of an entire department of artists will be a good day - we are not there, maybe we'll never get there. But technology making people redundant is good. Expanding the ability of the average human to do things is good. And the fact that we have gotten to the point where people are unironically saying "it's *good*, actually, that it takes years of practice and effort to be able to produce good art, and you shouldn't want it any other way" is... Perverse? Horrifying? Taking self-interest into the realm of actively tearing your fellow humans down?

To be clear (because this is the internet, and if I don't specify then someone will fill in the gap with the worst things imaginable) I'm not saying that a future where generative AI is extremely good, widespread, and accessible will not have downsides. The threats of bespoke scams, deepfaked videos, floods of bots with a superb ability to guide the narrative, and so on are real, dangerous, and may already be coming to pass.

I know that one aspect of the anti-AI-generated art kickback has to do with the nature of professional art, and the type of people who do it. "Art", broadly defined, is substantially a passion field. You don't do it to get rich, or to have a stable life. You do it because you love the work, and are willing to put up with a thousand downsides, annoyances, and more in order to do what you love. And having this taken away feels cruel in a way that, say, keeping grad students and accountants from having to manually calculate thousands of sums doesn't.

A few words of encouragement. Widespread literacy may have killed the scribal profession as it was understood at the time. But it opened up vastly more work than it destroyed, even if you just count the directly writing-related work. Mass-produced off-the-shelf clothing shrunk the tailor (as once understood) into practical insignificance. Does that mean that no one who is passionate about making clothes can work in the field now? No. We have far, far more clothing (insert anti fast fashion rant here, I'm all on board with that kickback), and more variety, and lots of people working with clothing. The development of software code compilers unemployed a large number of human compilers. In many ways, programming has gotten easier over the years, with a lower barrier to entry, more comprehensible languages, more resources, and so on. But that hasn't meant that software developers are stuck in an unemployment hell of too many job seekers and not enough openings. We, as a society, keep on finding more and more things we want them to program, and demand for the skillset keeps rising. I can't see the future. Maybe AI-generated art will be the end of employment for artists. Maybe the generative AI revolution is fundamentally different from every past productivity revolution. But I doubt it.

[waitmyturtles]

I'm gonna need to buy extra pairs of flip-flops to hurl at GMMTV after today. WTF.

[vigilskeep]

what god are you thinking for the fire godlike priest? also, if you want to explore different characters in poe you can make them as adventurers pretty early

forgot to respond to this, but eothas!

i’ve played the first hour or two of the game before and i would like to be directly in the middle of all that, please. i like it when story is about Me. especially early on in a viddy game, gives me a reason to be there. also it’s honesty and kindness that he wants so it should be easy enough to make decisions that will buff up my abilities :)

i think it might be fun for a godlike not to stick with the god they’re associated with. and the other priest in the party is already a magran fella, right? which could be interesting esp bc i’m pretty sure eothas and magran are very much not best buddies and i’m walking right into all that

i can imagine a kid scared of being all fire and war, having been treated with fear, and ending up being taken in by a priesthood offering to turn that light to hope and healing. but still being too fiery to stay at home and not venture out into the world? that’s a fun little nature vs nurture question already

[technovillain]

Out of curiosity how did you come up with the title Another Story? I'm guessing it has to do with the whole tower thing (stories=floors etc) but I was wondering what the exact thought behind it was

Initially I was just referring to it as "Ed n Cal Comics" back when it was intended to be purely silly comedy. Then I realized I should call it something else if it was going to be a bit more serious in tone. And I could not think of anything good... so like exactly as you said, I came up with something with roots in a common saying "That's another story for another day" and tried to tie it to be a double meaning with the stories = floors, plus at the time of naming it, it was going to be much more episodic than a serialized thing, so it was also like "every episode is a fun new story" too!

Fun little reveal for you since you asked ❤ to go along with the phrase I mentioned, the epilogue of what I called "season one" (the first big story arc) is called 'Another Day'.

I now actually have a title that makes more sense for the whole series as a title now that I actually know the whole lore/story across both big story arcs, and it's the subtitle of "season two"/the second story arc! But I'm already attached to Another Story as an overall title so it remains the comic's name!

[rainecreatesstuff]

*sighs dreamily* Crowley and Aziraphale are explicitly unapologetically queer in canon and their relationship is being treated with all the same angst and complexity as a straight relationship

[nightswatchdisbandmentera]

I know that we’re all waiting and excited for Euron Greyjoy to serve the Eldritch apocalypse in TWOW, but frankly I’m more interested in what Jon and Bran will be up to. Bran is probably spending the majority of the book under the tutelage of Bloodraven (and potentially breaking from it). He’s probably going to unlock, or rather expand, new powers and there could be elements of greenseer magic that we probably haven’t seen yet.

Then we have Jon who, post-resurrection, will have magic crashing into him like a dump track: old god magic, R’hllor magic, and all that other weird stuff he can do. All the powers he’s been suppressing in ADWD will come spilling out and I’d imagine part of TWOW will be Jon trying to adjust to this magic as he’s going through all this rage and resentment (brought on by learning the truth of his parentage and dealing with the betrayal at castle black). I expect TWOW to have Jon in a really dark place and there’s the chance that magic will spill out as he (understandably) lashes out; whether he’s using magic knowingly or unknowingly, who knows. There’s even potential for Jon to get a magic mentor in the form of Melisandre; though it’s unclear how long Mel will hang around at the Wall because she needs to get back to Stannis so that the Shireen-bonfire can happen.

And - this is pure speculation on my part - TWOW seems to be the one book where magic is dialed up to 1000; I’m envisioning magic in this book to be a constantly pulsating element that as some point bursts into a huge explosion. With the Others coming and whatever Euron’s doing (and potentially Dany and her dragons), magic should have a heightened presence which makes me think that Jon and Bran are going to be experiencing some upscaling in terms of raw power. As magic becomes more and more prominent, Jon and Bran will do bigger more impressive things. I really cannot wait to see what they pull off in this book.

[chronicowboy]

i hate these few frames so much, and i hate oliver for putting his whole stussy into such a tiny expression because he's managed to externalise every second of his internal conflict in such a tiny scene—a scene that isn't even about him! you can see every drop of energy it takes him to plaster on such a pained, fake smile, a smile that can barely be called a smile because its hesitant and heavy and horrific. it drops off his face almost immediately like just the simple act of smiling, of pretending to be okay is exhausting. and the way he can hardly bring himself to look at the others, how he has to look away to muster up that "smile", the fucking storm in his eyes. just. fuck.

[theendofmybody]

once again can't sleep because I'm thinking of all the ways the x files could have been a better show. alas

[gazelessmenagerie]

So did he only burn down her village or

( it went more than that aalsfssjg )

( Broly got insanely jealous over a human woman he fancied quite a alot at that time showing Mirin more attention than him and This happened, followed by This happened after he lost his shit being jealous, and then This, )

( Extra bits that could give further context and all that Good Stuff bc this was a extensive little development thing spanning over months.

[thelibraryofsylphide]

Pantheon, Convincingly Human

Pantheon Moodboard series: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

[icewindandboringhorror]

I think the hardest thing in writing for me sometimes is the like “show don’t tell/let people communicate through subtext/Normal People don’t just walk around openly explaining their motivations for everything That’s Unnatural” thing because like.. I literally DO walk around openly explaining my motivations for everything, that is how I talk, I am an analytical detail oriented over-communicator who explains everything as thoroughly as possible and and will give a fully detailed 2 minute long answer to something simple like “how are you doing today?” .. like it’s hard to make things sound Natural and Normal when you yourself are inherently unnatural and abnormal in your methods of communication to an extent lol

[yotd2009]

The Tiktokers Are Saying That Romeo And Cinderella Is About Grooming

[lazuliquetzal]

aaaAAAAAAAAA i just finished dotf and holy shit. holy shIT. thank you for killing me several times over oh my god. also i HAVE to know. you said the face-stealer has gray skin and red eyes... and it travels through mirrors.... was it supposed to be dark link? or a shadow??? 👀👀👀👀

*kicks down door*

I have been WAITING for someone to ask this--

(Obligatory spoiler warning for Dawn of the Fourth, if anyone who follows me was planning on reading it)

Okay, short answer: It's supposed to be a Shadow Link. There's a reason it only shapeshifts into other heroes (Executed Link offscreen, then Legend, then Wind, then Baby Time) and the reason is that's all it can do.

STUPIDER ANSWER:

The Shadow Link of this era has been roleplaying as Dead!Legend the entire time. It is entirely committed to the bit. It has a horrible OOC fanon interpretation of Evil!Edgy!Legend. The entire monologue it has of crawling out of a dungeon with a broken arm was made up for no fucking reason other than to cause Sky maximum distress. Somebody give it an Oscar.

Anyway, Dawn of the Fourth was originally a joke that I thought about for way too long--

[antiquesintheattic]

another take i have is that too many fan fics rely on au’s. well you guys clearly don’t see them the same why i do because i find their current reality to be the most fascinating and intriguing which is why i’m even interested in the first place. specifically if they are in a band together.. why would you even make an au when you’re working with pure gold there. the yearning? the writing songs about each other? the eroticism of live music?? OH COME ON I’LL JUST WRITE IT MYSELF

[mediterraneanmenace]

Going WILD for the description of this piece (which is going to be finished Soon), if you're into duality in ships Raphael and Raksha are so going to be your thing lmao

So far my favorite symbolism (besides her being the sacred to his profane, Raksha's a Holy Inquisitor after all) is how Raphael describes her as "strong as mistral wind, as fickle as the sea itself" because he's the opposite with the whole being a Devil with fire, hell and all of that.

He wants to control, chain her to him but also loves her strong personality and independence. Which is why when she eventually goes into hiding to escape him he becomes full on obsessed to find her (but still, in his words, "I can't bring myself to hate you").

[rosemirmir]

Thinking about Shingo Izumi... Poor man was just used for literal plot vessel purposes and not much else