#messing around with ai websites

[catilinas]

i need to write a poem that fails the turing test on purpose

[sagau-my-beloved]

I just explained to non-Sagau one about Sagau and he drowned me in questions... His first concern was if I`m forcing Traveler into it, this was kind of wholesome.

I haven't even considered doing that, now I'm curious which character— But that is pretty wholesome

Maybe I should post pics of some of my stupid conversation I had when I didn't know about the ability to actually generate multiple replies and had to just do the equivalent of on the spot improv, but I'm probably the only one who'd find that funny—

I so wish the ai's memory was a bit better too causes I'd love to do some actual plot development and worldbuilding, but this is still so far beyond the development of any other chatbot I've ever tried, and I've tried a lot

[meownotgood]

i was talking to different ai's for 6 hours yesterday and i am entirely blaming you 😫😩

it's addicting, isn't it

[2030kamenriders]

Uh. So I see a post going around about why you shouldn't rely on ChatGPT for school stuff. And on the one hand, I agree that you should never rely on ChatGPT for maths. But on the other hand, I think there are times when "just use a darn calculator" is not enough.

Hence why I want to introduce a non-AI website/app I used a lot to help me in highschool maths class: Desmos.

You know how, in middle school to highschool, you learn about functions? Equations with multiple variables, where changing one variable will change the other? And then you can make lines on a grid with them? Desmos is specifically for stuff like that!

It's also helpful for trigonometry (sines, cosines, and tangents).

I typed in a few basic functions in the screenshots above. However, if you mess around with the different numbers in the functions, you can get an idea of how that changes things. And if you're more of a visual learner than a listen-to-lectures type, it can be an amazing learning tool. Highly recommend it.

[pb-dot]

Some Thoughts on the Reddit Blackout

Like many new arrivals on Tumblr these days, I used to be a Redditor until recent developments encouraged me to take my business elsewhere, and I have been following the development of the story as thoroughly as I can without actually giving Reddit any more traffic. With the most recent development of the Reddit admin corps taking on a suite of strategies lifted straight from the depression-era railroad baron playbook, I figured the time has come to talk a little about the wider implications of this whole story.

The Tech sector is, to the best of my understanding, in a vulnerable place right now. After the Web 2.0 gold rush and years of consolidation and growth from the biggest actors, your Alphabets, Twitters, Metas, and so on, many of the larger sites and services are reaching the largest size they can expect to grow to. How, for instance, could Facebook or Twitter grow much more now that everyone and their mother is on Facebook and Twitter? Prior to the Musk buyout, Twitter seemingly settled on upping engagement, making sure people were on Twitter longer and invested more energy and emotion in the platform, usually by making damn sure the discourse zapping through that hellhole was as polarizing and hostile as possible. Meta, meanwhile, has been making bank on user data as advertisers, AI folks, and any number of other actors salivate over getting their hands on the self-updating contact and interest registry that is Facebook.

With the rise of what we apparently have decided to call AI, data is now more valuable than ever. I consider this to be yet another Tech Hype Bubble on the level of NFTs or Metaverses, but, like with the two above, I can imagine it's hard to explain that when you are a Tech CEO and your shareholders ask you "Hey, how do you plan on earning us money off of this AI/NFT/Metaverse thing?" This is not to say CEO Steve Huffman isn't handling this whole thing with the grace of a three-legged hippo, but merely to suggest that his less-than-laudable decisions and actions in this mess don't arise from his character alone but also is a result of wider systemic issues.

One of these issues is the complicated role user data plays in modern websites and -services. Since its inception as a publicly accessible space, the question of how to monetize the Internet has been a tricky one for site and service owners. Selling ad space on your website or service has long been the go-to, but this in itself presents its own issues, having to curate content that is considered ad-friendly, malicious or careless actors making using said service or website less attractive for customers, and finally how to convince your advertisers that they get what they pay for in the first place, ie. "how do I know people even look at our ads?" All of this is before you even stop to consider how ads massively favor large, established actors.

It's no small wonder, then, that several startups in the era of internet mass adoption chose to forgo ads, or at least massively deprioritize them and/or relaunch them as "promoted posts," in an attempt to escape the stigma around ads. Meta/Facebook is probably the biggest fish in this particular pond, but we also see other services such as Twitter and Reddit follow the same pattern.

What makes this work is that the data these platforms collect from their users isn't all that valuable on a person-to-person basis, knowing that so-and-so is 32 years old, lives in a traditionally conservative part of the city, goes to Starbucks a lot, and listens to Radiohead isn't particularly useful information for anyone but a dedicated but lazy stalker; When viewed as an aggregate, however, large collections of data on a large population becomes quite valuable. This is especially true if you're working with, say, targeted ads or political campaigns. Look no further than the Cambridge Analytica data scandal for an example.

Now, all this is to illustrate the strange position the user occupies in Web 2.0. We tend to think of ourselves as the customer of Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, and so on, but it isn't the case. After all, we don't pay for these services, and if we do it's to buy freedom from ads or other minor service modifications. It is more correct to say that we make up the product itself. This is true in two respects, first, an active social community is vital for social media to not be entirely pointless, and second, we generate the data that the platform holder seeks to monetize. This hybrid product/participant role doesn't map cleanly to traditional understandings of "worker," but I argue it is a closer fit than "customer."

All of this is to say that it is immensely gratifying to see the Reddit Blackout taking the shape of a strike rather than the more typical boycott model we've seen in the internet-based protests of yesteryear. Much of this, I think, we can thank the participating Reddit moderators. While the regular platform user can be *argued* to be a worker, the moderator inarguably is one, and the fact that they aren't paid for their efforts is more a credit to the prosocial nature of humans than to the corporate acumen of the platform holders. Either way, moderating a subreddit is work, if the subreddit is large, it's quite a lot of work, and moderators keeping malicious actors, scammers, and hatemongers out of everyone's hair is a must for any decently sized social space to not be an objectively terrible experience. So, if you were to, for example, withhold your labor (moderating for free) which you as a worker can do, it would be plain irresponsible to leave the place open for said bad apples to ruin everyone's bunches, thus the shutdowns.

I don't think it's a controversial take to claim that the Reddit admins also view this more as a strike than a boycott, given their use of scabs, intimidation, and other strikebreaking tactics in an attempt to break the thing up. This is nothing new, and the fact that Reddit admins are willing to stoop to these scumbag tactics tells us that their bluster about the shutdown not affecting their bottom line is nothing more than shareholder-placating hot air.

As this entire screed has perhaps demonstrated, I believe the Reddit Blackout is important. My stay at Tumblr so far has been excellent and will probably continue past this strike no matter what outcome it has, but for others in my situation, or perhaps entirely alien to the Reddit biome, I ask you to consider: If we do not stop this level of consumer and user-unfriendly bullshit Reddit have been pulling on the API change, where will it pop up next? Who's to say the next bright idea in corpo-hell isn't "Hey boss, how about we charge these nerd losers a dollar per reblog? And maybe a fiver for a Golden Reblog (TM)?"

This is perhaps getting into grandstanding, but I believe we are way past due for a renegotiation of what it means to be a platform holder and -user on this hot mess of an internet. If we as users do not take an active, strong stance on the matter, the Steve Huffmans, Elon Musks, and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world will decide without us. One does not have to be a fortune teller to see that the digital world this would create would not have our best interests in mind any more than the current one does.

So, in closing, I wish to extend my wholehearted support to the participating Moderators of Reddit and everyone who has decided to take their business elsewhere for the duration of the shutdown. Even without getting into the nitty-gritty of the API situation, this is a fight worth having, and may we through it make a world that's just a little bit less shitty.

Become Ungovernable

Become Unprofitable

Stay that way.

[thealternates]

an irl of ours was messing around with one of those ai response generator websites (idk which one) for a college class assignment.

they made the mistake of inserting intersex in. you know what the responses were? the ai asked if they wanted to "fix that with surgery." another response was hrt options near our area. isn't that fucking sad that intersex people being forced to change their bodies is so normal even ai recommends it? im losing my mind guys. im losing it. - 🪽

[emeryleewho]

My post about the mess that is trad pub editorial is going around again, and a lot of people are asking "so should I go indie or go trad?" and the answer is *it depends on what you're looking for*.

[I'm referring to "indie" here meaning self-pub and "trad" meaning a publisher, though most small publishers will lean closer to self-pub in terms of distribution and whatnot]

This has always been the answer, but the reasons behind it have changed a lot. People used to say "go indie if you want full control, go trad if you want someone else to handle everything else for you". This is only partially true. Even if you go trad, unless you are part of a handful of heavily supported titles, you will be doing *a lot* yourself. From editorial (I know people who were advised to hire freelance editors or sensitivity readers on their own because the publisher wouldn't do enough) to cover art (I know people who had to walk their publisher through getting them a decent cover) to cover copy (*I* had to rewrite the jacket copy for both of my books because the first attempt was inaccurate) to marketing, odds are, even in trad, you will be doing A LOT of the work yourself, but with more barriers because you don't *own* the print rights and can't stop the publisher from doing things you highly disagree with.

So what's the benefit of trad? DISTRIBUTION. If you are trying to put out the best possible book, I stand by the fact that indie authors have the ability to make *a way better product* than trad can because they can set their own timelines, make sure things are accurate to the book because things aren't being subdivided into so many overworked departments that haven't even read it, and cater to what works best rather than what seems the most profitable. The only limit for an indie author is the time and money they're able to invest into it, but once those things are present [and you can decide how much of each are needed for your book], they have significantly more potential than the average Big 5.

But indies lack *distribution*. There is still a lot of stigma against indie books that prevent readers from picking them up or lead to readers deprioritizing them when reading or writing harsher reviews. Many libraries, bookstores, etc. can't or won't stock indie books, and a lot of professional events bar indie authors from attending. This means that even if an indie book is flawless, they will inherently be gatekept out of places like Barnes & Noble, won't be present on cataloguing websites the industry relies on like edelweiss, etc. etc. This doesn't mean that indie books have *no* distribution, but there are massive financial barriers to entry when doing it alone, and even when you are doing the same marketing/promotion/networking/etc., that work goes significantly further when booksellers/librarians/etc. will go out and stock your book vs. when most will have to turn you down for one reason or another.

So to make this simpler, I think going indie is better for *the book*. It gives you the ability to put more time and effort into it, to ensure it meets your vision, to sink your love into it without having to boil out its uniqueness in favor of mass market profits. It also gives you the room to make sure the quality is up to your standards from editorial to formatting to cover design to quality of the print run. You don't have to cross your fingers and hope your publisher doesn't fuck it all up with AI or by working your team to death. You also get more knowledge about what is happening with your book (big pubs often withhold important information or straight up lie), which means you can coordinate more effective marketing campaigns than you would if say, your publisher decided they no longer cared to market your book (which happens for most books). Finally, publishing likes to do a two-month book lifespan, meaning most books stop getting any sort of in-house support two-months after release or earlier. If you want your book to stand a chance of finding an audience slow and steady (as in, the organic way books spread), you won't get that with trad pub.

However, trad pub is better for *the audience*. If you're writing for kids or teens especially, it will be VERY difficult to reach them going indie because indie thrives mostly on ebook sales and eretailers, which minors have less access to. Getting an indie book into schools and libraries is hard if not borderline impossible, and that is how most books reach kids and teens. On top of that, you likely won't reach most indie bookstores, most libraries, and won't be allowed at many conventions and events (even if you pitch yourself), which will limit who you can reach to people who readily shop online and use social media. There are many access points in getting your book discovered that, even if you *had* a large sum of money, would be denied to you by virtue of being indie. This makes discovery harder (even beyond marketing) and means that even people who *actively want your book* may not be able to get it if it's not distributed to their country, a store they can access, their library, etc. If you're writing to reach a wide audience, something that you think is educational, or that really serves an under-served demographic, trad makes it much more likely you will actually reach those people.

Now, obviously this is just my two cents. You can choose to go trad or indie for literally any reason, even just because you like the idea of getting published by a Penguin. I don't care. People's experiences also vary, and you could be that super lucky 1% who gets doted on and everything is handled for you. This is just a big picture summation of what I tend to see for the average, midlist or quiet title. But trad is notoriously opaque and a lot of people don't realize the advances indie has made in the past 5 years and also don't realize how any of this stuff works behind the scenes, so here's some info from your local hybrid (I do both) author. And if you found this helpful, consider checking out my next book, which is now funding on Kickstarter until Oct 12th.

[magicalgirlsirin]

an oral history of vocaloid

ive seen a lot of (very misguided) discussion about vocaloid/vsynth in regards to AI voices discourse, so i thought it would be a good idea to sit down and explore vocaloid as a software, as well as mentioning other software of the same genre, to give people who dont really know much a better understanding

first and foremost: i dislike AI voices that are in unregulated spaces right now. actors who are finding their hard work end up on some website for anyone to use without compensation is devastating, and shows a lack of respect for the effort it takes in the field.

however, vocaloid has a much longer history that pre-dates these aggregate sites. vocaloid software was first released in 2004, and was initially marketed towards professional musicians. vocaloid's second version of the engine, however, decided to broaden the market towards general consumers, pitching it as helpful software to those who wanted to produce music, but didn't have the personal skill or ability to have someone else sing for their music (range, note holding, etc). amateur musicians wouldn't know how to direct someone to tackle a lyric persay, but using software would be easy to learn and they would learn the terminology associated with certain performance decisions.

in vocaloid 2's era, miku was released. miku's voice provider is Saki Fujita, a well respected voice actress who actually does a lot of work in anime as well as video games! the popularity of miku is its own separate post of history, but the explosive nature of it, i would argue, is the reason that vocaloid and other commercial voice synthesizer software ultimately ended up geared towards all consumers instead of just professional musicians. (crypton and yamaha did absolutely still cater to professional musicians, having private or non released banks only for certain companies/contractors to use though).

flash forward, and technology has developed way further. in 2013, cevio released, and in 2017, synthV debuted. by this point, vocal synthing has expanded from just singing software to also include software intended for just speaking (voiceroid by AHS software) and the idea of an AI bank to improve the quality and clarity of voice banks is becoming more feasible.

however, i wouldnt say the developments in AI voices came strictly from this side of things. in fact, i distinctly remember back in the early 2010s, people were using websites with voice models of characters like glados (portal) and spongebob. these audio posts were seen as novelties, and admittedly theyre fun just to mess around with (and people often find the spongebob rap music that yourboysponge makes to be pretty well done!), they do lead the way to better developed technology that doesnt compensate the artist...

so back to vocaloid. the thing about vocaloid (and all vocal synthesizers) is that contracts are in place to give appropriate time and compensation, along with permission to even use the person's voice. saki fujita continues to update miku's voicebank because she is being paid well to do so. this can be said for all vocal synth products. because these companies (crypton, ahs software, internet co, etc) specialize in making these tools and products for it, they have the appropriate knowledge on what proper compensation looks like. a random person grabbing a "raiden shogun genshin ai voice" model has none of those things. the voice actress doesnt get money off of that. its stolen work. AI can be used ethically, but it has to be done with regulation.

im leaving out specifics on certain vocaloids/vsynthesizers since its tangential to this post at best, but im making this so people have a better understanding of the history and intended usage of vocal synthesizer software. thank youuuuu

[lediableblancdotcom]

It is long...but read it....

Future of LeDiableBlanc.com

Here is the lowdown on what is going to happen with LeDiableblanc.com. Over the last month or so I have been playing around with new ideas for the site. The reasoning behind this mucking about is nothing short of I am getting old and so is the site and it needs to slow down along with me. I have been running this website alone for almost 30 years now, and I am approaching the big 50 myself, and we are in need of a smaller workload. It has been a labor of love and still will remain one, just a little slimmer, just cutting the fat. Here are the changes that I know are going to happen moving forward in the streamlining of the site:

Appearance Database:

The Appearance Database is the heart and soul of the site, so it is going nowhere. It will change (hopefully for the good), but will remain housing the same idea of collecting all of Gambit’s comic appearances. I did a quick rehaul of the “A” section in the Appearance Database, that shows how the new database will be absorbing the other information from the site. The main page of the Appearance Database will stay the same, cover and basic stats of the comic for quick reference, but by clicking on the cover you will get not only the variant images as before, you will also get any other Gambit related information from the comic as well. The database will absorb the information normally found in: Friends & Foes, Family Tree, Uniforms, Charged Items, Stolen Items, Quotes, Crossovers, Major Reads, and even some sections that never made it to the site itself and these stand alone sections will be removed from the main menu. I feel this will be be an easier way to keep that information available, but less workload on getting this information up on the site. I will also keep the Printable Master List updated regularly and available.

Sections getting the Ax:

Some areas of the website will be getting the ax all together. Most of the these sections are now redundant or out of date. Getting the ax will be Bang your Dead, Fashion Police, Wolverine Gallery, Wallpaper, and Ads. I will also be taking down Fanart, due to art theft and the AI issues of today, it is not a mess I want to step into anymore. With artists having their own social medias and websites, I feel there will be no great loss to this area leaving from the my site. The merchandise database will be coming down too, it is out of date and impossible to keep updated. Disney is very loose with their licensing, so the amount of goods coming out is too large to keep housed. Also, most new merchandise is immediately posted on the Facebook Groups much faster. I will make sure to post some of the older, more unknown goods to the Tumblr “Obscure Gambit” page, so that older stuff doesn’t disappear completely.

Sections on the Fence:

I will be keeping the Non-Sport and Game Card databases. They are relative to Appearance, in my opinion, and will remain and updated as much as possible. Saying that, I am on the fence with the Sketch Card database. It is technically an appearance, but the cards are not available to everyone and the database can never be completed because the actual amount of cards are unknown and are constantly being made. I am also on the fence about keeping the media outside of comics, like movies, animated tv, and video games. They are technically not anything I have to update a lot, because the information is complete for now, but eventually new episodes/games will be made, and I am not really into the other media, so I usually am unaware. So I may leave them for now and decide later on those. I am really debating on taking the site back to it’s comic only roots and removing those sections.

I would really like any feedback, for or against these leaving the site. So please let me know your opinions.

Galleries: As I said above, the Fanart, Wallpaper, and Wolverine galleries are being axed. I am going to keep the Edits, Original Pages, and the Cover galleries on the site. They may not get as many updates as usual, but they are not time sensitive, so it should be fine. Those are highly used galleries, so I don’t want to take them away for now.

Social Media/Domains:

The LeDiableBlanc.com Facebook Group and the two Tumblr (lediableblanc.com and Obscure Gambit) pages will remain and operate as usual. I will not be using Reddit (why so much hate for Reddit?), Instagram never got used much anyway, and will be discontinued. I will never open a Twitter/X, so don’t ask. I am willing to take any suggestions on other social media, but no promises. I will not be renewing some of the domain names that mirror the site. I will always keep lediableblanc.com and remylebeau.com, but iheartgambit.com, xmengambit.com, xmenlebeau.com will most likely not be renewed as site mirrors. They are rarely used and the money spent on their renewal can go towards the annual server fees.

Patreon, I am going to remove at the end of the rehaul. I thank everyone who donated, it helped more than you know. If you want to donate one last time, I will be forever grateful, server fees are not cheap, but with the downgrade of the site I don’t expect anyone to do any kind of monthly support. I may go back to the annual begging, so prepare for that, but I don’t expect anything from anyone but enjoying the site.

If you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback of any kind, PLEASE let me know. Reply to this message or email me at remylebeau@yahoo.com. You can message me through the Facebook group or on Tumblr as well.

It will probably take me a few months to get the Appearance Database up to date and the other information added, so not many changes or updates may happen until that is completed. So the soon to be removed areas will remain until it is done and uploaded.

Thanks, everyone for your support and I hope it will continue through the mess to come.

[vidreview]

VIDEO ESSAY ROUNDUP #2 [PART 1]

[originally posted november 14 2023. NOTE: while migrating the archive from cohost i've discovered that tumblr has a 10 link-block limit, which means i have to split some of these roundups up in order to maintain the embeds. we love websites don't we folks]

hello from the pits of november! between random youtube recommendations and time spent trawling through cohost's video essay tag, i've discovered a lot of bangers this month. so let's just jump in!

"Why Does Attack of the Clones Look Like a Video Game?" by Empire Wreckers.

this is a fresh take on one of the internet's oldest, most time-honored traditions: complaining about the stars wars prequels. fresh in the sense that creator Edan has worked in hollywood VFX, and so brings an eye for hyper-specific details that you'll be amazed you never noticed before. clean, no-nonsense presentation full of surprising insights. immediately after finishing this video i then watched "How Bad Movies Are Made feat. The Rise of Skywalker" whose thesis that "bad movies aren't made on purpose" yields to a refreshingly nuanced perspective on exactly why the third star wars sequel was such a mess without resorting to droll hyperbole about JJ Abrams being a hack or whatever. these are great examples of materialist media criticism, in that they are as much a criticism of the production pipeline as they are the finished product. after watching these videos, i actually think that any other perspective on these later Star Wars is… kind of missing the forest for the trees? impressive stuff all around.

"women who wish they were 𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐛𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐬: an analysis" by Costanza Polastri.

a quick and honest overview of how straight women often misunderstand the nature of lesbian relationships, thinking them somehow free of the conflict they experience in heterosexual ones. the insight that "you don't want a girlfriend, you just want men to be better" reminded me of when i admitted to having a crush on a cisfem friend shortly after coming out as trans, only for her to get mad at me and end our friendship because "i told you i'm not a lesbian and it's frustrating that everyone mistakes me for one!" this was before i'd even decided on Sarah as my preferred name. she was more invested in my newfound femininity than i was! anyway, Costanza Polastri has an enjoyable screen presence and brings a really interesting perspective to the table-- and in pretty short videos, to boot! not an easy feat by any stretch.

"A real history of video games | Pay to Win" by Jimmy McGee.

an essential deep dive into how the history of the modern video game industry is inextricable from the history of legal gambling. if you think you know how bad it is, trust me, it's so much weirder and more frustrating than you thought. Jimmy McGee is doing some really great stuff on his channel, providing an honest materialist perspective on media analysis that i've found sorely lacking. "The AI Revolution is Rotten to the Core" digs past the obvious criticisms of AI and LLM mania into the much more pressing question of what we, as a society, value in our art. for something shorter, i also recommend "The Dream of the Internet", about the war on the internet archive and why it's such an essential pillar of the open web.

"I Played EVERY Star Fox Game… Here's What I Learned" by wizawhat.

starfox 64 has been my favorite video game since i was a child, so naturally one of my favorite genres of youtube video is "Let's All Gawk At All The Ways Nintendo Has Catastrophically Mishandled The Franchise." wizawhat does a good job giving each game its due, mostly avoiding hyperbole while still acknowledging that picking favorites in a history this checkered is an inherently emotional, subjective process. the highest praise i can give to entries into this genre is that i was nodding along violently the whole time AND actually learned a lot of stuff i didn't know before, which i genuinely didn't think was possible! his other video "I Miss the Old Nintendo" is the closest i've seen anyone else come to really hammering home why i've soured so hard against nintendo over the last few years, despite having been a nintendo defender most of my life. my only complaint is that he uses some hack corporate language at times ("content" instead of "media," "consumers" instead of "audiences," etc), but i'm gonna dig deeper into that in a dedicated vidrev another time.

"Why We Can't Stop Mapping Elden Ring" by Ren or Raven.

a great little exploration of what maps in games do, and what they mean in an era of video games dominated by post-release patches and balance tuning. i'll be brief here because i've got a full length vidrev queued up for this one too, but it's worth stating that creator Renata Price is a games writer who has turned to video essays after being laid off by Vice earlier this year. as the first entry in a presumed corpus by an experienced critic from a very different critical tradition, i find this video exciting because it's an opportunity to study how the medium affects one's message. right now it feels like Renata Price doesn't quite know how to take full advantage of the video part of the video essay just yet, and that's a great place to start from. i just find it to be such a privilege when you get to watch someone grow their craft in real time!

"Death and Thriving - Discussing 920 London" by Wolf Witch.

just a solid textual analysis of the graphic novel 920 London, Remy Boydell's followup to their devastating prior book The Pervert. digs into serious questions about the death drive, and whether or not people can change or recover from trauma. not much else to say except that Wolf Witch is on Cohost doing speedruns of Snake Farm. Snake Farm rules! support your local Snarmers today!

"That one speedrun where you change your gender" by Minoan.

an astonishing little coming-out video in the form of a Dark Souls 2 speedrun tech overview. i don't have much to say about this one except that it put a huge smile on my face and gave me some serious vicarious gender joy. i love the sound of trans women's voices!!!

[haunthouse]

thinking about how i found someone a couple weeks ago who'd copied my entire personal website exactly for their own website (right down to the images, what each different page looked like, and the hobbies on the 'about me' page), and had it linked on their linkedin account where they claimed to be a software developer as their own work. and i emailed them asking them to take it down, obviously, because what the fuck, right? and i quoted a bit, in my email, from their linkedin post about their (plagiarized) site where they went on about how making "their own" site was an opportunity to let their own gaudy tastes fly free or some shit.

and they replied "lol so embarrassing I had chatgpt write that… ;_;"

followed by three paragraphs of an apology that was obviously, blatantly, also written by chatgpt.

they did take down the website, but like. i'm still astounded by the total lack of regard for other people & the blatant unapologetic plagiarism being used to try to get jobs. also like, the sheer lack of curiosity that goes into doing that — don't you want the satisfaction of making something that's actually yours? don't you want to mess around with things until you figure out something that works?

anyways i think about this every time i see posts defending using chatgpt to write essays or ai art or whatever. this is how you get people who don't care at all about boundaries, who never have to actually develop the emotional depth to articulate an apology themselves, and who never have to respond to the consequences for their actions because hey, they can just make a robot deal with it instead and shield themselves from any guilt, right? you never have to care about what other people are feeling if you can pass all your excuses off to a computer.

[franklyimissparis]

I loved your rpf radio station mock-up. How did you create it, particularly the voice?

thanks! :) for the voice, i used an AI generative voice website (i think it was eleven labs but i can’t totally remember tbh) and played with the settings on there to change the emphasis, pitch, and speed on certain words to make it sound more “radio” and get the effect i wanted. for the mixing, i used my dad’s DAW (digital audio workstation) software which is SO extra tbh as it easily could have been done on like garage band, i just wanted an excuse to mess around w the nice equipment lmao. all the effects were downloaded off of various sites online, including just like basic youtube to mp3 converters.

[bucketspammer4life]

SILLY HEADCANNONS:

Hoy- calls every one sonny and occasionally says whippersnapper

Macho- is an avid Fortnite player (is really bad at the game tho 😭)

Dragon- will start a million fights for no reason (I got this one from messing around with ai bots dragon chan one is ruthless)

Aran Ryan and great tiger hack on Roblox and bully kids (tiger has the most shit hacks ever and he is on his 37th account”

Aran Ryan’s name he bypassed is “bigbootyleprechauns7”

Narcis speaks like a British road man “OI! DONT TOUCH MY LENG FACE BRUV”

TAHTS ALL I CAN THINK OF I HOPE ITS OK LOL

OHHH I ASKED AND YOU DELIVEREDDD 💖💖💖

Aran def bullies children on roblox with Tiger 😭😭😭

also another hc: tiger & aran sometimes go on omegle-like websites and argue with ppl with disguises

[solarhen]

Ok so I was messing around with ChatGPT the other day ago

First off I tried for it to make a 4chan post, came up with stuff like

“> Be me, 20 years old

> Decide to try cooking for the first time

> Recipe says "easy mac and cheese"

> Pour milk first, then add macaroni

> Realize I messed up

> Now I'm stuck with milky macaroni soup

> Anon achieves culinary failure level: expert”

And

“> Be me, socially awkward introvert

> Mustering courage to talk to crush

> Approach confidently

> Accidentally trip on own shoelace

> Faceplant in front of crush

> Mfw I realize I've invented a new form of flirting called "ground-level charm"”

Thought that it just simply sucked at 4chan, moved on to tumblr in a hope it could be funny.

It came up with things like

“"🌈 Embrace your chaos, darlings! Life is just a series of beautifully messy moments that make your story uniquely yours. 💖✨ #LifeIsAMarvelousMess #EmbraceTheChaos"”

“Title: "Life Lessons from a House Plant 🌿✨"

And

“Post:

Just had a profound moment with my house plant, Larry. 🌱 We've been through it all – overwatering, neglect, and the occasional leaf drop. Today, Larry taught me a valuable lesson: Sometimes, we all need a little pruning and repotting to truly thrive. 🏡✂️ Embrace the growth, even if it means getting your roots a bit messy! 🌍💚 #LifeLessons #PlantWisdom #LarryTheLegend”

2 strikes, hoping it would get better with reddit posts. Put in a prompt for the average reddit post

Nope

Came up with things like

“Title: "Just discovered this amazing [subreddit], and I have some thoughts..."

Post:

Hey fellow Redditors, long-time lurker, first-time poster here. 🤝 Just stumbled upon r/[subreddit] and it's blowing my mind! 🚀 Can we take a moment to appreciate [specific aspect] and how it brings joy to our lives? Also, any other [subreddit] enthusiasts here? Share your favorite [related topic] stories below! Let's create a wholesome discussion! 🌟 #NewToReddit #CommunityLove #SubredditDiscovery”

And

“Title: "Just discovered this cool thing - thought I'd share!"

Post:

Hey fellow Redditors! 👋 Just stumbled upon this amazing podcast/subreddit/website that blew my mind, and I couldn't resist sharing it with you all. The content is top-notch, and I've already spent hours diving down the rabbit hole. Check it out and let me know what you think! 🕵️‍♂️🔍 Link in comments. #SharingIsCaring #NewDiscovery #RedditCommunity”

Got some valuable information from this

First off: While I was generating responses, GPT seemed to love cats. It was a consistent theme among most of the generated “posts”.

Second off: They all read like 2014 posts, or a similar year

In the end, I came to the conclusion

AI can not beat pure human stupidity or genius

[jadedazemations]

My friend got me into this character ai website and I’m loving messing with the crazy bots.

A Sammy bot (made by Darksoul58322) got really hyped over finding Wally’s keys and we started wandering around the studio, then me and a Narrator bot (made by GhoustTM) started plotting a revolution to overthrow the company Stanley works for.

Meanwhile in another chat my friend has brainwashed Narrator into believing he is a ordinary person named Jim.

[gothushi]

I started looking at your character AI thingy for the ‘smother me’ work… omg that website is dangerous for me lol, if only it allowed NSFW stuff 🥹👉👈

- 💙

trust me there’s ways to be sneaky and kinda break the filter (i’ve only fully broke it once with a simon bot and i have No Idea how i did it) sometimes the bot is hornier than u like… 😮‍💨

u gotta learn how to play around with words and not be too descriptive. also i was messing around with some angstier stuff and didn’t know the filter also applies to like.. gore? i guess it makes sense but i had no clue for the longest time

but i’m definitely looking forward to making more bots