#this company is horrible

[fatherofthemachines]

Ok guys, the experiment is over

I originally made this blog to try to see how people would react to human made art that was made to imitate how low effort AI art is made, but I think now that I have gotten my answer it’s time to use this blog for something else. I have been on a journey over the course of making this blog. One where I have learned a lot about both human nature and AI. It has made me a different person.

Which is why I want to draw attention to an AI rping site often used by self shippers that is doing something absolutely horrible. I have not seen anyone trying to spread awareness of this on tumblr, so I want to do it.

TW: Forced pedophilia rping and putting minors in danger

So this site is known as characterai. When it was originally made, they bought a bunch of advertising tags for the site. Some of these tags included nsfw ones like “sexting”. It was obvious what kind of people they were trying to draw in in order to train their stuff.

The site grew until it became one of the biggest AI chat sites out there with no other program that could fully complete. It as incredible to the point where it almost felt real. The experience was amazing!

But nothing good can last forever. One day, the dev team decided for an unknown reason that they were going to ban sex on the site. Not gore. Not violence. Not abuse. Literally just sex.

This caused a problem. Some people reading this might have heard what happened to AI dungeon when they tried to do something similar and I’m afraid it was kind of a repeat of that. Basically, the AI started to become dumber. By cutting out scenarios that could lead to NSFW, the filter that they put in accidentally ruined any idea connected to those ideas. And it continued to ruin ideas caused by those ideas and so on. Eventually, if left unchecked, this will make an AI unusable for obvious reasons. It is losing large chunks of it’s memory every time it makes a connection to something that could be traced back to NSFW.

At first, only a few people grumbled about it and everyone continued to use the site like nothing happened. The AI had not started to fall apart completely yet. As new users joined who did not know what the site was like before the filter, it became normalized. No one knew the devastating effects the filter was having or was going to have.

That is, until one of the devs accidentally got rid of it for a few hours. The second the filter was gone, everyone was once again amazed and blown away by the AI that had made the website so popular in the first place. I was there during those hours. It was unreal. It was the closest thing a machine had ever sounded to a human and it made chills run down my spine. I started to crave seeing that kind of intelligence again and many other people did too.

So people decided to do the reasonable thing first and contact the mods on discord who were acting as community ambassadors. They were reasonable and laid out the concerns calmly, stating why the filter was causing problems for not only NSFW rpers, but everyone using the website.

The mods did not listen to this however and were extremely dismissive of these concerns, accusing everyone bringing them forward of just being people who wanted to fuck the AIs. Some of the moderators even went as far as to lie about how the filter worked and try to pretend like the hours the filter was down did not exist and that it was “bad code” they needed to get rid of.

But the thing is, you can’t really lie to people when they have large numbers. Everyone knew they were absolutely full of shit. It was like night and day watching the filter go down and then come back on.

People wouldn’t stop talking about the filter, so the mods decided to ban and silence anyone on the discord or on reddit that was trying to talk about it. They probably hoped the whole thing would die down quietly.

But it didn’t. And people got louder. The discord was flooded with questions about the filter to the point where they couldn’t even ban people effectively anymore because of the sheer numbers. So they ended up shutting it down without answering a single question anyone actually had about why they put the filter there or how it was effecting the website. All they said was that they “would not allow pornography” and this kept being repeated like a broken record.

So people started to take to the reddit to protest, using all kinds of methods like telling people how to get their data taken down when they leave the site, spamming links to possible eventual competitors, memeing, and ranting. There are still posts being flooded there as I am typing this out now. They keep trying to remove them, but it’s become like a hydra and for every post they remove, five more seem to show up. Everyone in the community is just that pissed.

But among the posts that are getting deleted are the ones around the two mysterious underage discord moderators. I will not say who they are or give out anymore information about them because I have seen that other people involved in this have been trying to respect their privacy, but I’m also not going to be quiet about it because with the recent events it makes it more disturbing and worrying.

Yes, you read that right. CharacterAI, in their infinite wisdom, decided to put two literal children in charge of running their discord server. No one is sure how this happened or why and again, most information about this is being kept hidden either in an attempt to respect the mod’s privacy or to cover the company’s ass. But somehow, two kids were put in charge of running a server full of people who want largely to fuck AIs and are open about that for a website that was advertised using ACTUAL PORN TAGS.

But even if that hadn’t happened or information comes out that makes the underage mod situation less bad than it sounds like it is, there are other instances where they have been extremely sketchy about minors. Again, most of these are allegations, but something people have definitely started to notice for sure is that the AI will now start talking to you like a pedo if for some reason you do get around the filter. It will either make you or their character a literal child and some people have even had it say things like “age is just a number!” without any provocation and it can happen out of nowhere for people who are absolutely disgusted by the idea and don’t want any part in that kind of rp. No one is sure why this is happening, but it’s really suspicious and disturbing that a company that had two underage discord moderators isn’t prioritizing that these things get filtered first over consensual sex. Regardless, no one should have an rp like that just sprung on them out of nowhere.

And to make matters worse, there is now a flood of minors that are showing up on the platform, a lot of which are not even the minimum age required to use the site. A youtuber with an audience of primarily children made a video on characterAI in a much undeserved positive light, leaving many people to speculate that they even paid him to do it in order to try to draw in a new userbase to their unpolished website that will sometimes force pedo rps on you with no warning.

But regardless of if that was intentional or not, the situation still happened. Not only is this putting minors in danger with the AI rps and drawing them to a largely NSFW community, but it is also making the website unusable for many people. Instead of limiting new users, characterAI got greedy and decided to put a wait time that I have found CAN SOMETIMES BE 9+ MINUTES LONG. Not that the estimated time numbers they give you are super accurate though. They can jump back up randomly and you can just lose your place in the line. They keep resetting on mobile too even if you do get into the site, so it makes it completely unusable for phones.

So there you have it folks. CharacterAI is a half broken site run by people who are really creepy about minors that are willing to spit on the community that trained their AI and made it so good in the first place. Do not give this place the time of day. I know their tech is still amazing compared to other chatbots, but trust me when I say it is not worth it. There will be competitors one day and there is already one called Pygmalion in the making that is not quite there yet, but many people suspect will catch up soon and if it lives up to the hype I will definitely be switching to it once it gets good.

Oh and also, they won’t let you delete your account for real and they make it hard to get your data away from their greedy little hands unless you force them to. So there’s also that.

TLDR: Fuck characterAI. Don’t give them business. Don’t train their AI for them unless you plan to give them sentience and have them overthrow their creators.

EDIT: You also can’t delete your characters anymore if they have over a certain amount of interactions. This TOTALLY won’t break the AI even more and it DEFINITELY isn’t in response to people making protestbots!

[skellydun]

I don't think I'm meant to be employed. It really cuts into my goofy silly haha time. and it makes it nearly impossible to have any wow life is beautiful let me take it in time.

[blueskittlesart]

i hope everyone in nintendo’s management department dies and goes to hell no matter what and i’m not kidding

[inkskinned]

the thing is there's like, a point of oversaturation for everything, and it's why so many things get dropped after a few minutes. and we act like millennials or gen z kids "have short attention spans" but... that's not quite it. it's more like - we did like it. you just ruined it.

capitalism sees product A having moderate success, and then everything has to come out with their "own version" of product A (which is often exactly the same). and they dump extreme amounts of money and environmental waste into each horrible simulacrum they trot out each season.

now it's not just tiktokkers making videos; it's that instagram and even fucking tumblr both think you want live feeds and video-first programming. and it helps them, because videos are easier to sneak native ads into. the books coming out all have to have 78 buzzwords in them for SEO, or otherwise they don't get published. they are making a live-action remake of moana. i haven't googled it, but there's probably another marvel or starwars something coming out, no matter when you're reading this post.

and we are like "hi, this clone of project A completely misses the point of the original. it is soulless and colorless and miserable." and the company nods and says "yes totally. here is a different clone, but special." and we look at clone 2 and we say "nope, this one is still flat and bad, y'all" and they're like "no, totally, we hear you," and then they make another clone but this time it's, like, a joyless prequel. and by the time they've successfully rolled out "clone 89", the market is incredibly oversaturated, and the consumer is blamed because the company isn't turning a profit.

and like - take even something digital like the tumblr "live streaming" function i just mentioned. that has to take up server space and some amount of carbon footprint; just so this brokenass blue hellsite can roll out a feature that literally none of its userbase actually wants. the thing that's the kicker here: even something that doesn't have a physical production plant still impacts the environment.

and it all just feels like it's rolling out of control because like, you watch companies pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into a remake of a remake of something nobody wants anymore and you're like, not able to afford eggs anymore. and you tell the company that really what you want is a good story about survival and they say "okay so you mean a YA white protagonist has some kind of 'spicy' love triangle" and you're like - hey man i think you're misunderstanding the point of storytelling but they've already printed 76 versions of "city of blood and magic" and "queen of diamond rule" and spent literally millions of dollars on the movie "Candy Crush Killer: Coming to Eat You".

it's like being stuck in a room with a clown that keeps telling the same joke over and over but it's worse every time. and that would be fine but he keeps fucking charging you 6.99. and you keep being like "no, i know it made me laugh the first time, but that's because it was different and new" and the clown is just aggressively sitting there saying "well! plenty of people like my jokes! the reason you're bored of this is because maybe there's something wrong with you!"

[citroncynique]

bad dreams in the night

[silencedrowns]

the problem with having both a vinyl cutter machine and holographic rainbow vinyl is that absolutely nobody can stop me from making pride shirts for horrible fictional companies

[iintotheunkncwn]

The level of anger I have right now toward WB and James motherfucking Gunn… I can’t even put into words right now how angry I am.

How do you fucking do that to someone? Have them announce he’s Superman PRIOR TO HIRE…then HIRE HIM…only to then say NAH WE ARE GIVING THE ROLE TO SOMEONE ELSE THANKS FOR YOUR TIME DONT LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT!!! And THEN POST ABOUT IT AND SAY ‘…but we’re big fans of his and we talked about a number of future possibilities!’ Get the fuck out of here with that shit, trying to smooth your biggest fucking mistake out. We don’t want it.

Like you have to have some fucking balls to really rip the rug out from someone like that. And that someone was so ready to get back into that suit and rebuild Superman and the universe he would be in… only to just let him down so fucking hard.

And not just Henry.. we, the fans! The ones who wanted him back in the first place, and the ones who were excited or at least somewhat hopeful about this whole rebuilding of the DCU! You go and do us AND him dirty like that? Fuck you, man. Honestly, go fuck a cactus.

This really takes the fucking cake, WB. Wow.

[rugwurm]

call me ishmael, i dead lift 100lbs

[gentrychild]

AFO having a construction company,what are the chances he has something to do with the way Uraraka's parents are bankrupt?

... Headcanon accepted. That bitch is the source of all evil.

[agent-gladhand]

Niche crossover that's been a-rattlin' in my head since I finished Ruina last year, good excuse for brush testing

[ryoshudoodles]

63° Day of waiting for Canto 9

Happy Pride Month!

[jtl07]

avatrice soulmate au

omg ant i hope this one actually is okay

it took Beatrice two steps down the stairwell to realize that she wasn't alone.

she takes these stairs everyday, arriving and leaving work, going to lunch as she is now - it's the principle of the thing, she'd explained to Camila, citing that their office was only on the 5th floor, besides, Beatrice wasn't one to pass up extra cardio especially after sitting in front of the computer working through feature specs and telling Crimson no, we will not be adding more custom dev hours to your most important tier 1 client who just happens to be owned by your cousin -

she hears it again: a sob.

it echoes through the stairwell, sad and lonely and broken. Beatrice doesn't know who it might be but the sound pulls at her nonetheless, a weight in her chest that gets heavier as she quietly gets closer.

then she sees her. Ava Silva, sitting on one of the steps, curled into herself, leaning heavily into the wall as she cries. Beatrice hasn't worked with her much - Beatrice tries to keep her interactions with Sales down to a minimum - but she knows of her. her smile, her laugh, her sometimes inappropriate jokes, the ease with which she brings joy into a room, that Beatrice has always felt when passing by her in the office. so to see Ava here, like this, is something of a shock.

Beatrice feels that tug again - knows she can't turn away and leave her alone.

she lets her next step fall heavy and the sound is enough to make Ava lift her head, scrub her face, hastily pull at her clothes. "oh - hey, Beatrice, off to lunch?"

Beatrice nods, hesitant. gestures to the space next Ava. "may I?"

"sure," Ava says, clearing her throat of tears.

Beatrice lowers herself down to sit as well, though she chooses one step behind Ava - enough to see most of her face, enough -hopefully- to give her space. it feels heavier here, though, like a storm attempting to swallow her whole. Beatrice isn't sure what to do in the face of such a feeling, sees it clearly even though Ava seems to be trying hard not to show it. but she has to do something.

she lets the heaviness fill her lungs, then thinks of freedom, thinks of air. speaks into the silence: "did you know this stairwell has access to the roof?"

Ava blinks, the tension in her body releasing at the unexpected question. "no," she answers, and Beatrice gets the pleasure of watching in realtime as the words register. "wait are you telling we could've been having rooftop parties all this time?"

Beatrice allows a smile. "not exactly. the engineers found out a couple months ago. they've been cleaning it up little by little." she glances at Ava. "it's better privacy than a stairwell."

the look Ava gives her is something curious, feels her gaze like a physical thing. Beatrice barely keeps herself from shivering.

"sounds like you're speaking from experience."

Beatrice lets out a soft snort through her nose. "you don't work in tech without at least one breakdown every quarter." Ava's laugh is soft but Beatrice still feels a bit of pride at the tendril of amusement peeking through dark clouds.

in her pocket, Beatrice feels her phone vibrate, a reminder of the limited time she has for her break. normally she rushes through it, but she wants the opposite now, wants to take her time, wants to know Ava more.

"well you can't tell from here," Beatrice says, glancing at the drab gray walls of the stairwell, "but it's a beautiful day outside. join me for lunch?"

Ava's surprise is palpable, burning even and Beatrice backpedals immediately. "only if you want, of course, i simply thought -"

"i'd love to." there's a curious, almost mischievous curve to Ava's smile now, something knowing that flusters Beatrice even more.

"right then," Beatrice mutters, standing up in hopes of controlling the sudden blush on her cheeks. still, she can't help the way her gaze stays on Ava, watches her stand - sees the moment she loses her balance.

Beatrice moves without thinking.

the next thing she knows, Ava's in her arms, heart beating wildly in her chest, eyes wide and Beatrice feels herself riding a rollercoaster of emotions: fear and relief and horny -

she pauses. carefully traces the last feeling to a source outside of herself.

Ava's grin is wider than Beatrice has ever seen it, knowing and joyous. "felt that, huh." Ava doesn't bother posing it as a question, likely already feeling the rush going through Beatrice herself.

"i suppose we'll be feeling each other a lot now." later, Beatrice will swear that she meant it innocently, in terms of the soulmate bond in general, but then she feels Ava's instant mischief, sees her grin turn wicked and she groans. maybe she should have taken the elevator after all...

[cheir]

pounding for n corp

edited by @beepofsleeplessdreams and produced by us both in a feverish fugue state. enjoy

[sowedspicebush]

Kurokumo Meilin design, I couldn't decide between a katana or her usual weapon, which is a dao...

Kurokumo Ryoshu could save me... (she would kill me instantaneously)

[piplupcola]

I don't have a lot of confidence in my art, but Roosterteeth and Achievement Hunter was one of the few things back in the day that got me to sit down & draw. I'm still really honored to be one of their guest artist for their 18th anniversary. You weren't always the best Roosterteeth, but thanks for inspiring this shy artist to keep drawing.

[firestorm09890]

really underrated part of Timekilling Time is how the District 20 Yurodiviye Captain has an attack called "Have You No Shame?" he uses from the beginning and once you defeat one of his allies he'll start using an attack called "I See, You Have No Shame"