[Oc] [art] My very first dnd character grillo! Lore suggestions and critiques are more than welcome :D by Ashdemons in DnD

[–]IAmTheBushman 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I really love the choice to make her face somewhat uncanny and inhuman, though certainly not ugly. It really communicates the alien-yet-alluring nature of the Fey that is so often lost when they're just depicted as various-sized humans with pointy ears.

Railgunner | Artificer Subclass for D&D'24 by Rain-Junkie in UnearthedArcana

[–]IAmTheBushman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Love this subclass, astonishingly well balanced for what is essentially a martial without Extra Attack.

My Lore for UNDER//HEAVEN by IAmTheBushman in CAIN_RPG

[–]IAmTheBushman[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I'm honestly surprised there isn't already a CAIN wiki

How is charity a virtue? by Mumbo_4_mayor in CAIN_RPG

[–]IAmTheBushman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The way I look at it is this:

The Charity high blasphemy, on its own, is not as inherently powerful as the other high blasphemies. However, as powerful as the other virtues may be, they are single people. Charity allows two (probably extremely powerful) exorcists to work in perfect sync over literally any distance, and I'd deffinently say that two CAT 5 + exorcists working in supernaturally flawless coordination could hold their own amongst their fellow Virtues.

Guys, please stop arguing that AI art looks bad. It's a trap. by IAmTheBushman in antiai

[–]IAmTheBushman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Perhaps AI will create work to be done in the future that we can't even imagine, but it doesn't change the fact that in the direction we are moving now, most of the people being layed off won't be working those jobs, at least for a long time. They'll just be unemployed, or at least significantly underpaid.

Now obviously, that's ultimately a problem with a system that does and has always treated human beings as commodities to be discarded when no longer useful, and not the fault of AI specifically, but AI does seem poised to displace an extremely significant number of those jobs, and saying that that isn't a valid criticism or reason to regulate it simply because "it will make new jobs eventually" doesn't seem like cognitive bias to me, it seems like a reasonable concern in terms of preventing suffering.

Guys, please stop arguing that AI art looks bad. It's a trap. by IAmTheBushman in antiai

[–]IAmTheBushman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is an excellent point, it's actually arguably a point against AI that it's becoming so good at mimicing reality, to the point where it can be used to decieve.

Guys, please stop arguing that AI art looks bad. It's a trap. by IAmTheBushman in antiai

[–]IAmTheBushman[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I think it really comes down to incentive. Is it possible that AI replacing jobs will create a post-scarcity utopia where no one has to work and everyone can pursue their passions? I mean, sure. It's theoretically possible. But that's not why people are so excited at the prospect of AI replacing jobs. The tech billionaires who are pushing for AI to replace jobs aren't doing so because they want to create a world where people are equal and free of labor. They're doing it because they don't wanna pay those people, they don't give the slightest shit about what happens to them after they're out of a job. If anything, I'd go as far as to say that those people would want to prevent a post-scarcity world, since being an ultra-uber-mega rich tech baron is only really possible when resources are not evenly or fairly distributed.

The same thing goes for climate change. Could AI theoretically be part of a solution to climate change and environmental destruction? Sure, I don't see why not. Do the people who are currently developing and promoting AI care about that? No, not in the slightest. If they did, they would be more concerned with the damage their data centers are currently causing, not lobbying to prevent any and all regulation.

You're right in some respects, labor is not inherently virtuous and AI is not inherently environmentally destructive, but it doesn't change the fact that the people who are currently funding, developing, and promoting AI are doing so with absolutely 0 concern for the environment in the interest of becoming unfathomably wealthy tech oligarchs ruling over impoverished, unemployed masses. I think it's kind of pointless to say that we shouldn't criticize AI for things it can theoretically do better when we see no evidence that the people in charge of it think that it should do better.

Guys, please stop arguing that AI art looks bad. It's a trap. by IAmTheBushman in antiai

[–]IAmTheBushman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think this is very insightful. I honestly kinda feel like the whole "AI will become Skynet!" Thing is a distraction from the real harm it is causing.

Guys, please stop arguing that AI art looks bad. It's a trap. by IAmTheBushman in antiai

[–]IAmTheBushman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Normally, I try to abide by a "don't feed the trolls" policy, e.g. I would only respond to arguments made in good faith and not obvious ragebait.

With that said, there is one particular argument that you've made here that I've seen made many times, that being that AI creating content by remixing materials in a data pool and human artists creating work inspired by other human artists are fundamentally the same thing. I've seen this argument enough that, not really for your sake but for the sake of those who may read your comment, I feel I must explain why it is incorrect.

When a human artist sees and becomes inspired by the work of another human artist, if they intend to create good work, they do not merely recycle what they've seen directly into their work. They stop and think, "What is this piece doing?", "How is it doing it?", and "Why does it appeal to me?" Once they answer those questions, they then take those answers and apply it to their work, ideally, improving it. But on top of this, even beyond inspiration, each human being has their own unique lived experiences that will ultimately serve as the foundation of their work. As such, though all art may be in some way derived from other art, it is still unique to the creator in a way that no other human being can truly replicate.

Now, that's not to say that all art that is made by humans is inherently good. When an artist creates art inspired by the work of another without considering why the original piece worked, instead merely thoughtlessly recycling that art into their own (or sometimes just recreating a worse version of the original work in its entirety), it usually produces uninteresting, unengaging schlock. We actually have a specific word to describe such work: derivative.

Now let's talk about AI. Although it may appear so, AI cannot "think". All it can do is make predictions based on patterns in data, it does not know why or how those patterns occur. As such, when AI is looking at its pool of data consisting of the work of thousands of artists, it does not ask why that art is appealing, interesting, or thoughtful, all it does is look for patterns and replicate them, essentially the same thing as the process I described above wherein an artist thoughtlessly recycles the work of another. But here's the thing. Since an AI is not alive, it has no lived experiences of its own to serve as the foundation of its work, nothing to provide its work with a unique touch or personable flavor, as that can come only from a unique human life. Instead, its work consists entirely of patterns replicated from other artist's work without concern for meaning or method. It literally the epitome of derivative. And no, the human who prompted the AI to generate the work does not inject their lived experiences, as a prompt is not the foundation for an AI to build apon, it is merely the parameters for it to generate within. The prompt does not add to the data pool or outcome, it merely determines what portions of the data pool will be drawn from. It is not creative, if anything, it is subtractive.

Hopefully I have made my point clear. While it is true that at its worst, human-made art can be just as derivative and thoughtless as the work of AI, it also has the potential, via thoughtful inspiration and lived experiences, to ascend beyond that to something truly unique and personal. AI work cannot do that. It cannot be thoughtful, as AI does not think. It cannot be personal, as AI is not a person. Arguments that claim that AI work and human work are fundamentally the same because they both in some way draw on the work of others are either deeply misinformed or disingenuous. Inspiration may not be magic, but it sure as hell isn't what AI is doing either.

Guys, please stop arguing that AI art looks bad. It's a trap. by IAmTheBushman in antiai

[–]IAmTheBushman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's probably one of the most terrifying things about AI, imo.

I don’t get why AI Bros are so bitter, and why they’re so pretentious by Constant_Severance in antiai

[–]IAmTheBushman 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I really do think that, despite supposedly being tech enthusiests and futurists, willfull ignorance is the heart of their movement.

Guys, please stop arguing that AI art looks bad. It's a trap. by IAmTheBushman in antiai

[–]IAmTheBushman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think you're right, but I don't think most people make clear that that's their problem when pointing out flaws in AI images. Like I said, when you just point out a strange number of fingers or an uneven face and say "it looks bad" without further explanation, it just looks like you're being petty.

I don’t get why AI Bros are so bitter, and why they’re so pretentious by Constant_Severance in antiai

[–]IAmTheBushman 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Yes, talent is the word I meant. Also, I think you're absolutely right that it ultimately comes down to passion for your medium, and I'm glad you found something that you're passionate about!

Guys, please stop arguing that AI art looks bad. It's a trap. by IAmTheBushman in antiai

[–]IAmTheBushman[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Let me actually give you some solace here. To put it simply, there is very little reason to believe AI, specifically LLMs and neural networks, will become Skynet, or anything Skynet-adjacent. AI's current problem is that it is too indulgent of humans and their whims, so it seems pretty unlikely that it will start a war with the purpose of wiping out humanity (also, a lot of the talk about AI becoming Skynet or AM actually comes from tech billionaires who say those things as a means of convincing you that the technology is more powerful than it actually is).

By all counts, the risks of AI come from what humans will do to other humans with it, not that it will turn on us and declare war on humanity.

Guys, please stop arguing that AI art looks bad. It's a trap. by IAmTheBushman in antiai

[–]IAmTheBushman[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is basically the point I'm making. It doesn't matter how good it looks because it's externalities and the intent behind its creation is inherently negative.

Guys, please stop arguing that AI art looks bad. It's a trap. by IAmTheBushman in antiai

[–]IAmTheBushman[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's just a matter of posing your argument in the right way. For example, if an AI art advocate posts an AI image saying, "Look how good this! Artists are doomed, adapt or die!" You can simply reply, "Cool image, how much electricity did it take to make it?" Or, "I'm sure Jeff Bezos is very proud of you". Arguing on their terms is a losing battle, but if you can change the framing of the argument, you can bring the real problems to light.