WotC Would you buy WotC products produced or enhanced with AI?

[Kurotowa]

Hard no, for two reasons. One is moral and the other is practical.

Morally, these LLM databases are built on stolen works. I'm potentially joining a class action suit against Facebook because they used a pirate book trove that included my parent's works. None of these things works without the enormous data sets to train on, and nearly every one of them is just mass stealing works.

Practically, their output quality is trash. The evangelists speak of a magical tomorrow where genius AIs do all our labor for free, but today these glorified chatbots turn out gibberish with no guiding narrative intent disguised as art. I certainly wouldn't want to use it, and I absolutely wouldn't pay for it.

 

[Distracted DM]

I'm going to assume this is some kind of comedy/sarcasm/satire.

I don't think so, but it's hard to tell over text.

 

[ECMO3]

No. I will not support any commercial product made using the plagiarism machines.

It is a safe bet the computer or tablet you typed this on uses software based on code originally stolen from Xerox.

 

[ECMO3]

Hi folks! I am curious about what would be a dealbreaker for people who buy WotC products.

I see a lot of talk on social media about “AI” being used to make WotC products sooner or later.

Now I am curious: if you knew a product was the direct result of the recent public tools often referred to as AI, would you buy it?

To be more exact, by this I mean that the final product has content that was generated with an “AI” tool and did not get touched or edited by a designer, artist or editor in any way to become the final product.

The art from one of the artists in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants had art that was rendered with one of the first public tools that could do this. This meant he artist made the design, but used AI to make the details. I would call this using AI to make art, in this situation.

Whatever answer you give, feel free to explain your view on the matter, but please refrain from calling each other out. I know this can be a hot topic, but I am genuinely curious about your personal view.

I voted yes. Absolutely I would use all I could get. Aside from the fact it is legal, I also think it is entirely ethical, even if it is a direct copy.

Personally, I think the whole concept of "intellectual property" is flawed. I don't think people or corporations should be allowed to "own" ideas. I realize most on this forum disagree with me, but that is my strongly held opinion on the matter.

I also think historically plagiarism has greatly benefitted society. Our largest and biggest successes are typically things "stolen" from one person or corporation and improved by another to the point they became ubiquitous products for the masses instead of toys for the filthy rich. Examples include airplanes, cars, microprocessors, software .....

Finally, let's not forget that the game of D&D itself is heavily plagiarised from Tolkein.

 

[Sulicius]

I think these types of threads are going to seem very quaint in a few years.

Why? Do you think we won’t have a choice but to buy TTRPG books with AI generated content?

As long as there is a market for people who buy things based on their ethics, I think we’ll be able to buy things for humans by humans. Think of it as fairtrade products or soy-based meat replacements.

 

[Stormonu]

I'm already using AI for art (my own sucks) and have used it to help get past writer's block or as an editor to things I've already written out.

Would I buy a WotC product with AI? Well, yes - I already have a paper copy of Bigby's after all. But I think the quality of it would have to be a lot better than now and that's going to require humans at the helm to sort the chaff from the wheat.

As for everyday AI, I hate the predictive text in Outlook. It rarely "predicts" what I'm writing next and if I could just turn it off, I would.

 

[Charlaquin]

It is a safe bet the computer or tablet you typed this on uses software based on code originally stolen from Xerox.

Ok...?

 

[Sulicius]

Just going to point out that spelling and grammer checker is a form of AI. So i am sure everyone already bought D&D products where AI was used.

So we are already past the question of if, and are now onto the question of how much.

Also, AI will get better.

Sure, and I know there’s a huge gray area. I believe we vote with our wallets, and WotC might miss over 50% of their market if the people with strong convictions stick to their guns.

 

[mamba]

Just going to point out that spelling and grammer checker is a form of AI.

no it isn't, a calculator is not AI either

 

[Chaltab]

I've already been abstaining from WOTC products since the OGL Crisis so it would just reinforce my decision to keep supporting third party stuff. As long as it was also made by actual humans.