How Does AI Affect Your Online Shopping?

[Epic Meepo]

This has nothing to do with exclusivity. For example, there's any number of movies or TV shows you can find on several different services a the same time, any of which you may have to pay for, either with money, or your time watching ads, or both.

But, someone might still want to pay for public domain or otherwise unprotected content because of how it is presented. For example, if they don't like reading on electronic devices, they may want a hardcopy, and a mass-market one may be cheaper and better bound than printing it at Kinkos. Or maybe they have a classic of literature that you want in a snazzy leather-bound form.

So, there are reasons. Maybe they don't apply to you, personally, but it is okay for folks to have their reasons.

You are correct that I shouldn't have used the phrase "don't have an exclusive right." That was inaccurate on my part. EDIT: I've edited my previous post to clarify my statement.

As for people having reasons to pay for AI-generated or public domain content, that's certainly fine. My post was an explanation of my answers in the poll, not an argument that other people have to agree with my reasoning for answering the way I did.

It's not always just the content. Would you never buy the book Dracula, for example? Would you never buy a bible or collection of Shakespeare's plays? A Sherlock Holmes novel? They're all public domain.

(Not asking whether you'd choose to buy them based on the subject matter, obviously; merely on the fact that they are public domain. Feel free to substitute for texts/art more to your personal tastes).

Personally? I can't afford a family, a house, a car, a vacation, or board games to play with my friends. Printed copies of public domain content are a luxury I can't realistically include in my budget.

As I mentioned above, though, I've got nothing against people who are willing and able to pay for public domain content. That's not something I can justify for myself, but I'm glad other people can enjoy it.

 

[Umbran]

If the poll results here are typical of most shoppers, I can conclude that most people want companies to disclose their use of AI in their products, but doing so would devalue the product and reduce sales, often on just the principle alone. Consumers still don't want AI-generated products, at any scale, and this is in spite of a massive (and very expensive) years-long marketing campaign.

I'm curious what will happen if product creators can't find a way to make consumers want AI-generated products. Will they stop using it? Will they hide it and hope consumers don't notice/stop caring? Will they remove all other options until consumers have no choice in the matter? Something has to change because the current trajectory isn't sustainable--I'm curious (and a little scared) about what that might look like.

So, current trajectory of the technology as a whole isn't sustainable, unless you accept the vision of a sudden (like, within 5 years) increase in the value generated by the tech on the order of a factor of a hundred - tech companies are spending trillions of dollars, but only getting tens of billions.

That gap is so large that I mostly expect the financial bubble currently supporting it to pop, and the technology as we see it today to founder.

But the tech overall is far broader than the "publishing books" space you are polling about here.

I think, within the gaming-publishing space, the thing will be found to be self-limiting. Yes, at the moment, if you take an individual reader, and individual passages, we can find it hard to tell the difference between genAI content and human-written content.

But, in aggregate, I think the truth will out - on the level of the overall market, I expect a sorting to happen, based on the quality of ideas in the product, rather than upon whether a single paragraph looks like it was written by AI.

 

[The Firebird]

I enjoyed a sketch I saw a few days ago, spoofing the questions people ask writing forums. It presents an author with little experience, who hasn't actually written anything, asking

-how long should my chapters be?
-should I use first or third or even second person? what about tense?
-what should I even write about?

The forum answers, to every question, "if you do it well you can do whatever you want".

I think that applies to AI use. The problem is, it is very easy to not use AI well, and the most visible examples are of people not using it well. It's possible, in principle, that the technology is fundamentally unable to do art/writing/layout well, although I think we've already seen counterexamples in some of those domains.

 

[Distracted DM]

I enjoyed a sketch I saw a few days ago, spoofing the questions people ask writing forums. It presents an author with little experience, who hasn't actually written anything, asking

-how long should my chapters be?
-should I use first or third or even second person? what about tense?
-what should I even write about?

The forum answers, to every question, "if you do it well you can do whatever you want".

I think that applies to AI use. The problem is, it is very easy to not use AI well, and the most visible examples are of people not using it well. It's possible, in principle, that the technology is fundamentally unable to do art/writing/layout well, although I think we've already seen counterexamples in some of those domains.

Ha, that video reminds me of this one my wife sent me a few days ago:

 

[CleverNickName]

So, current trajectory of the technology as a whole isn't sustainable, unless you accept the vision of a sudden (like, within 5 years) increase in the value generated by the tech on the order of a factor of a hundred - tech companies are spending trillions of dollars, but only getting tens of billions.

That gap is so large that I mostly expect the financial bubble currently supporting it to pop, and the technology as we see it today to founder.

But the tech overall is far broader than the "publishing books" space you are polling about here.

I think, within the gaming-publishing space, the thing will be found to be self-limiting. Yes, at the moment, if you take an individual reader, and individual passages, we can find it hard to tell the difference between genAI content and human-written content.

But, in aggregate, I think the truth will out - on the level of the overall market, I expect a sorting to happen, based on the quality of ideas in the product, rather than upon whether a single paragraph looks like it was written by AI.

I agree that eventually the truth will out, as you say. Pointing back to the poll, most people who reject AI are doing so as a matter of principle, with only 14% wanting more information about the product. At present, these products are being dismissed without any consideration of the quality of ideas presented. That's really bad news--I don't know how they can fix that, even within the next 5 years.

(I realize all of this paranoia is my own, and it's based on a single non-scientific poll on EN World. So the picture probably isn't as dire as my imagination is making it out to be...but even so, it's still very bad news.)

 

[Umbran]

I agree that eventually the truth will out, as you say. Pointing back to the poll, most people who reject AI are doing so as a matter of principle, with only 14% wanting more information about the product. At present, these products are being dismissed without any consideration of the quality of ideas presented. That's really bad news--I don't know how they can fix that, even within the next 5 years.

I don't see how it is "bad news".
What's so dire about discovering that genAI products don't go very far in the RPG market?

 

[Morrus]

Personally? I can't afford a family, a house, a car, a vacation, or board games to play with my friends. Printed copies of public domain content are a luxury I can't realistically include in my budget.

That’s not the point. It’s not about what you can afford or even personally desire. It’s about the nature of the product and its value.

 

[TheHand]

Beyond only wanting art and writing designed only by humans - to the point that I would stop buying products from a company using AI for these things - I am bothered by the high environmental and resource cost LLM data centers are inflicting, for what I perceive as very little (if any) benefit.

 

[CleverNickName]

I don't see how it is "bad news".
What's so dire about discovering that genAI products don't go very far in the RPG market?

I meant it's bad news for the economy in general. A lot of people have invested a lot of money in this stuff, and not just within the gaming industry (TTRPGs, video games, all of it.) But you're right, it's not all bad news. I should try to look on the brighter side.

 

[Parmandur]

I don't see how it is "bad news".
What's so dire about discovering that genAI products don't go very far in the RPG market?

I am not shedding any tears for AI startups, but I am nervous about the full economy effects of the bubble bursting.

And like the Dot Com bubble, I do expect some usage of LLM will always be present...bit this is going to be painful for all of us.