How Does AI Affect Your Online Shopping?

[GrimCo]

But say I wrote a gaming supplement. I don’t have money to buy good art. I just don’t. My ideas and product is solid otherwise. What if AI is the only way I can get eyes on what I made and importantly, the only way I will get paid for what I made?

One alternative is finding artist that likes your work and is wiling to partner up. You provide text, he provides art. You share both risk and reward. If product succeeds - you both get paid, if it fails, you both don't get paid.

Personally, i think AI is slightly better than doing things like hiring real artist from underdeveloped 3rd world country that's willing to work for very cheap.

 

[thirdkingdom]

It's OK to not be able to afford things we want. That is life. But the answer isn't to do something unethical in order to get it. The answer is that you have to go without it until you can afford it.

Do a Kickstarter to pay for art. There are easy answers to this problem which don't involve dodgy ethics.

You contribute to the machinery that steals from real human artists and drives them out of business by regurgitating their work. You couldn't afford the luxury of art to adorn your product. They now can't afford to eat because nobody is hiring them.

If your business can't operate without exploiting people, your business should not exist.

(I realise this is all hypothetical but you presented it as a hypothetical "I" so I responded with a hypothetical "you".).

There are some other intriguing methods for raising funds for art, as well. I've seen a number of projects "slow-funding" on itch (and a few on Drivethru), that are released in an early, ashcan edition, with set goals to commission art, editing, and layout. There are a few smaller distributors, as well, that are funding publication of indie products. Plus One Exp is the main one that I'm thinking of; they've got a monthly zine subscription specifically designed to get new and/small authors into print, and they do a lot to prioritize marginalized authors, as well. I know that a lot of folks don't like the Kickstarter model, or are intimidated by it, but there are ways outside of AI to put out a decent product.

 

[Incenjucar]

I have strong feelings about royalty-only deals. The artist's labour only gets rewarded if your marketing works, a thing beyond their control. A fair advance makes that much more palatable.

I fully agree, but at least the artist consented to the dubious deal - and surely Asmodeus' would approve.

 

[Belen]

I generally don’t like AI products or art. My kids claim to be able to detect it. I will never like it better than the human made article.

But say I wrote a gaming supplement. I don’t have money to buy good art. I just don’t. My ideas and product is solid otherwise. What if AI is the only way I can get eyes on what I made and importantly, the only way I will get paid for what I made?

Does it avoid paying the real human artist? I don’t know for sure since I could not afford them and was not able to pay them if I wanted to.

I don’t particularly like AI products. I am not happy about what I believe AI will ultimately cause…

But

I don’t think the ethics are quite as clear cut regarding AI products as some people do. It’s not all easy answers for me.

Try to sell it to a publisher with resources to source proper art and editing.

Everyone is trying to make it themselves thinking they will make money and it just feels like there is an overwhelming glut of content.

 

[Gorgon Zee]

Content Authenticity Initiative

Join the movement for content authenticity and provenance. The CAI is a global community promoting adoption of the C2PA Content Credentials standard.

contentauthenticity.org

Ah, it's entirely voluntary? So it just takes one bad actor to make a device which doesn't embed your code, and all the scammers will use it?

An analogy might be the Certified Humane stamps that get placed on food. If you care about the issue, you check for the stamp.

The goal is not to ensure that all content is authentic, but to provide a mechanism for those who care to identify that it is authentic. If this initiative get enough weight, I'd expect a browser plug-in to be available that would simply tag images, so I could look at the pictures in my bonsai newsgroup and be able to admire the actual bonsais rather than try and work out if it's fake or not.

I believe that currently the group are focusing on applications in sensitive areas, such as forensics and journalism, where there is a very high interest in ensuring image integrity. That's certainly the way Leica seem to be positioning their M11-P's.

 

[LordEntrails]

Now as this poll shows, consumers clearly don't want AI-generated products: most people reject it purely on principle, and absolutely nobody believes it adds any value

As @Tea Cozy pointed out, this poll really doesn't do more than represent those views of those active here at ENWorld. And I think we've already agreed (countless other threads) that we don't represent the TTRPG community all that well. We are just a small niche of a small community.

Do a Kickstarter to pay for art.

This is actually a useful idea and suggestion. Why didn't anyone suggest that pages ago? I know it may seem obvious, but I actually had not even though of it as a possibility for my adventure. I'm going to have to look into it.

Personally, i think AI is slightly better than doing things like hiring real artist from underdeveloped 3rd world country that's willing to work for very cheap.

I don't understand this view. How is not paying a third world country artist a reasonable solution?

There are some other intriguing methods for raising funds for art, as well. I've seen a number of projects "slow-funding" on itch (and a few on Drivethru), that are released in an early, ashcan edition, with set goals to commission art, editing, and layout.

This is another possibility I wasn't even aware of. Are the successful? Could you point to some examples I could get more information from?

Everyone is trying to make it themselves thinking they will make money and it just feels like there is an overwhelming glut of content.

I think it depends on the system. There are plenty of RPG systems that lack content. Most folks want a bite of the big gorilla (D&D etc) and publish for it. But there are plenty of smaller RPGs to publish for that need content.

 

[Umbran]

That’s…pretty awful. We had that cartridge, and while it was decent- especially for the time- it really wasn’t the strongest player.

Here's another one, from the National Weather Service...

The hallucination is the manifestation of a machine that is best at giving things that look like facts, rather than actual facts...

 

[thirdkingdom]

As @Tea Cozy pointed out, this poll really doesn't do more than represent those views of those active here at ENWorld. And I think we've already agreed (countless other threads) that we don't represent the TTRPG community all that well. We are just a small niche of a small community.

This is actually a useful idea and suggestion. Why didn't anyone suggest that pages ago? I know it may seem obvious, but I actually had not even though of it as a possibility for my adventure. I'm going to have to look into it.

I don't understand this view. How is not paying a third world country artist a reasonable solution?

This is another possibility I wasn't even aware of. Are the successful? Could you point to some examples I could get more information from?

I think it depends on the system. There are plenty of RPG systems that lack content. Most folks want a bite of the big gorilla (D&D etc) and publish for it. But there are plenty of smaller RPGs to publish for that need content.

The most recent slow-funded project I can think of is Colin le Sueur's Midnight of the Century (a love song to late 90s murder mysteries in the Pacific Northwest) on itch (he's the guy who wrote We Deal in Lead and Runecairn). He's super responsive and I'm sure would be happy to talk to you about it. Luke Gearing did an interesting form of fundraising on itch for his well-received Wolves Upon the Coast hexcrawl; he released it in increments, raising the cost with each release. So, if you got in early you got everything he had written up to that point, plus all the future releases. It just encouraged people to buy it in advance. I know at least one person did a slow-funding campaign on Drivethru, but I'd have to do a dive through the Roundup to find it.

EDIT: I think running a KS to pay for editing and art is a perfectly cromulent use of the platform. I'm assuming you've been selling on Drivethru, so you can leverage their reach to promote the product. Reach out to a sales rep and they can set up an email blast to everyone who has purchased one of your titles and has agreed to receiving emails (provided you include the "fulfilled by Drivethru" logo on the KS page. Hit me up if you've got any questions.

 

[Bae'zel]

Sure AI can look great. But if it is the end product, and not just used by creatives as a shortcut to make early drafts, it's definitely comes across as low effort and is intrinsically less valuable to me.

Writing prompts and selling the output more or less "raw" is worthless to me.

Using AI as any other tool to speed along production, but the end product is entirely human made? No problem.

 

[Tea Cozy]

Here's another one, from the National Weather Service...

The hallucination is the manifestation of a machine that is best at giving things that look like facts, rather than actual facts...

It’s a shame because meteorologists are now concerned that public trust will erode in regards to computer models actually used in weather forecasting. ETA: machine learning models different than the generative AI used to create the graphic.

Will "AI Slop" derail a potential revolution in weather forecasting?

NWS issues with AI generated graphics raises concerns. In weather, record warmth feeds risks of severe weather and flash flooding.

balancedweather.substack.com