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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dire Bare" data-source="post: 9872377" data-attributes="member: 18182">To me, there is a difference between physical products made by hand versus products made in a factory, possibly involving robots . . . and AI tools that replace humans doing creative and thinking work.Either way, humans are automated to some degree, industries are disrupted, and folks lose jobs. Life, in some ways gets more convenient . . . but most often the bosses gain economically while the masses are forced to struggle and adjust.AI has a lot of promise as human assistance for a lot of tasks . . . but Silicon Valley is pushing AI as a way to replace workers altogether. That's bad enough in "thinking" industries, where we use our brains rather than our hands, but there is something existensally wrong with AI-generated art replacing artists.I will continue to use the term AI slop because most AI-generated art at this point is slop. It is of poor quality. Of course, there has always been human slop, human-generated art that is of low quality, but having a robot create art takes things to a new level. As AI tools get better . . . will AI-generated art get better? Probably, maybe, I hope not . . .And of course, it is a term of anger. Anger towards the oligarchs in Silicon Valley who only care about progress and profit, and not so much about people. The problems you mention are real. The term AI slop denigrates the tech companies that make the AI tools, but also the folks willing to use those tools, and the folks who are just fine with the product of those tools.But you know . . . I'm okay with that. I do have a problem with those who use AI-gen art to cut corners, save money, and cut out real artist partners. I do have a problem with folks who aren't just fine with AI art, but even really enjoy "creating" with the tools just for fun. There are bigger problems and larger evils in the world, but the acceptance of AI-generated art is a problem that might have devastating impacts on the creativity and artistic output of humans.If you are cool with AI-gen art, or are even really into it as a tech-forward person . . . do I think you are an "uncultured snob"? No, but the attitude does bother me. In a similar way that folks with certain political beliefs that differ from mine bother me. I can still be friends (and family) with those folks, I can still respect, admire, and love them . . . but the part of them that votes "wrong" or is okay with AI-gen art, I'm not cool with that aspect and I worry that their beliefs will further erode our quality of life.And as an aside . . . factory automation versus handmade goods . . . sometimes I think that has brought more problems than benefit to society. It would be nice, at least in some ways, if we could go back. But we can't, at least not until the zombie apocalypse.EDIT: I'm going to add in an example, but keep things vague. There is an actor and activist that I've long respected and admired and I follow on social media. The guy is older, and continues to have a healthy career both in Hollywood and as an activist. He has started posting recently (or at least, I started noticing) AI-generated still and video images for various political and social issues he has long supported. It's killing me. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" /> I still admire and respect him as an actor and activist, but now that is mixed in with frustration and disappointment. Is he "uncultured" or uncaring about the ethics of AI-gen art? Or just unaware, ironically as an artist himself, of the harm? I still love the guy, still a fan. But, I'm also disappointed and it's going to color the next time I see him on the big screen.</blockquote>

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