NOTE: I am NOT defending AI or it’s usage or anything like that. So just tie that horse right back up at the kitchen sink. I don’t like the whole AI thing. This post is not about AI.
I get that it was necessary at first, but now whenever there’s any hint of AI, there’s a great chorus of everyone saying the same thing ‘AI slop bla bla bla’ like a gaggle of sheep jerking their knees.
It’s not fucking helpful. It only sows even more division among the peasants, while the oligarchs take zero notice and continue on as usual. The correct way to engage with AI content you don’t like is just not at all.
Examples:
Recently I watched as a post for a community event was removed, because it had an AI image. The image was not requested or created by the organiser, it was provided to them, and had information in several languages. But the post was removed because AI slop and now there is less human connection happening. Yay. Well fucking done. You literally are helping the AI overlords now.
I’ve seen many actual legit digital artists getting hit with the cries of AI slop and even banned, when they have been making art for years before AI was even a thing. People actually can’t tell the difference half the time when they think they can, and end up hurting real artists.
Now is not the time to be attacking each other over using AI to generate some stupid meme. There are much, MUCH bigger issues at stake right now, and calling everything AI slop does nothing to help.
/rant
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“Don’t confuse slop with legitimately useful content just because some part of it was created with AI tools.”
Fuck off with this purity test bullshit. Whatever happened to inclusivity? Acceptance? Removing gatekeeping? Now gatekeeping is 100% acceptable if it’s a gate you personally don’t like?
Now gatekeeping is 100% acceptable if it’s a gate you personally don’t like?
yes. humans are inherently contrary. now pick a side.
No. Stop being an absolutist loon. Be better than the screaming chimps. Use that prefrontal cortex and put down the fist full of feces.
Block and move on.
I’ve seen many actual legit digital artists getting hit with the cries of AI slop and even banned, when they have been making art for years before AI was even a thing. People actually can’t tell the difference half the time when they think they can, and end up hurting real artists.
Not just artists. There seems to grow a kind of AI paranoia that suspects AI everywhere. Benign posts that are a little longer than usual or use a uncommon word: AI SLOP!!!1!!!1. Maybe the poster is just a non-native speaker or neurodivergent. I agree to most reasons to hate AI but calling it out everytime there is just the slightest hint is annoying at least
I got called a bot once because I used bullet points in a comment.
Kind of how like biological women are being called out for being trans when they’re in the women’s restroom because everyone’s so worked out about it.
It is very similar to that.
Your disclaimer is false. You said the post isn’t about AI but it’s entirely about AI. Because look, we all know that there’s a backlash against AI. We all know that if you’re planning an event, you probably shouldn’t use AI if you aren’t ready to piss off people who don’t like it… That’s the reality. Now, you could wish that reality were different, but it’s not a big burden to say hey, don’t have AI make the poster, just make it yourself. It’s really not that hard.
Now, you also mentioned people who were accused of using AI when they didn’t. Of course, that’s not cool… But this is not a problem of reactions to AI. It’s a problem of not fact checking. And if you came here telling us that people should fact-check better, or properly, than I think everyone would agree with you.
In summary, I think your post does the opposite of what you claim you want it to do. You don’t want people to be divisive, but you’ve intentionally created a divisive set of guidelines. And then you’ve told people to shut up but you know they’re not going to which means you’re just looking for an argument… I guess this entire strategy bores me.
But you posted in the right place, so it’s all good.
Now, you could wish that reality were different, but it’s not a big burden to say hey, don’t have AI make the poster, just make it yourself. It’s really not that hard.
What the flog is wrong with having AI make a poster as long as it’s reasonably clean, professional, and free of slop content? Indeed, much of what AI can do in those situations is little more than automation acting on PhotoShop-like sets of tools.
Make all the AI content you want, says I, but here’s a tip-- don’t make it obvious that AI was used in its production. Bam, problem solved.
If it uses one of the online services, then it’s a problem (environment, water etc).
You could somewhat make that argument for local models. But not many people are going to have any conception of that
Metrics are needed. Based on an article that Rimu shared a few days ago, I didn’t get the impression that stuff like simple graphics work needed for a poster particularly added much strain.
There’s also the simple fact that it’s too late to be herding cats on this one. Most people who’ve gotten used to using AI for various tasks aren’t going to give it up very easily. While I agree that it can be useful to talk up and spread the word about the destructiveness of AI costs, that energy and pressure ultimately needs to be funneled to lawmakers in order to draft and pass appropriate legislation.
It’s also an issue that every person that complains about AI has absolutely no fucking idea what it is, how it works, how to differentiate different models/forms, or even why it’s a special unique technology that is inherently bad. Unlike things like alcohol, X-rays, methamphetamines, gunpowder, oil, nuclear, mining, farming, etc, etc, that are only harmful when used/done wrong.
…has absolutely no fucking idea what it is…
I don’t understand how that could be at this point, but it would help explain the paranoia. To me, there’s a huge difference between a simple, clean, low-cost use-case in which little or no trace of AI tools is detected, versus obvious AI slop media, versus having an LLM do extensive programming which winds up being filled with spaghetti code and whatever inefficiencies. The latter two involving a tonne more queries and tokens used.
It’s all the same thing to a lot of people, I guess.
Because it has become a purity signal and tribal call rather than an actual coherent position. I’ve seen people get angry at researchers using AI to develop new drugs, and novel bacteriophages. I’ve seen people get angry at “AI” in word processing and image editing, claiming there’s no difference between ChatGPT and the algorithms than have been used for decades.
There is such a idiotic mix-up between the horrible corruption of OpenAI, and the term “AI” itself, that morons with no understanding of anything are waving torches and grabbing pitchforks at the word itself, without any comprehension of what they’re angry at.
Yeah, I guess that pretty-well covers it. Well said!
the horrible corruption of OpenAI
Not totally sure what you mean, there. I do use GPT a lot for complex searches, rarely anything else.
that energy and pressure ultimately needs to be funneled to lawmakers in order to draft and pass appropriate legislation.
100% agree
It’s not about AI, it’s about people’s reactions to AI slop.
Now is not the time to be attacking each other
Fair point. How are we going to pull ourselves together and rise up against the ones causing actual societal damage?
The anti AI slop crowd needs to shut the fuck up
Ah, yeah that’ll help. Call everyone sheep and make them sound stupid while you’re at it.
make them sound stupid while you’re at it.
Oh, the mob does that perfectly on its own. They are really quite good at it. Definitely better than accurately spotting AI things.
Good point. Being even more condescending will unite us and encourage cooperation!
Finally an actually unpopular opinion. Angry upvote. AI slop needs to die and I will not shut up
PieFed users: if you don’t want to see any AI generated images, go to https://piefed.social/user/settings/filters and set the “AI-generated posts” setting accordingly. Also if you see a slop image without an ‘AI’ tag, report it.
No need to abuse the poster about it.
https://piefed.social/c/piefed_meta@piefed.social/p/2304120/piefed-1-7-12-detects-ai-generated-images
Also if you see a slop image without an ‘AI’ tag, report it.
How does one know if it’s an AI image?
AI images include some special metadata in the file. It works sometimes!
Some AI providers add that metadata, yes. It’s what piefed searches for with its automatic filters. But metadata can be stripped, or not added at all in the first place.
My avatar image is AI-generated, for example. I did it using local AI models, edited it with image editing tools, converted formats, and so forth. I doubt it’s got anything the automated filters would recognize on it. If I didn’t tell you its pedigree would you know to report it? What if it actually isn’t AI generated after all, how can your report be tested for accuracy? That’s the sort of problem that OP is calling out here.
it doesnt need to catch 100% of cases
False positives are fine?
Some artist spends days working on some bit of art, posts it, gets the scarlet letters “AI” hung around their neck and now they not only have that particular post taken down they’re a “suspect” from then onward.
Yes it is fine. Posting is not a critical thing. If its falsely flagged they can submit a report to the mods to get it removed and everyone continues living.
Ah yes, mods are famously level-headed and will take the word of the person objecting to their actions. Same with the general commenter population of art communities.
When automated detection fails then it’s up to people to manually report it and mods / admins to manually apply the label.
I was talking about screening and reporting posts and you’ve moved to profile pics for some reason?
When automated detection fails then it’s up to people to manually report it and mods / admins to manually apply the label.
Which is not reliable, and which therefore leads to the witch-hunting problem.
Whether an image actually is AI and whether some random person thinks it “looks” AI are not always in alignment. Especially considering that “is AI” has shades of grey too, given that lots of images are made using AI tools for only some aspects. And even “AI tool” is open to interpretation.
I was talking about screening and reporting posts and you’ve moved to profile pics for some reason?
It was just an example of an AI-generated image that I could point to that I’m quite sure doesn’t have any special metadata attached to it. If for no other reason than I generated it years ago.
dont blame the anti-slop crowd for the problems created by the stupid jerks destroying our only livable planet for profit
it’s OUR fault that the dogshit that is getting plastered everywhere is causing a backlash?
unpopular for sure, despite its thoughtlessness, have an upvote
You’ve missed the point of the post.
sorry
Upvoted for very unpopular opinion.
Yes, let’s just ignore all the bad things happening around us. Great idea.
Not ignore, find better ways to deal with it.
Well you could instead say something like, “You shouldn’t use AI for images, it massively harms the environment and has a huge societal cost that we will all pay.”
Engage with the person, not the content. That’s far more effective.
Those examples you mentioned of unfair and undesired outcomes after witch-hunting AI slop are legitimately unfortunate. Very clear cases where we should pick our battles and not be overly confident in our identification of slop. I agree fully on that.
But if people are posting slop that they explicitly or implicitly pose as their own work, just for our simple viewing, then most people are going to take a stand. We don’t want that stuff. 👍🫶
To summarize, I grant that I don’t fully disagree with your original post.
Take care!
While I agree in spirit, I think when it’s been shoved down our throats as aggressively as it has been for the past few years while nobody asked for it, a similarly radical reaction in the opposite direction is only natural. Fuck AI.
Yes, but the reaction shouldn’t be to antagonise other people
Feels like MLK’s quote fits right here
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice
We do need tension, but not between us peasants, it needs to be between us and legislators/oligarchs.
btw, the way you keep calling everyone a peasent is really not helping your case imho xD
I dislike it too, but I strongly disagree, ai slop is much worse and you have to be loud because of how strongly it is forced upon us.
Be loud about why it’s bad
It undermines human effort and is generally spam, maybe we have different experiences but I’ve heard that to death already, which is why it’s annoying to me.
nah, fuck ai and anyone who uses it
If we cannot stop the infighting, the machines have already won.
Ok, but you’re saying AI is a problem, but we shouldn’t call it out along with other issues? Nah, we’ll call out whats slop: slop.
Overall you’re saying it’s not actually about AI but it’s literally feeling pro ai, and none of us are conformists, especially when it comes from horrendous shit/actions to individual instigators.
Well you could instead say something like, “You shouldn’t use AI for images, it massively harms the environment and has a huge societal cost that we will all pay.” Engage with the person, not the content. That’s far more effective.
Ok so if you’re adamant on that point, why wouldn’t you be mad/call that out? You’re having to suffer because of people’s stupid choices. /neutral /genuine question
Well, I am stumped.
Do I downvote this because I disagree, thus telling OP that it isn’t an unpopular opinion, or do I upvote the post because it is an unpopular opinion?
You upvote if you disagree, and upvote if you think it is an unpopular opinion. Downvote if you agree
What if you agree, but think it is an unpopular opinion?
If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it’s something that’s widely accepted, give it an arrow down.
Downvoted because I agree.
If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it’s something that’s widely accepted, give it an arrow down.
