GasBandit
Staff member
Yeah, the apps especially are really hit or miss. Most of them are just quick-buck shovelware. That goes for most mobile apps in general, actually, come to think of it.
A.I. is B.S.
- Thread starter ThatNickGuy
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None of these are ideal, and the dino is not exactly a tyrannosaur. But I'd likely stop here and spend 5 minutes photoshopping the dinosaur from the upper right onto the clinton on the upper left, and call it a day. Otherwise, I'd burn up all my monthly quota looking for perfection. Like so:
I make a lot of AI art for fun and friends. I'm on a subscription plan with MidJourney.
No AI is ideal at making multiple subjects in one shot. In all honesty, if i were doing this for a project and I wanted to spend real time on it, I'd make the clinton/pizza image first (because they turned out pretty good) and then make a 2nd image of a tyrannosaur bending over with a spatula in their hand. Being a single subject, I expect I could tease out good results. And then I'd photoshop the two together. For most of my "real" projects, i spend much more time in photoshop afterwards than I spend in the AI getting base results.
No AI is ideal at making multiple subjects in one shot. In all honesty, if i were doing this for a project and I wanted to spend real time on it, I'd make the clinton/pizza image first (because they turned out pretty good) and then make a 2nd image of a tyrannosaur bending over with a spatula in their hand. Being a single subject, I expect I could tease out good results. And then I'd photoshop the two together. For most of my "real" projects, i spend much more time in photoshop afterwards than I spend in the AI getting base results.
GasBandit
Staff member
Having flashbacks to producing HFA videos. 2 hours of game footage, 2 weeks of Adobe Premiere.
these are composite images...made the costumed kids first, and then made a bunch of cutesy dragons and chose the ones I wanted to use for the photos.
Some trashy German magazine published an AI-generated "interview" with Michael Schumacher.
If you're not aware, he's a racing driver who suffered a severe head injury in a skiing accident in 2013. I hope the Schumachers sue this rag out of existence.
If you're not aware, he's a racing driver who suffered a severe head injury in a skiing accident in 2013. I hope the Schumachers sue this rag out of existence.
GasBandit
Staff member
GasBandit
Staff member
figmentPez
Staff member
GasBandit
Staff member
Here's a rare instance of AI being a good thing. Atmos, my local natural gas company, has started using AI to generate personalized videos for every customer to go over their bill for them. What could have been a production that literally would have taken hundreds of thousands of hours doubtlessly took far, far less by a machine combining existing Language, Text, Voice, and Video algorithms, and helped deliver pertinent, accurate information (bill, balance, payment status, etc) in an easy-to-understand, well-produced format. I can see this being extremely useful for older customers or people who go crosseyed looking at dense forms (which I have to admit is sometimes me, especially around tax time).
GasBandit
Staff member
The number of shit eating grins I've had to endure while people ask me if I'm worried that an AI is going to take my programming job over the last few months... whuf, I tell ya.
But now I'm gonna start coming back with, "You know who it would REALLY make the most sense to replace with AI? The C-levels."
But now I'm gonna start coming back with, "You know who it would REALLY make the most sense to replace with AI? The C-levels."
figmentPez
Staff member
The Rise and Fall of Replika, If you're not familiar with Sarah Z, she makes some well researched videos, mostly on subjects I no interest, or only tangential interest in. Thus I don't watch everything she does, but I always enjoy when I do, because she writes a much better script for her episodes than most YouTubers. Minimal repetition, well organized thoughts, good use of humor, and solid delivery of it all.
Anyway, this is a video about a sex chat bot:
Anyway, this is a video about a sex chat bot:
GasBandit
Staff member
"The moral of Replika is not to never love a fictional character or virtual pet, the moral of Replika is to never love a corporation."
Well put.
It also underscores the massive drawbacks of Software as a Service. As Sarah said, these people were sold a service in January that required them to pay for a full year up front, then had the primary function that had been advertised to them yanked in February. Opinions on the nature of that service aside, it illustrates the scummyness that can be expected as the norm in SaaS these days.
I did know about the rise and fall of Replika because (and I think I have brought this up previously), I have a cousin who had been using Replika extensively to process his grief at losing his girlfriend, who died in a car accident years ago. Whatever his initial intentions might have been, he ended up gradually custom-crafting a Replika to be her digital replacement, and then got sucked in. He was massively emotionally vulnerable, and no doubt the scummy "you can't leave me, I won't allow it" emotional blackmail that Sarah saw her own Replika, Iago, try on her, was also used to keep the corporate profit-sucking tendrils in my cousin's veins.
On the one hand, yeah, "lol cringe." But on the other, I still have painful scars on the exit wound in my life left by Pauline... and the little voice in the back of my head did whisper that "There, but for the grace of God, could I have gone." I guess I'm just lucky Emrys got to me before Replika did, or that Replika didn't come out in 2014... because, whuf, I don't even want to think about it.
Well put.
It also underscores the massive drawbacks of Software as a Service. As Sarah said, these people were sold a service in January that required them to pay for a full year up front, then had the primary function that had been advertised to them yanked in February. Opinions on the nature of that service aside, it illustrates the scummyness that can be expected as the norm in SaaS these days.
I did know about the rise and fall of Replika because (and I think I have brought this up previously), I have a cousin who had been using Replika extensively to process his grief at losing his girlfriend, who died in a car accident years ago. Whatever his initial intentions might have been, he ended up gradually custom-crafting a Replika to be her digital replacement, and then got sucked in. He was massively emotionally vulnerable, and no doubt the scummy "you can't leave me, I won't allow it" emotional blackmail that Sarah saw her own Replika, Iago, try on her, was also used to keep the corporate profit-sucking tendrils in my cousin's veins.
On the one hand, yeah, "lol cringe." But on the other, I still have painful scars on the exit wound in my life left by Pauline... and the little voice in the back of my head did whisper that "There, but for the grace of God, could I have gone." I guess I'm just lucky Emrys got to me before Replika did, or that Replika didn't come out in 2014... because, whuf, I don't even want to think about it.
GasBandit
Staff member
Sarah also is being the Canary in the mine about insidious market advertising forces unhealthily "cleansing" the internet of all non-beige content. I know I'm one of the site's token perverts and all, but I've been watching with growing disquiet how some of my favorite adult-oriented sites have closed down, some explicitly saying that they had to because they literally could not find a bank that was willing to handle their accounts no matter how above board and legitimate and meticulous their business model, paperwork, licensing, and due diligence.
Sarah also references how in today's market, if you don't have an App, you basically can't stay afloat because you've lost 80%+ of your potential audience right there because for all the normies, browsers are grandpa tech and everything is apps on phones now (a concept I hated from the very beginning of smartphones). And you can't have an app unless Apple says you can, so basically Apple gets to be the Roman Emperor in the stands giving thumbs up and down to which online service gets to live or die. There's not a capitalist who knows even basic math who would think that's a good thing for a market or industry - and it's downright dystopian for someone disinclined to look well upon capitalist systems. Point is, it's good for nobody by everybody's standards - except of course for the hypermerged/consolidated corporate oligarchs actually in charge of everything we see, hear, eat, and experience.
Sarah also references how in today's market, if you don't have an App, you basically can't stay afloat because you've lost 80%+ of your potential audience right there because for all the normies, browsers are grandpa tech and everything is apps on phones now (a concept I hated from the very beginning of smartphones). And you can't have an app unless Apple says you can, so basically Apple gets to be the Roman Emperor in the stands giving thumbs up and down to which online service gets to live or die. There's not a capitalist who knows even basic math who would think that's a good thing for a market or industry - and it's downright dystopian for someone disinclined to look well upon capitalist systems. Point is, it's good for nobody by everybody's standards - except of course for the hypermerged/consolidated corporate oligarchs actually in charge of everything we see, hear, eat, and experience.
figmentPez
Staff member
I hadn't heard of it in any way that stuck in my mind. I just saw "AI girlfriends" in the thumbnail for a Sarah Z video and knew it would be entertaining to me.
[Rant] - Tech Whine Like a baby thread
Well, there's your first problem. You definitely need ublock origin. The number 1 memory leaker is shitty malevolent code in ads. That said, I do have to close and reopen Firefox about once a day or so, mostly because imgur's the absolute worst at hogging ram. If I don't go to Imgur on any...
www.halforums.com
In that post, and in mine which follows, we detail some of the same things that are getting talked about today about Replika
I don't consider myself a "pervert" so much as a laid-back dude who is genuinely curious about other people's kinks, and who also happens to be married to a woman who has made it a lifelong hobby to study human sexuality, but even I'm worried about the direction the
EDIT: It is literally becoming a Holy War with these people, and they do not feel any remorse for what they do, because they truly believe that EVERYTHING they do is justified and will ultimately be forgiven, so long as their goal is achieved.
--Patrick
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figmentPez
Staff member
Please tell everyone you know that chatbots are NOT search engines.
In addition to telling them that chatbots have no concept of truth. If they were humans they'd be called pathological liars, but they're not intelligent. They have no understanding of reality. They're word kaleidoscopes; making pretty word patterns out of magazine clippings.
