Discuss - I Low Key Hate AI Art

 Discuss - I Low Key Hate AI Art

I low-key kind of hate a lot of forms of AI Art.

I see the trend this weekend was for a lot of people to post their selfies using Lensa, and I get it, it looks cute, it's funny, but to the average layperson it must seem no different than applying a goofy photoshop filter or two and bam you get an instant new avatar.

It's not that. And you should be educated a little bit about some of what AI Art is, and is doing.

First off, so you know, and so we're all clear... when you use Lensa, (the avatar AI image-generating app) to make an avatar image. You should know that Lensa takes all rights to use the photos you submit and everything they create in perpetuity for marketing, study, or really...whatever they want.

This isn't particularly new, nor particularly shattering. Lots of image sits and posting setups have the same ToS. But let's keep it in mind. What you send in, and what you create is theirs and part of the model. (And is exceptionally difficult to extract, unlike your image of your birthday party on facebook that might end up in marketing material somewhere).

Everyone has a crackshot joke about "AI is coming anyway" or "I don't own anything personally anyway that they aren't already taking", and that's sort of true. But take it from someone who literally studied AI Ethics...there's a lot of dangerous ground being rapidly lost here, and people are not asking any of the even simplest questions around the technology that are probably worth asking.

"Well Lester, I don't care about them using my image for marketing"

Sure, fair. Are you concerned if they sell your photos and images to a military or national power for surveillance? What about a private company? What about individuals? Do you care if your image gets sold to a country with perhaps less-democratic intentions like...Iran?

Do you care if someone with low scruples like Musk and Twitter suddenly own rights to create with your likeness? Or derivatives with your likeness?

Do you care if policing institutions are perhaps using sorting likenesses in order to pre-screen people for crimes based on race and facial markers/tattoos/hair colors styles, genetic indicators?

Would you be mad if a private company say suddenly had photos of you? Like what if it was the United Conservative Party? What if it was Rebel Media? Probably wouldn't even be that hard.

Stable Diffusion (the AI learning dataset that Lensa is based on) is also utilizing technology methodologies based on illegally acquired medical records (specifically facial imaging, images from studies, and medical scans), acquired without consent (or knowledge) of patients. As well, they disavowed 'awareness' or responsibility that their image gathering techniques could be sourcing potentially problematic material (such as illegal pornography).

The Laion Dataset (from which Stable Diffusion sources its data), is notoriously predatory. And built without an opt-out system. When confronted about how to get materials removed from it, they said the best way is to remove the image from the internet itself, take it off a website. Think about that. That's not a solution. That also doesn't express anything about the image already in the model, nor about how the image might've already been used. They don't know. And don't care to figure it out. Images taken from medical telemetry, images taken from non-consensual porn, images taken of children, images taken from ANYWHERE.

And let me tell you, that using it as a convenient "I didn't know it did that," or "It's an AI, we can no longer control what it samples or how it is used," is not the ethical way for humans to be interacting with it. 

I know this particular technology is not going back in the box. I'm not so foolish to think we can all just convince people to 'stop using AI Art'. It represents a shortcut, and the shortcut is attractive. But studying AI Ethics is 75% a look at how we treat learning technologies and their expansive growth with an eye to the future. 25% of that is how we treat one another with respect to AI. I wish to point out as pointedly as I can, the last time we granted investiture of personhood to a non-thing like "ahem" corporations...it has not worked out so well. In an ideal society, we would not make the same mistakes with AI. 

Before we go too far down that route...

You might want to ask yourself some questions, and take the time to educate yourself about your values around it.

Politics - On Jason Kenney

Politics - On Jason Kenney

On Jason Kenney, and Dignity.

"Why would I never support Jason Kenney?" I was asked today.

I'll explain it as clearly and concisely as I can. I will NEVER support a politician who worked in a movement that advocated for denying gay men the right to visit their own dying spouses.

There is a myriad of other reasons, but that one sticks out the most for me. I don't believe he's changed. I think that is the kind of action that is irredeemable. You do not get a say as an outside party in the practices of another person's systems of grief and mourning, or to deny them their final opportunities with other people. It is reprehensible.

No amount of 'he might be good for the economy' will undo that bloodstain. You cannot equate money, with ethics. As someone who has spent a lot of time studying and writing about ethics, once you begin to allow that compromise, your values will erode.

I will go so far as to say that anyone who supports Kenney, their values are so far removed from mine I have nothing to say to you. Not now. Not ever.

No amount of propaganda from CBC about his 'favourite snack is movie popcorn' will erase the absolute horror in my heart for every person ever affected by his callousness with their personal grief.

Edit:
Citation. https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/kzvnea/alberta-ucp-leader-jason-kenneys-anti-gay-speech-surfaces-on-world-aids-day

Thoughts - Theft and Thievery

Thoughts - Theft and Thievery

Someone I had introduced to D&D a while back is planning on running their own game. I'm pretty ecstatic about that. I really enjoy introducing people to my favourite passtime and watching them grow, learn and tell their own stories. Often when introducing players, I have a digital copy of the player's hand book that I let them have in the beginning, because a 40 dollar buy into the game if you're not sure you will like it at all is difficult. I mean, people borrow and pass around the books all the time, but it's nice to just have a record of the book for yourself so you can peruse it and check. I often tell people though that I'm effectively just loaning them the book, don't share it further, and if you don't intend to play, you should delete it.

I've recently become aware that this person I've given that digital to, is running their session with their own players, and is printing from that digital copy for their players.

The newest edition is not open source, it's not free for distribution (I mean I really shouldn't even have that digital copy per se), and they certainly don't have any kind of printing licence for it.

So they're stealing it.

They're stealing the book, and distributing it. It's my favourite game and they're pirating it.

For a while I felt guilty, it was my fault, it is my fault. I shouldn't have distributed the digital to anyone I didn't think wouldn't fall in love with the game and purchase a hardcopy. (All of my players end up purchasing their own hardcopies of the books). I should not have trusted this player to have the same scruples that I do about piracy. I should have gauged better.

But they are also adults.

I'm trying to figure out if I'm responsible. They made the choice to do something that I think is wrong. I also coloured the lens for my own mental situation about what I think is right and wrong, to me I'm essentially lending the book out, but that's also not quite fair is it.

Where do we draw the line?

I've been thinking a lot about piracy and stealing for the past few years, especially as I've become a content creator and an artist. Often, when people directly contact me about using my work (especially writing, but sometimes art) I'm only too happy to volunteer it to be used for specific projects. I LOVE being asked. But I HATE when people just take.

Personally I've been involved in 5 lawsuits so far with my work. (Some aren't actually lawsuits, some are just notices of infringement)

Every time a new one comes up, it's time that it takes me away from making new art, or new content. It occupies headspace that is better used being creative. In short, it sucks.

So what do I do?

Am I responsible for this budding DM who has taken content and is now pirating it for their players? What does one even say? But I don't want to be silent about it, because for so many strangers, I'm very vocal about my opinion on it. Does personal contact mean people get a free pass? That doesn't seem right either.