Anti-genAI Link Roundup and Why I'm Doing This

In media res:

We ended up talking about genAI/LLM stuff. And to their credit, it was probably the first time I've ever had a conversation about that topic actually feel like a dialogue and debate.

It was innocuous, really. The other party simply doesn't know me like that, and assumed some stuff. And yet, I still felt deeply, deeply offended by the assumption:

"I thought you'd be all into this AI stuff; you like technological stuff like this."

(silence)

I forced myself to take a deep breath.

They weren't around for my drawing days. They never saw the extent of my computer tinkering beyond knowing what a .BAT file was. I don't know what their read is on my Web designer work, and they don't know what I be reading anyway. They are definitely not aware of my further radicalization in the post-Obama era and my penchant for, idk, red scary stuff like human rights and communism? And they have not seen the fights I get into with techbros because I still have a sense of ethics.

So. Yeah, I like techy stuff and science fiction.

But I'm a creative first. A human creative first. That likes to learn and use my brain to solve problems– or ask other people in community to help me. That no matter how frustrating it gets, even if I change mediums or technique I'll never stop creating.

And if expressing yourself through creativity is just... for whatever reason, not a priority for you... you just won't get it, I suppose, as to why I my visceral reaction was rage and "oh god you're too focused on the business side of things to see the ramifications of your statement."

like

Why the fuck would I outsource any part of my process? Don't I want to earn money, reduce time, business buzzwords? Uh, no actually. At least, not like that. Shunt too much stuff to the LLMs and it becomes soulless and inhuman. And the instant someone picks up on, or even suspects– "oh, they're phoning it in" / "Nice promo, how many prompts did that take you?"– you lost 'em anyway.

And I'm tired of quantifying and conceding. At this point--

I specifically have a bone to pick with the [genAI/LLMs] that regurgitate things of a creative nature. Don't play dumb and demand I be hyper-specific; you know exactly the type I'm talking about and the context I'm coming from.

Yeah, that. You've heard it before. I've gone on one of my famous rants about it, talked more at length as I think about the state of things, and generally it pops up here and there.

And I really don't care about your edge case or actual factual handy dandy applications– it's been shoehorned into so much of everything I just want nothing to do with it. No one likes it when something is forced upon them. And "AI" is just a red flag nowadays to avoid the thing, because it is never with my best interests at heart. It's there to make someone (else) money.

The Links

But I am compiling a list of links to throw at the next person that gushes about how genAI is so great.

First up, we have the tidy-and-to-the-point: Just Say No (to AI).

Just Say No

We must resist the everything machine.

And here we have the absolutely not-short The Case Against Generative AI.

The Case Against Generative AI

Soundtrack: Queens of the Stone Age - First It Giveth Before we go any further: This is, for the third time this year, the longest newsletter I’ve ever written, weighing in somewhere around 18,500 words. I’ve written it specifically to be read at your leisure — dip in and out

Ed Zitron's Where's Your Ed AtEdward Zitron

( There's also How to Argue with an AI Booster, if you somehow still have the patience for that sort of thing.)

But if you're just here for the trainwrecks, I gotcha covered: Pivot to AI - It can't be that stupid, you must be prompting it wrong. I highly recommend having it open along with Web3 is Going Just Great, because it's grifters and bullshit all the way down anyway.

Do look ill, John!” “Did you think he’s pretty harmless.” Pretty.

And here are some miscellaneous stories, posts, anecdotes, and other things to note. The rant post has a ton of links as well.

• The Colonization of Confidence may be nonfiction, but it emotionally details why I get so upset when people insist on AI for creative works. Just read it.
  • And read this one, too. The Bookstore Hope.
• Suno, AI Music, and the Bad Future - I really like the bits where in the survey, people were asked *why* they used Suno. It wasn't primarily to be more creative, I'll tell you that much...

And some links, because I'm sure as fuck not the only one.

• The Rejection of Artificially Generated Slop
• Small Hack's project, Open Slopware: "Why Not LLMs"
• ArtificialCast, which I'll go ahead and spoil for you:

It works. Until it doesn't. And when it doesn't, it fails in ways that look like success. That's the danger.

And more as I get them. I guess.

And Finally

I'm frankly tired. Sick and. I'm flipping the bozo bit and waiting for the damn bubble to pop. And I don't fucking care if I get left behind-- you're implying that I was with you to begin with, and I very much was not, for reasons within and without my control.

Now, and I really mean it: shut up and go in peace.

And the next person that insists upon this is getting their halls decked.