Hmmm… nope.

Ham and Chussy

That’s not fundraising. That’s called extortion.

Icicussy

“Vajankle” is not a word I needed to learn ever.

Also remember that “just following orders” didn’t save Nazis.

I read your first bullet point. Yes, your childhood was fucked. This is nowhere near the typical experience, even for folks with bad home lives.

There are a couple ways to approach the argument: we can talk about the art LLMs can produce (and whether it should be called art), and we can also talk about the long-term ramifications.

The arguments about what LLMs can produce are weaker. Art is subjective, and trying to quantify things like “originality” and “soul” is difficult. Plus, as you mentioned, there are plenty of successful artists that are arguably untalented. Ultimately, LLMs can produce something that some people want, at least somewhat. That being said, I would argue that a drum machine on its own is soulless–and I think Prince would agree. It’s the other pieces that make it something more.

The stronger argument is the other one–the long term ramifications. Unlike everything that has come before (synths, sampling, etc), art has always cost someone something. If nothing else, it takes time and effort for a person to create something, and there’s some measure of skill involved (EDM, for example, takes skill in composition rather than performance).

LLMs can produce “art” for negligible (immediate) cost. This is pretty new. And it’s undercutting an already slim market. The likely long-term effects include thinning it further, to the point where “artist” is untenable as a career.

What makes that different from other areas where technology has replaced human efforts? The big difference is that LLM art depends on the human artists creating art. The more prominent LLM art becomes, the less human art is created, and the worse LLM art becomes. It’s like a snake eating its own tail, or a factory that uses its own foundation as raw materials–it’s a self-destructing system.

Another argument to be considered is motivation: the people who are gung-ho about LLM art are typically so because it means they don’t have to pay humans to do the same thing. Which is less problematic in other industries, but given that art is often a form of emotional expression (as opposed to something like a manufacturing job), there’s a stronger argument that maybe the art should be left to humans.

I think it was summed up nicely by someone who posted something along the lines of, “I want AI to do the mundane tasks so I can spend time making art, not the other way around.”

One of the big differences is that it takes talent (typically from years of practice) to create something good–it’s far more than just the input of other art.

For example, most people listen to plenty of music. We all have a ton of influences to pull from. But writing a song is difficult, even if all the individual elements can be traced to different influences. To write a good song, it usually takes skill deveoped with practice. And if it really is just a few other ideas merged together with nothing original or compelling, it will likely be criticised as derivative and unoriginal.

AI has two big issues: 1. It’s only capable of creating unoriginal derivatives without originality or “soul”, and 2. Its usage is detrimental to the art community that it relies on. As people attempt to replace artists with AI, being an artist becomes and even less viable living (something that was already difficult). And without human artists, we’re culturally stuck recycling the same drivel for eternity, which in turn deteriorates (think of a document that is copied, then that copy is copied, and so on until the contents are barely legible).

It’s gotta be small so your neighbors can still get a proper view

Garfield told us that ages ago

The phone I use has constant battery charging protection. I checked before using it for that. But yeah, definitely check for that before using it that way, or remove the battery (if the phone will still run without it).

I used to be baffled by these things until I learned about the quantity of drugs consumed by some of my instructors.

Fred was woke as fuck

I use one as a camera monitor for my kids’ baby monitors.

A more general idea would be setting up a weather/forecast display.

I’m not certain that fish is licensed to perform bottom surgery

Not with that attitude you can’t.

Ah, the old rituals. I remember summoning the powers of the dark gods Napster and Limewire as part of the rites.

Though I am old enough to remember the more ancient cassette magics. Those required precise mixing rather than burning, and were much more archaic, sometimes involving transcribing messages from the very ether.

Only if you combine them with shorts