Latest Posts by liona-sourn - Page 10
The reason I took interest in AI as an art medium is that I've always been interested in experimenting with novel and unconventional art media - I started incorporating power tools into a lot of my physical processes younger than most people were even allowed to breathe near them, and I took to digital art like a duck to water when it was the big, relatively new, controversial thing too, so really this just seems like the logical next step. More than that, it's exciting - it's not every day that we just invent an entirely new never-before-seen art medium! I have always been one to go fucking wild for that shit.
Which is, ironically, a huge part of why I almost reflexively recoil at how it's used in the corporate world: because the world of business, particularly the entertainment industry, has what often seems like less than zero interest in appreciating it as a novel medium.
And I often wonder how much less that would be the case - and, by extension, how much less vitriolic the discussion around it would be, and how many fewer well-meaning people would be falling for reactionary mythologies about where exactly the problems lie - if it hadn't reached the point of...at least an illusion of commercial viability, at exactly the moment it did.
See, the groundwork was laid in 2020, back during covid lockdowns, when we saw a massive spike in people relying on TV, games, books, movies, etc. to compensate for the lack of outdoor, physical, social entertainment. This was, seemingly, wonderful for the whole industry - but under late-stage capitalism, it was as much of a curse as it was a gift. When industries are run by people whose sole brain process is "line-go-up", tiny factors like "we're not going to be in lockdown forever" don't matter. CEOs got dollar signs in their eyes. Shareholders demanded not only perpetual growth, but perpetual growth at this rate or better. Even though everyone with an ounce of common sense was screaming "this is an aberration, this is not sustainable" - it didn't matter. The business bros refused to believe it. This was their new normal, they were determined to prove -
And they, predictably, failed to prove it.
So now the business bros are in a pickle. They're beholden to the shareholders to do everything within their power to maintain the infinite growth they promised, in a world with finite resources. In fact, by precedent, they're beholden to this by law. Fiduciary duty has been interpreted in court to mean that, given the choice between offering a better product and ensuring maximum returns for shareholders, the latter MUST be a higher priority; reinvesting too much in the business instead of trying to make the share value increase as much as possible, as fast as possible, can result in a lawsuit - that a board member or CEO can lose, and have lost before - because it's not acting in the best interest of shareholders. If that unsustainable explosive growth was promised forever, all the more so.
And now, 2-3-4 years on, that impossibility hangs like a sword of Damocles over the heads of these media company CEOs. The market is fully saturated; the number of new potential customers left to onboard is negligible. Some companies began trying to "solve" this "problem" by violating consumer privacy and charging per household member, which (also predictably) backfired because those of us who live in reality and not statsland were not exactly thrilled about the concept of being told we couldn't watch TV with our own families. Shareholders are getting antsy, because their (however predictably impossible) infinite lockdown-level profits...aren't coming, and someone's gotta make up for that, right? So they had already started enshittifying, making excuses for layoffs, for cutting employee pay, for duty creep, for increasing crunch, for lean-staffing, for tightening turnarounds-
And that was when we got the first iterations of AI image generation that were actually somewhat useful for things like rapid first drafts, moodboards, and conceptualizing.
Lo! A savior! It might as well have been the digital messiah to the business bros, and their eyes turned back into dollar signs. More than that, they were being promised that this...both was, and wasn't art at the same time. It was good enough for their final product, or if not it would be within a year or two, but it required no skill whatsoever to make! Soon, you could fire ALL your creatives and just have Susan from accounting write your scripts and make your concept art with all the effort that it takes to get lunch from a Star Trek replicator!
This is every bit as much bullshit as the promise of infinite lockdown-level growth, of course, but with shareholders clamoring for the money they were recklessly promised, executives are looking for anything, even the slightest glimmer of a new possibility, that just might work as a life raft from this sinking ship.
So where are we now? Well, we're exiting the "fucking around" phase and entering "finding out". According to anecdotes I've read, companies are, allegedly, already hiring prompt engineers (or "prompters" - can't give them a job title that implies there's skill or thought involved, now can we, that just might imply they deserve enough money to survive!)...and most of them not only lack the skill to manually post-process their works, but don't even know how (or perhaps aren't given access) to fully use the software they specialize in, being blissfully unaware of (or perhaps not able/allowed to use) features such as inpainting or img2img. It has been observed many times that LLMs are being used to flood once-reputable information outlets with hallucinated garbage. I can verify - as can nearly everyone who was online in the aftermath of the Glasgow Willy Wonka Dashcon Experience - that the results are often outright comically bad.
To anyone who was paying attention to anything other than please-line-go-up-faster-please-line-go-please (or buying so heavily into reactionary mythologies about why AI can be dangerous in industry that they bought the tech companies' false promises too and just thought it was a bad thing), this was entirely predictable. Unfortunately for everyone in the blast radius, common sense has never been an executive's strong suit when so much money is on the line.
Much like CGI before it, what we have here is a whole new medium that is seldom being treated as a new medium with its own unique strengths, but more often being used as a replacement for more expensive labor, no matter how bad the result may be - nor, for that matter, how unjust it may be that the labor is so much cheaper.
And it's all because of timing. It's all because it came about in the perfect moment to look like a life raft in a moment of late-stage capitalist panic. Any port in a storm, after all - even if that port is a non-Euclidean labyrinth of soggy, rotten botshit garbage.
Any port in a storm, right? ...right?
All images generated using Simple Stable, under the Code of Ethics of Are We Art Yet?
Is this true?
replacement suggestion for people who want the drama of Arahabaki being a voice in Chuuya's head that yearns for destruction and stuff (since canonically it has no thoughts or will of its own and is just raw power):
Picture our Nakahara "I do everything for my friends" Chuuya, Nakahara "with great power comes great responsibility" Chuuya, Nakahara "if I compartimentalize my trauma it can't hurt me" Chuuya.
Picture our guy so raw from using Corruption, or maybe not dealing as well as he thinks with his trauma, or maybe just really tired, or any moment of weakness where you'd want the Arahabaki whispers to kick in.
In those moments of weakness, the Bad Feelings get a hold of him: self-doubt, despair, anger, loneliness. It's so unusual for him to dwell on those things it might as well sound like someone else is feeding him those thoughts. Maybe it adds another layer of frustration. Maybe it does make him want to blow everything up, just to let off some of those feelings.
And maybe in that already bad state of mind, intrusive thoughts enter the field. Things he doesn't really want and things he would never do. Things that make him uncomfortable, things that scare him. He would be able to bring down the Port Mafia. He could kill all those random civilians. He could run away. He already has black holes at the tip of his fingers, he could just destroy everything and leave nothing behind.
And between the very real (but enhanced, put at the forefront) bad feelings and the persistant intrusive thoughts, things might get jumbled in his head. If missing departed friends is real, maybe wanting to get rid of those left is, too. If he's angry at how unfair things have been for him and his loved ones, blowing everything up might be a legitimate reaction. Maybe it really is what he wants? Perhaps that little voice, no matter how scary, is right?
In short: replace "Arahabaki" with "Chuuya's subconscious", for better and for worse. Not to quote Dazai, but: let Chuuya suffer as a human being. Let his struggles be tragically mundane and common.
(and for comfort there's nothing like bringing other people in for a reality check and ground him again)
I'm too sad to eat! 😭
Surprise! This will henceforth be a soup-posting blog, where I post about nothing but soup! What ingredients taste best together, how to chop carrots, how to very chaotically add spices, how to not to get caught while making secret soup, how to avoid people reading too much into your secret soup-making, and all those normal soup things! :D
(…I am 100% kidding, just to be clear. Happy April Fools everybody!)
*sees rock on fire catapulted while in the middle of a nighttime raid*
Wow! Look at that firefly! So many this time of year!
Squid
Microwaved pomegranate juice tastes interesting...i like it
W.I.P Wednesday Swapped skk au (title still pending)
Something tickles at the back of Chuuya's awareness.
He turns to look over his shoulder only to be met with the muzzle of a gun pressed into his cheek. Even before his ability is nullified, replaced by a great sweeping emptiness he's intimately familiar with, he knows who it is. "Dazai." The detective hisses out in mild shock, uneasy at such an inopportune reunion. "Ah. So you do remember me." Is the chirped response, tone deceptively cheerful. He can't quite see his ex-partner, Dazai making sure to stay just out of line of sight, a boundary enforced by his weapon. The safety of the gun clicks off and Chuuya tenses, fully aware of how vulnerable he is without his ability. "And here I thought you must have forgot. Considering the way you-" "Dazai-kun." Mori cuts in with a cold and cutting one word command. "Mori-sensei." The mafia boss smirks at his unruly executive."I remember ordering you to be elsewhere?" [ ] Dazai walks past him, head ducked just enough for his fringe to shield his eyes, [ ] Around Dazai's throat, over a thinner layer of bandages than he remembered, sits his choker. The one he left lying on his kitchen bar [inplace] of metal lined hat.
Making a fanfic based off DnD techniques
Help me make laws to regulate the fantasy furries. I'll start:
Impolite to have fangs out, claws out, poison quills out, be threatening in a social setting. Don't show your weapons.
Neutral grounds in certain states.
Cover privates. Those are shown to mates only. (If impossible to hide or cover, you will have to get a permit to avoid being arrested on site for public "nudity")
There is a difference between sentient and domesticated(like scooby) vs sentient and wild.(like toothless) Currently being debated in court.
Breed within your own species. Please. There are too many abortions happening over this. Make sure your DNA is compatible before trying for a child. There are free compatibility tests you can go to a healers shop and get over the counter. Please.
When fighting do it in a clear, open area with little to no civilians around. They can get hurt too. Less bills to pay, less witnesses to kill, less accidents. It's easier for all of us.
Cannibalism is legal in some states but not all of them. Check the rulebook before you go hunting. And if you make a mistake, get a damn good lawyer and pray. The victim's family is legally allowed to hunt and kill you in retaliation. (See section for vengeance kills in law book)
Feel free to add on
I stopped taking a quiz once because I didn't know what my ennegram personality type was. It left me befuddled and I still haven't gotten around to doing it. It was a "Which anime boyfriend is your type(realistic)" or something. I don't remember unimportant stuff. All I remember is the shame of being confronted with a part of myself I had yet to know.
So you want to hear about my ongoing fanfic that's taken three years to complete because I have depression, adhd, and procrastinate?
There is an alternate universe where humans live in peace with monsters. I need to know where it id for.........research purposes.
...never mind
I may have poor mental health, but at least I look good
I have made a compromise to only wear the hoodie at home 'less the pubic see me as someone with no fashion taste.
It's too comfortable!!! I can't take it off!!! No fair!!! I'm gonna be like those kids that always wear a hoodie and jeans like their closet is full of the same, boring, s***!!!
For the first time in my life, I am wearing a hoodie. Will update.
Ciel Phantomhive a.k.a
Bitter Tea Brat!
(B!tch if you fear no demons)
Rare pair:
Spanish(the language) x Japanese(the language).
I feel like they flow into each other really well.
Bsd is actually getting teens to read classical literature and I actually think that’s really funny. It’s like advertising but instead of some corporate thing its English teacher propaganda
I too would die for my cat
asagiri confirming that chuuya canonically respects women and would be the best bf is so sweet. i love this man 🥹🥹
The animators really said “we're going to make up for Atsushi's disastrous haircut by making him the most beautiful man ever existed” and they were right
