And Gone! Listen, I made season one of Gone with no formal training, free software, Creative Commons sound effects, a shitty mic, an idea, and a budget of LITERALLY NOTHING I wanted to make an audio drama podcast—so I taught myself to make an audio drama podcast by goddamn making one

Sunny Moraine@dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social · 33m ago

One of the things about generative AI that particularly infuriates me is that some of the most fun I’ve ever had has been teaching myself how to do things around my own constraints I’m bad at art too. But I have PaintShop Pro! So I found some tutorials and *taught myself to make book covers*

I did the same with music. I got a DAW with my audio interface so decided to figure out how to record songs instead of just mucking around on guitar. I still suck, but it was so much fun to do and I can't imagine letting AI steal that from me.

Sunny Moraine@dynamicsymmetry.bsky.social · 33m ago

One of the things about generative AI that particularly infuriates me is that some of the most fun I’ve ever had has been teaching myself how to do things around my own constraints I’m bad at art too. But I have PaintShop Pro! So I found some tutorials and *taught myself to make book covers*

One of the things about generative AI that particularly infuriates me is that some of the most fun I’ve ever had has been teaching myself how to do things around my own constraints I’m bad at art too. But I have PaintShop Pro! So I found some tutorials and *taught myself to make book covers*

Suzan the chalant goth@sillysyntax.bsky.social · 10h ago

My partner created something recently. They needed art. They are not good at art. They went to a stock photo company that uses zero AI and licensed a photo for like 30 dollars. There is no excuse to use an AI cover. Or any generative AI in writing except that you suck.

My partner created something recently. They needed art. They are not good at art. They went to a stock photo company that uses zero AI and licensed a photo for like 30 dollars. There is no excuse to use an AI cover. Or any generative AI in writing except that you suck.

The person who uses an AI cover is absolutely my enemy. They are my unworthy nemesis and my pathetic Op. Because they don't support human art. They are the divisive scab selling out peers to sell garbage

Beware of people saying those opposed to AI use in art & writing are gatekeepers. The true gatekeepers wait for the world to buy into their products. And once we do, they will gatekeep like hell! For more on why I don't use AI, check out this essay I published last year in @apexmag.bsky.social. 6/

"Why I Don't Write with Generative AI" by Jason Sanford

These words aren’t about the tech companies worth billions of dollars or how they created generative AI models by pirating the works of artists and writers without permission or payment. These words a...

apexbookcompany.com

But if you go down the LLM road, you are bound to that path. If the tech bros who own that LLM begin charging thousands of $ a month to use their program, you're facing a major gatekeeper. And yes, once our current AI bubble breaks the subsidized cost of using LLMs is going to skyrocket. 4/

Right now anyone can learn to write or create art. The price of admission is incredibly, super-duper low. Don't have a computer? You can write or draw on paper. Yes, it takes time to learn how to tell good stories or create compelling art, but there is no gatekeeper. 3/

I say this b/c tech bros are literally attempting to place a gatekeeper program into the creation process for writing and art. Once people normalize that writing and art can't be created without an LLM, what happens when people can't afford to use that LLM? Gee, you then have a true gatekeeper! 2/

Regarding the Horror Writers Association (HWA) newsletter promoting AI usage, why why why do people keep using the term "gatekeepers" to describe those opposed to the use of LLMs in writing and art? The true gatekeepers are the billionaire tech bros whose companies push to normalize AI usage. 1/

Rick Moranis: Are You The Gatekeeper?

Alt: Rick Moranis: Are You The Gatekeeper?

static.klipy.com

It feels like they are insecure enough about their writing that they feel like using AI is the thing they need to become better, but they’re realizing that it’s not having the social or career benefit they think being a “better” writer should come with so it’s just mean people being exclusionary.

Jason Sanford@jasonsanford.bsky.social · 2h ago

Regarding the Horror Writers Association (HWA) newsletter promoting AI usage, why why why do people keep using the term "gatekeepers" to describe those opposed to the use of LLMs in writing and art? The true gatekeepers are the billionaire tech bros whose companies push to normalize AI usage. 1/

“The children are always ours, every single one of them, all over the globe; and I am beginning to suspect that whoever is incapable of recognizing this may be incapable of morality.” - James Baldwin, “Notes on the House of Bondage”

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 6h ago

El-Sayed: "My commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters. Because if there is one question of political philosophy that ought to animate us all, it's what would we do if we treated all our kids like they were all of our kids?"

Also my hot take is that gatekeeping is not a uniformly negative thing and is in many cases actually necessary to maintain the health of a cultural ecosystem

Like I don’t dig a trend toward witch hunts, toward picking out every em dash and “not X but Y”, that shit sucks. But also, people should be ashamed to admit to using this technology in writing. It should be something done in cringing secret, in terror of being found out

Suzan the chalant goth@sillysyntax.bsky.social · 10h ago

I am logged on for 2 hours to say I am appalled by what I read in the HWA newsletter. There are AI witch hunts ongoing where writers are being accused of using that garbage tech with no evidence. Telling ppl who use AI proudly to get out is not gatekeeping. Call out the writers and companies.

I am logged on for 2 hours to say I am appalled by what I read in the HWA newsletter. There are AI witch hunts ongoing where writers are being accused of using that garbage tech with no evidence. Telling ppl who use AI proudly to get out is not gatekeeping. Call out the writers and companies.

I wrote about the triumph of Doing Your Own Research and the stupid, nasty thing that is replacing some very recent history in real time. defector.com/were-just-go...

We're Just Going To Keep Doing 2020 Again Until All The Wrong Stuff Is True | Defector

In a bunch of ways, there is no real percentage in remembering what things were actually like during the worst years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond all the uncertainty and suffering and death, there...

defector.com

There is going to be a change on Palestine in the Democratic Party over the next decade and we need to remember names

@abdulelsayed.bsky.social triumphing over something like $60 million, $32-ish million of it AIPAC money, is not a "narrow" victory, it's a people's earthquake. This kind of spending is oligarchy in action, to smother democracy through its formal channels, and is getting normalized. Still he won.

Also, speaking with a (slight) imitation of the accent of the person you're speaking to is often indicative of a multilingual speaker. It's actually good practice.

Kat Tenbarge@kattenbarge.bsky.social · 2w ago

People are making fun of AOC for having a slight southern accent while speaking in Memphis but they clearly don’t know the pain of habitually and unconsciously imitating the speaking style of the people around you

Capitalism will kill us all, but don't let it make you a goofy sellout first, sweet babies.

Some people saw themselves getting in on the ground floor of AI in creative writing as an industry, made their lil LLCs and canva flyers, and are now mad that they had a bad idea and everyone thinks they're silly.

media literacy for journalism tip: they wrote this like this because it was very late and the race wasn’t quite official-official and they absolutely needed to go to bed

Politico@politico.com · 13h ago

Progressives didn’t get the big election night they wanted

I had to code and pronounce a time of death on a respiratory therapist colleague. There's a memorial plaque for her outside the emergency department to this day. I wrote and re-wrote my will. I will never forgive these ghouls trying to rewrite history and deny our experience.

Gabriel Bosslet@gbosslet.bsky.social · 3d ago

RFK Jr said these words today on national television "There were ICUs that were empty all over the country including in New York at the height (of the pandemic)" hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha You are a fucking idiot hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha <sobs silently>

If progressives lose, it’s bad for progressives. If progressives win, though, it’s also bad for progressives. Gotta love narrative setting.

Politico@politico.com · 13h ago

Progressives didn’t get the big election night they wanted

"THE FUCKING PEDOPHILE-IN-CHIEF IS NOT GOING TO PROTECT YOU" This is the most patriotic, neighborly, First Amendment American ass shit. I'm so proud.

"WE THE FUCKING JUDGE SON" New York, I love you. I love you so fucking much. Via wali_talks on IG

It is worth noting that the writer of that HWA newsletter telling people to embrace AI, has an AI based coaching app they are selling

People are absolutely stupid selfish shitheads in ways one cannot solely blame on material circumstances. To a very real extent they’re that way because that’s kind of just how people are It’s not the only trait humans have! But I do think it’s just kinda there

Amanda Mull@amandamull.bsky.social · 2d ago

there is a strain of lefty discourse where you can’t come to any unflattering conclusions about the populace—those must be explained away by how they are being acted upon by capital—but I think you’ll understand things better if you understand capital can also exploit weaknesses it didn’t create

I think this thread is basically what I believed when I began covering the consumer system and while a lot of what Nathan is describing is factually correct as to the mechanisms by which the system itself works, I’ve eventually had to admit that a lot of people also do just love cheap bullshit

Nathan Tankus@nathantankus.bsky.social · 3d ago

I think this is fundamentally wrong but in an interesting way I will need to write about sometime. The key is a) consumers do not choose what is produced, or how, they choose between what is produced. This is a crucial difference

Fast fashion didn’t nearly kill American fashion retail because people thought Forever 21 and Gap were equivalent quality, or they couldn’t be sure how big the difference was. That happened because people wanted to buy more clothes for less money and wear them fewer times and then get more new stuff