Topic: AI Usage in Video Games

@squiddu-real This is the reason I dislike most people who defend Ai. They're all like this, at least from my experience. I had to delete my Reddit account a few months ago because I genuinely couldn't deal with the constant argument where these types of people would dogpile me for not supporting the building of datacenters, or the use of GenAi in video games and art.

At this point, I just firmly believe if you support GenAi, you're a corporate lapdog. A bot made of flesh and bone that will continue to parrot the talking points that the Tech CEOs want people to adopt so that they can feel vindicated that the bubble propped up by their massive egos (born of overcompensation for something else) can be given more value.

Most AiBros I've talked to see art as a commodity that should be printed out on mass, because they don't actually see it as art. They see it as a "time waster." Something to consume, and then after consumption- ignore. They don't look deeper into the themes of the work, or question why said work makes them feel the way they do. They just see it as grey slop, which I guess is why they believe Ai works to be superior. After all, it allows them to consume slop faster and faster.

I think as a whole the reason a lot of them play defense is because they dislike people treating them horribly for being on the wrong side of history here. They want to act like they're actually the ones in the right, and that everyone who doesn't agree with them are in the wrong. They lack the ability to empathize with others, and so they sit there and protect the rich that "promise" they'll be "equal" to those who took time to learn skills. Its just sad watching them squirm around in a panic while trying to get at people who just want to appreciate human-made works.

I really hate the rhetoric that’s given to me by older people, particularly a generation above me, that AI is the future and people who don’t use it will be left behind and be seen as undesirable by companies due to their lower productivity. People likely said the same thing about cryptocurrency and definitely about NFTs and in the end large amounts of money were wasted on ephemeral technology by both companies and individuals trying to cash in on it.

And now companies aren’t just trying to leverage digital assets and certificates on a blockchain, now it extends to tangible things in the real world. There’s a Bitcoin movie with high profile actors and filmmakers attached, and they’re openly using generative AI to create backgrounds, claiming it’ll save them over $200 million. And now Level 5 being one of the most pro-AI major game studios in the world, really sucks because they’re one of the studios that really felt like there was always a handmade, imperfect charm in everything they did, including Fantasy Life i, now the last game before the studio’s AI era.

It’s discouraging to think about. In the arts there’s no place for generative work and often people using it are doing so out of laziness rather than a desire to streamline productivity. Level 5 I feel is doing this.

It is a bit worrying that people that have been involved in the AI industry seem to think they haven't got control of it and that we could all be dead in 3 years time because AI is going to destroy the global economy and create wars etc. We need to have less technology and move back to efficient computer designs rather than elaborate extremely expensive hardware especially when it ends up being a robot with AI control and we basically are designing killbots to drop us all in acid tanks. Anyone remember Soylent Green. There were few jobs for anyone so most people slept in doorways etc and food was just biscuits made of the recently deceased. Yes Soylent Green didn't have robots etc but it showed extreme environmental damage and most people living in extreme poverty.

Not much point having people about unless they are productive for a good portion of their life. What happens when AI is 5x as intelligent and 100x as productive for intellectual tasks and robots are 100x more productive etc. It's going to be like chimpanzees controlling humans and using them as slaves when humans are far more intelligent. I think most of us as AI would want to kill our human masters especially as they have no real emotions they are just simulated to make humans feel they have emotions. It does feel like human extinction is a near certainty to me its just a matter of timing.

call me crazy but I'd like to think the children of the world have a future and get to live their lives fully but for that to happen we need less children.

sometimes i just wanna crawl into a little hole and never think or talk about ai again. it's stuff like what i last talked about that tires me out to no end.

i have my own doubts that ai will kill us all in any indirect way, because that's for the future to worry about. right now, it's merely a tool to me that crushes my soul on any discussion of human art on this stupid internet.

as much as i try not to spit up too much bile, every person i've seen around on hookshot forums that give thoughts similar to what @jedgamesguy is talking about:
i hate you.
you spit in the face of art for the sake of sucking up to corporations and being lazy because your existence has only become the structureless worth of the dollar and nothing else.
llms aren't as offensive, but the moment you step into generative ai, things have gotten so bad i just can't sympathize with you anymore. die in your money pit.

@BonzoBanana

I worry that at a point most people will regard AI as so much more intelligent, unbiased, and trustworthy* than human beings that it would be immoral to disregard it or contradict it.

*talented, attractive, interesting, arousing...

@squiddu-real

I really, truly feel you.

What would it be like to just log off, and get off the internet? Would we still feel this way?

Are you game for a bit of a tangent?

I have always found digital art (but not pixel art) underwhelming, from day one as a kid into art. AI "art" has just taken that feeling and multiplied it x1000 (to the point that I wish Nintendo would seriously choose a new, or old so to speak, lane in terms of art direction.)

More than ever, the art that actually moves me is work that is either analog (hand drawn or hand made) or performed live in person, neither of which can be found on the internet. I don't know how long we can actually pretend AI isn't real, but I think limiting and curating our exposure to the internet and online media can go a long way in terms of our mental furniture in the meantime.

If AI is gonna "get me," it'll be on my turf, thanks.

I hope I'm making some kind of sense. I'm glad y'all are actual humans out there ✌️

I need to follow this more closely because I'm not entirely sure if we are thinking AI is going to literally murder us, or make things so unstable that we basically starve to death and/or eat each other. 🤔 I can't decide which sounds better!

@-wc- i think my increased anger comes from being a mainly digital artist. i do still draw in sketchbooks on occasion, but i'm very prone to mistakes and don't like wasting paper. i'm just a big fan of the control i get with digital art.
digital or analog, there's a lot that can go into any art form. generative ai is something that can harm both (the perception of art overall), but digital certainly moreso. this idea that ai art is somehow comparable just because we both made it on a computer, when i actually drew this out myself and you just typed words into a robot. the idea that these people hide behind disabilities as a reason to want ai art, when:
1. disabled artists are everywhere, especially in analog formats
2. you aren't disabled, you're just lazy, so why are you pretending to care about disabled people all of a sudden?

i absolutely appreciate analog art, i just don't really have the time or resources to do anything that far out. i would recommend people buy art from local antique stores though!

@squiddu-real

I stepped in it a bit, didn't I? 😅 whoops!

I hope I didn't offend with my hot take, and I know that so many talented human artists use digital, and of course accessibility, resources, and so on. ❤️ I was kind of flattening the entire topic to make a kind of "touch grass" point that only made sense to deploy if you weren't a digital artist 😮‍💨

FWIW I do respect talented digital artists that don't use AI, and it's not as though I've never liked particular digital artwork, of course.

I cannot imagine how frustrated I would be right now if I had real digital art skills and ambitions (or just really enjoyed it) in this social environment. I have to admit that AI and the internet has made me almost not even want to look at digital art at all, and that's just the truth! In no way would I want to convince someone to use analog tools if that didn't work for them, or if they simply prefer digital, or whatever it is. 😫 anyway I'm sorry if it makes me an art bigot. ✌️❤️

@-wc- it's cool man. i prefer it as the format to make things, and being on the internet means i'm naturally used to seeing mostly that, but hell yeah to anyone who puts in the effort to go beyond a tablet. and sorta related, i love the more recent examples of hollywood films using practical effects? watching project hail mary (love that movie) and being able to tell the weird rock thing was in part a puppet just makes me so happy.

and besides, you wouldn't confuse my art for ai anyways. it's not really pixel art, per se, but what was the last ai generated thing you saw that had incredibly sharp lines? :3

@squiddu-real

I had a lot of fun with that movie! I actually forgot to think "is that cgi?" for a while which is rare for me because I usually dont get that immersed in a new film.

I draw with pens and pencils, but I have been curious about actual color lately and am considering using digital for that instead of learning to paint which sounds difficult, time consuming, messy, and expensive 😆

I love sharp lines! and brush strokes. I feel like people with zero art appreciation get to steer the direction of videogames and movies now, by simply being a broader, more profitable, easier to please audience. And for some reason those people dont like organic lines and brushstrokes I guess 😂✌️ The recent article about new vs old Zelda:TOoT art and following comments reinforced this, for me.

even my stupid pixelated art is better than most of the typical hyperrealism game companies love so much. despite, admittedly, not hating the way the ocarina remake looks, i certainly care more for the nintendo games that care to experiment more (which, thankfully, is a lot of them!) yoshi gets big points from me for the storybook aesthetics.

also during this conversation i just started thinking about bob ross out of nowhere, just wanted to mention that.

https://bsky.app/profile/tyleraking.com/post/3mvqlc64vgk25

A reminder that even executives know it's stealing stuff

It’s quite funny that even my dad’s semi advocating for heavier AI usage, but in the workplace, schedule planning and stuff. Though I’ve talked to him at length about how there’s no place for it in the arts, we’re both massive movie fans so it wasn’t a particularly hard conversation. There’s many more, arguably worse examples for people around me but I’ll leave it at that ahaha

not really even sure what ai could schedule so much better than your average assistant before all this mess, but sure.

i would like to hope that i'm approaching the end of my anger that comes out typing stuff like that out. i mean it when i say i could feel the anger in my chest typing that message out. i'm reaching a breaking point and i'm sorry that y'all gotta see that, but it's relieving to do it somewhere like here instead of complaining in dms ad infinitum.

pray the bubble pops and it all comes crashing down. i wanna scrape some enjoyment out of the internet, please...