u/JulianaMurieta

The world was ending then and it was ending in 2023 when ChatGPT "became sentient" and people freaked out about reactions toward it online, a year or two ago AI videos got more realistic and now it's AI music.

So what? People need to relax. But that's hard for people to do because everyone is so brain fried because everyone spent their lives online from 2020 to 2022.

I see people's mindsets shifting online, but no one else seems to see it because they themselves are also brain fried.

It's not that deep.

Everyone is deep in existential dread and it makes using the internet really really hard.

It's not turning your phone into a dumb phone, but using it mindfully, when necessary, I think.

I'll probably get down voted for this, but I think that having a smartphone, on like a prepaid plan is useful, for QR codes at restaurants, maps, and whatnot.

Just because it's a smartphone doesn't immediately make it evil.

Imagine someone who rarely ventures onto social media, doesn't watch much news, and basically just lives a pretty modest life, sees an update for Gemini on their phone, starts using it and thinks it's neat what it can do and eventually starts using it for practical things, like a tool and tries out other features on their Galaxy phone.

One day they go on social media to check out a post someone tagged them in and they're shocked to see that the post and everyone replying to it is against AI. They're confused, "hate it? I'm supposed to hate it? Why? I've done a few things with it and it's saved time, it's a good tool."

"TOOL? it's a tool? You're brain dead chud! It's a abomination! It shouldn't exist" reads one reply.

They're still confused and they step away from that platform: "This is why I never go on there."

Do people hate AI because they saw others hate it first and thought "eh, can't beat em, join em"? Or like "so and so I follow hates it, so I will too" but no actual reason.

I would name drop the band/artist but I'm not sure if it's allowed. When I heard it for the first time it sounded like a metal song with industrial influences, and "raspy" vocals which I thought was just a stylistic choice by the band, but when I looked them up, all signs pointed to AI, and I guess I wasn't expecting it to be this good.

My guess is things will only get better, and honestly, I'm not like those people who pretends to get a headache after finding out something like listened to/liked is AI. I find it very fascinating that we can get technology to do this stuff. Like just imagine the math behind it all.

Edit: Wow, some people are just straight up mean.

It's like when the vacuum cleaner salesman would show up at people's doors, right? Just because he was there didn't mean the homeowner *had* to buy one. They could say "not interested" and just go about their business.

I get ads for everything since I work retail and people constantly mention products by brand name, etc, but that doesn't mean that because I saw the Nike shoes on my weather app that I'm going to be like "Oh boy, Nike shoes, gotta buy now!"

I normally just ignore ads, and just stare at the progress bar when it's the full screen ones.

A few days ago a good friend of mine began acting erratically, turning anything I said into a debate, using debateisms like "strawman", "false flags", "red herrings", "arguing in bad faith" over something innocuous like saying that I tried a new version of a candy bar.

I was confused and I finally said "what's up with the debate terms?" and she said "Well, you're the one arguing in bad faith over a candy bar that is supposedly so good, yet you're not presenting anything that shows it is! You are strawmanning!"

And I realized that she had gotten into a debate video rabbit hole over the past several weeks, to the point where the lingo and behavior of such videos had seeped into her personality, and I had seen this around the web as well.

It looked like hiveminds, where everyone chose a side over anything and would argue back and forth and I realized that all of that was just so stupid.

But why do people do it? It's damaging, it's hurtful, it changes people. Are people desensitized to it all? Like how can someone sit at a bus terminal watching violent or near violent reels on loud, sometimes over and over again, and not think "I should put on headphones" and "this can't be good for me."

I had to step away, from the internet, from my friend, not knowing if this was something permanent or if it was just some "niche internet fad" where people were wanting to become debaters.

It's definitely no longer the place I grew up with, that's for sure.

Like "screw those people, who cares about how they'll earn wages, just leave my art alone and stop the slop machine?"

Like a soccer mom buys her kid a small bag that has an AI soccer ball printed on it, or a guy buys a T-shirt with an AI guitar and the word "rock" on it, and they'll use them like any other product.

You might encounter people sharing or watching or talking about AI generated content as if it were your run of the mill stuff, and no one seems to care or mind how or where it was made.

I have family who watches AI YouTube videos where they show static images and a TTS is telling a story about a mermaid or some parable or even humor content. I've said "isn't it crazy that those people don't exist"? (like these Spanish language joke reels with old people in them) and they say "really? why does that matter? It's fun."

Do you ever feel like screaming at these people? "This is AI!! Stop consuming it!!"

I don't, I let em do what they do.

And will write and make long winded video essays on a piece of art/animation they deem "slop" until the creator admits it's made by them and not AI at all, then suddenly they backpedal and are like "Well, actually you did a pretty good job, reminds me of X or Y"

Why is that?

Why is it wrong to be fascinated by AI or thinking it's pretty cool?

The last time I saw people saying things like this was when "5G is a menace" was a huge talking point.

I remember experiencing 5GUW for the first time at a cellphone shop and seeing 4K video loading and playing smoothly on a mobile connection and telling someone about it and all they could say was "tell that to the people getting CANCER from it!" but somehow older bands were fine?

It's like people would take one statement and completely find ways to warp it into the worst possible things:

"Baby carrots are great for salads"

"Baby carrots are great?? Why don't you tell that to the people who've disappeared in the ocean since humanity first learned to sail the seas??"

I rarely use my phone for much, but I do use it for image editing. I found out there was a desktop version (and web version) of an app I like to use. I downloaded the app on my computer and opened it up, and the features I normally use completely well on the app were extremely limited on desktop. Simple things like zoom and pan were gone, and the desktop app treats uploaded images as a layer over a blank "canvas", so what would be panning is now moving the image away from the canvas, this is not a problem on mobile.

Sometimes I add text to images, and add a highlight layer as well. On desktop there is no way to select more than a simple square or horribly round layer.

I'm starting to suspect that app developers do this on purpose to frustrate users so that they buckle down and use the mobile versions, completely rife with pop-ups, ads, and endless notifications about dumb AI features no one cares for, and will hassle users to upgrade for "premium" features that were once commonplace, like more than 3 font choices, and saving to formats other than JPEG.

The more you're on your phone, the more likely you are to open other apps and scroll away, driving engagement, ad-revenue, clicks, views, downloads, etc.

Oh and did I mention that the app (both mobile and desktop) won't work without an internet connection? If I turn off Wi-Fi and airplane mode, I'm met with a pop-up where I can't even open an image and doodle on it because it pulls everything from the cloud.

Personally, I love using and working with computers than mobile phones. Desktop experiences have more options to block unnecessary distractions with extensions, and the ability to use most things without a connection, but as time goes on, even computers become expensive paperweights without internet access.

I don't know, imagine someone drawing trees over and over for a calendar. Do you still consider them an artist? They had to gain some skill to be able to draw trees similarly over and over and over again. Would you be upset if they were put out of work, or is AI okay in this case, because who's really going to be paying attention to the trees at the bottom corner of each calendar page?

Could you argue that if AI replaced them, they could use that time to explore their artistic skills, but then realize that at work they could at least draw on their own during breaks and now they must take on a non artistic even more menial job to survive and won't be able to make time to draw?

Does AI replacing art apply to all art or just specific types of art? Are small calendar footer trees not considered art? Why or why not? Is there room in the world for generative AI in a case like this?

And I can't help but feel bad for some people who get so "into" their devices and neglect everything else, like ordering a coffee and just letting it sit there because TikTok is beckoning for their undivided attention.