I feel this needs it's own thread.

I'll quote some responses from the other thread here.

as far as AI goes i'm very very skeptical. i think it's something that could be beneficial if it worked well and could do mundane tasks. the problem is so much of LLM type AI doesn't work well. that's the kind of AI that takes in a bunch of data and provides output. ChatGPT, Diffusion, etc. i'm not super familiar with the generative AI for art. it seems like it could be cool for creative artists but i do think there should be some kind of compensation/opt out for artists who's work is used to train the AI. do these companies even know who's art was used thought? i doubt it. and the idea of people selling AI generated art doesn't sit well with me.

i'm not an artist but i am a web developer and the code hosting services i use have rolled out AI coding assistants that learn off code that people store on their hosting services. there is no compensation for using people's code to train the AIs. in fact they charge you to use the AI and your code helped train. there is also no guarantee that the code training the AI is good, working code either. the results based on my personal testing are hit or miss. it's nice for repetitive stuff. but as far as anything challenging i find the results disappointing based on the hype.

i could go on and on about AI and how much i don't like it. i would never think it's bad to play around with for fun. I've done this myself with ChatGPT. my real worry is jobs lost and poor quality output. there are already a bunch of junk AI books on Amazon put out by scammers trying to make money for nothing. i also worry that companies with greedy leadership who don't care about quality and want to increase profit will try to replace employees with AI. there isn't much regulation yet and the people who run the leading AI tech companies suck and don't care about people. TBH i think they're a bit out of their minds. replacing humans with bad AI is bad for employees who lose jobs and customers who have to deal with a poor experience. there isn't a vision from these people to make the world better. to have everyone do less work and live in abundance. in it's current form AI is a hype bubble and a grift. like crypto and the metaverse was/still is. even the commercials promoting AI in software and devices don't really say much about what the AI will actually do. it's just "hey we added AI. give us more money!"

and yeah the "deepfake" videos terrify me. especially since so many people believe that if it's on video, it must be real. also i've read that a lot of it is porn so that's horrifying for people who may end up in a video without consent.

like most stuff that comes out of big tech, AI could be cool. but not in it's current form.

I am actually less scared of AI (do we need a separate thread to discuss this btw? It's interesting) as in real AI (actual artificial intelligence) than human-developed and human-taught AI, because that enables it to be influenced and manipulated in dangerous ways.

As a writer, too, I take pride in what I write being my own. I don't want someone to look at what I write and think I used something to help me write it. I don't know if that is the same as going out to artistically collaborate using the tech and acknowledging it as a tool...I think it may be different with words than with pictures. Not sure how...just how it feels to me.

I DO worry about it being used by people in universities to cheat assignments going forward. I don't want a doctor who didn't write their own assignments or do their own research to get their medical degree. :/ Plagiarism is already a big issue in universities (speaking as a former GTA, it's something we were trained to deal with). But AI is like having another person write an essay for you, only cheaper :/ I think this could be a problem in the future. Dr Google and all that :/

And I worry about how AI already represents neurodiversity - I saw someone do some research on this, and AI presents an autistic person as a gloomy, skinny, white male in his twenties. It's not helpful.

You both bring up really good points.

@Beth, you're right about it being a nifty new thing that people and companies are exploiting, like crypto, etc. Maybe that's one of my things, because I do think AI and robotics will help humans reach a utopia one day. But for right now it's mostly people using it for fun or profit. And I am kind of sick of all my programs adding AI stuff to them. Photoshop has done it and it's very pushy about using it. And YouTube, when I go to upload content, it's AI this and AI that.

@Taffeta, I sometimes forget there are people who would use it for bad things. You brought up things I've never even thought of, like the doctor thing. That IS worrisome. And yeah, more complex concepts that aren't widely understood tend to be stereotyped, that's the fault of the human coders. It's like that robot from Dubai. I forget her name. In interviews she has said things like robots will take over and humanity is doomed, etc. But again that's on the people who programmed her. ChatGPT is getting like that too. When it was first released it was much more interesting to talk to before people sent it down the meme hole. Now it's like chatting to someone on the site that shall not be named.

Hopefully, somewhere there is a dedicated group of people working on an AI that won't be polluted with awful things. That day might be a long way off still.

So, yes, I agree that it can be dangerous and maybe we aren't ready for it yet. I still find it fascinating.

I took a gamble and purchased this on Aliexpress for $28. I was prepared to get a bad bootleg but she is actually really nice!

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I'm going to see what else the seller has, they didn't have all the figures, but I think they had Sunset Shimmer who I would like too. I'd also like Rainbow Dash but they didn't have that one.

I've gotten back in my groove and made this simple lady between waiting for other ponies to dry or bake.

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Her inspiration came from two candles sitting on my bookshelf. One has grey wax and the other a pale yellow. They both have outlines of flowers on them too. I thought they looked nice together and decided to make this pony She's meant to be shabby chic, so I painted a few layers of gesso on her first to give the paint some texture. The paint was put on quickly to leave broken brush lines and give her an overall look of being worn. The yellow dots were done with a Q-Tip.

Her eyes are terrible! I need to practice. All my eye knowledge has left my brain and hand

I love Shimmerlocks, but right now she doesn't have any non-metallic grey hair. I need a warm grey. Doll Planet has no regular greys either. A couple other suppliers have moved their site or are gone completely. I know DH is an option and I did actually go look on the site, but ehhhhh...

So does someone have a couple warm grey hanks hanging about you can part with? I'd rather buy outright than do a trade right now.

I found this on Amazon.

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I've looked at Metal Earth lots of times. I've had the beginner dragon on my wishlist for a long time. When I saw this, I had to have it! Metal and I do not get along very well as far as crafts go, I'm always stabbing myself with wire or getting a cut on aluminum foil. So I'm a little apprehensive about putting it together. Some of the pieces are so tiny! I do make miniatures, but from clay, not metal sheets

Anyway, it looks like they made the rest of the mane 6. I only saw AJ for sale though.

Climbing a mountain? Bungee Jumping? Swimming with whales?

If you could pick one activity to try, what would you pick?

I've always wanted to go scuba diving, so I would pick that

See this thread for the challenge info - https://mlparena.com/index.php?topic=405299.0

Please choose 1 option. This will be a fun accessory in addition to the pony.

Everyone is allowed to vote! You don't have to be in the challenge. The more votes, the better!