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brileigh
@brileigh
I worry for my friends on the left who fall down the AI hatred hole and never learn how to use these magical tools What happens when they no longer have competitive advantage in work/education/creative environments? You can’t die on this side of the hill forever.
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polymutex
@polymutex.eth
I feel this. I have artist friends who recently shared some perspective on it. According to them, the initial basis of the dislike doesn't really come from the capability itself, but from the kind of people it brought into their space. AI art was a step change in the minimum skill threshold of people who could feasibly sell art for a living. What this attracts is a lot of grifter-types, so much so that the Venn diagram overlap between AI art users and grifters is near-total. These grifter-types end up taking valuable spots at exhibitions and conventions that previously went to traditional artists. It feels like a big slap in the face to them. Another aspect of it is the content that these tools were trained on, which was for the most part done non-consensually on artwork published on the internet prior to AI art being a thing. That's another slap in the face. But there's another dimension to the hatred which stems from the collective...
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polymutex
@polymutex.eth
Traditional artists are a tight-knit community. This is a natural consequence of multiple factors: - Very cut-throat industry where few can make a living independently, so lots of them end up in shared living accommodations with like-minded folks. This breeds a "we're all in this together" vibe which is great when it works but also veers into tribalism and ingroup/outgroup thinking in some cases. - Lots of neuro-atypical folks who don't fit well in broader society and need a community that has an overabundance of them to feel at ease. - A general unifying view of the world as "big tech vs us" which feeds further into tribalism, which NFTs and later AI art all fed right to reinforce. Both of these have lots of grifting going on. All of this leads to a nearly-echo-chamber-y environment where dissent is not tolerated. So they told me in no unclear terms that if they were to personally experiment with AI Art tools, the knowledge that they did that would cause them to be exiled from their own community.
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polymutex
@polymutex.eth
I worry a lot for them because I too think this isn't a stable equilibrium. Technology will improve and adapt to match market demand. If this market demand only comes from grifters, then this tech will get disproportionately better for the grifters. Breaking this cycle seems essential.
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brileigh
@brileigh
Totally. That’s what worries me is I was *right there* with them on these views, and I still would be if I never transitioned out of art as a career and into crypto.
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polymutex
@polymutex.eth
What changed your view? Is it the career change that gave you a new perspective and changed your view, or was it your view that changed which then influenced your career choice?
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brileigh
@brileigh
Good q. Career change for sure. Being on Twitter and suddenly being exposed to different viewpoints + witnessing the explosion of chat gpt/ mid journey use cases in a generally positive light was prob crucial. I got hooked on NFTs, DeFi, and crypto more broadly because of the left views I entered the space with. I saw DAOs as co-ops. I saw how DeFi could unfuck my credit score or get me closer to paying off loans. I saw AI as a tool anyone, anywhere in the world could suddenly use to access to a wealth of knowledge/opportunities regardless of what privileged upbringing they might have had or not had in life. I think a lot of leftist values for things in crypto and ai are not communicated enough and it just gets grouped as a right side thing when it’s literally not about any side lol. I probably need to do more reflecting on this so ty for the prompt!
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polymutex
@polymutex.eth
It's great that you got exposed to those views. Totally agree that these aspects are very under-communicated. One difficulty is that when they are brought up, they're not well-explained and there's not many examples to point to. In crypto I think Gitcoin is the best example, but wish there were more. I wouldn't blame anyone for this situation, it's probably just a consequence of society already being polarized which then forces non-partisan technologies to get forcefully bucketed into whichever group adopts it first. Then other groups have no choice but to oppose it purely on the basis that the group they don't like adopted it. So it's great that spaces like /cryptoleft exist and I wish they were bigger, even if I don't agree with all of what's said there. Let me know if you write something longer on this, would love to read it!
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