Dearest Readers, I never imagined I would have to make my stance on this subject any more blunt than it already is. And yet, we live in a society. I hope that with this entry, I can make my stance, my reasoning, and just how unlikely I am to change my stance on this so abundantly clear that I never have to address it again. 

FUCK GENERATIVE AI. I am not friends with people who use it. I will never make friends with someone who uses Generative AI. If you want to be on my blog roll or otherwise want to associate with me and you use generative AI, I disavow you. No, I will not do art or writing trades with you. I literally think you are an entitled parasite, and I hope your perineum rots. 

If I ever find out some snuck into a blog circle I run and uses Generative AI, i will kick your ass out with no questions asked.

AI Democratizes Nothing, and No You May Not Sit With Us

This is the usual garbage argument I hear about AI. People bitch and moan about how expensive art supplies are, about how programs are. Bitch, you can go to the dollar store and get some ballpoint pens, a pencil, and a notebook. Or you could re-use the backs of school print outs like I did when I was a teenager. 

Word processing programs come free with computers and phones these days. I make heavy use of Google Docs even as a professional writer on the side. There are artists who make ephemeral sculptures out of fallen leaves on autumn days—which are free. 

Art supplies exactly free, unless you want the clout of using expensive things and the glory of ‘achievements’ without the work. It’s cheaper to buy some notebooks and pencils than to buy a ChatGPT subscription. 

But what about people with disabilities? Listen, the best art comes from people who have unique outlooks on life due to their experiences and the ways life challenged them. I personally have a malformed brain because major depressive disorder was so severe from a young age that it did not develop properly. 

Yayoi Kusama has OCD and Schizophrenia, and lives voluntarily in an asylum while being one of the most celebrated contemporary Japanese artists currently. Helen Keller lost her sight at a very early age, and is a historic literary giant. Sarah Biffen was an accomplished painter, and she didn’t have any hands. There are many historically important composers who went deaf. While it has not been proven, several key figures in the arts such as Agatha Christie, Leonardo de Vinci, Virginia Wolf, and many others are strongly believed to have had ADHD. Stevie Wonder, anyone?

So I literally never want to hear bullshit about ‘oh but I need something to make creation accessible to me’ when I have frequently had my ass handed to me by blind writers in free-from novel-style RPG competitions. Dragon Naturally Speaking has existed for some time. And the disabled have always been able to make art. The fact that this even remains an argument just shows that the people who use that argument are 110% unaware of the accomplishments of the ‘disabled’ and only want to use them as a prop for their bullshit.

Art as Process, Not Product

I think that non-creatives have a really messed up view of the creative process. Media portrays it as the creative suddenly being hit with this perfect creative inspiration, and then everything passively just comes together in a flurry of motion.

That is not how it is. That’s never been how it is. If that were the case, we would have two year olds celebrated the world over as genius creatives of the century. They have ideas coming out of every orifice at all times. All forms of creation require three things: Time, Effort, and Skill. And skill takes time to develop. Effort is by definition how much time and energy you sink into the process of becoming better. So what I’m really saying is that the active process is what really makes art–not the goddamn idea.

In the freelance TTRPG industry, there are absolutely zero insufferable Big Name Fans who get to work on projects because their ideas are so good. That’s because they can’t deliver for shit, and are impossible to work with. Every project lead I have ever worked with has been happy to work with someone who doesn’t even know the rules but can deliver their draft on time.

Don’t get it twisted: people are given the exact wrong idea about the process of creation and it does give people a huge sense of guilt/imposter syndrome. And that sucks. I personally believe all creatives would be better off the literal microsecond they realize that this magical state of total and perfect inspiration is a myth made up and perpetuated by mass media.

Theft : The Origins of AI

Aside from the fact that most Generative AI has been literally proven to have been trained on stolen artwork? That the AI bros trying to sell it overtly lied about? The fact that images are scrapped in bulk without permission still and thus we have those weird little ‘artifacts’ that are created by AI not understanding artist signatures? The fact that a lot of AI has been trained on stolen (no HIPAA forms signed), sensitive medical data without patients’ knowledge? There’s also the goofball hypocrisy that AI bros want to cry when someone steals their AI program when they are thieves themselves.

Generative AI is theft. It is modeled and trained on stolen files in order to impersonate effort for the sake of clout and attempting to LARP as a creative.

Let’s not even get into the number of AI bros who are pissed that actual creatives don’t want to do ‘art’ trades with them. They are literally angry that people don’t want to trade their time, effort, and skill for nothing in return–i.e. get scammed.

A Total Sense of Entitlement

So what do the arguments pro Generative AI boil down to? Well, that the people who make them don’t know shit about the disabled population, nor do they respect their achievements. They are willing to lie about art or writing ‘costing too much’ when they will actively pay for a theft machine to Do One Whole Steal. They also don’t understand why their single button push is not valued at the same rate of hours and hours and hours of dedication.

They don’t want to commission someone else to make what they want–because they want to take the credit.

They literally just want praise for nothing and clout for having money in their pocket.

If creating is too hard for you, or you aren’t willing to put in the effort–just commission an actual creative. You will have had the exact same amount of input into the process, but someone will have actually been paid for their time.