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@woozle@toot.cat · activity timestamp 4 hr. ago

Consider: using free "AI" services is a form of piracy

They're already running the environment-destroying servers, which costs them money, and you're not giving them any to cover it.

This means you're taking away potential revenue by not letting those free services lure you into upgrading to premium.

This should help hasten the popping of the AI bubble, which is something we all* look forward to.

(Just don't integrate it into your workflows or use the output commercially. Maybe send an artist or FOSS coder some money to help compensate for their losses. ...and always be prepared to stop.)

* except for the techbro AI faithful, of course

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Acin ☆

@shadowfals@toot.cat · activity timestamp 2 hr. ago

@woozle consider: not all piracy is good.

What you're arguing for sounds more "the drugs were already at the party" and less "steal from the rich and give to the poor."

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Woozle Hypertwin

@woozle@toot.cat · activity timestamp 2 hr. ago

@shadowfals If usage is itself harmful, then yeah.

In a sane world, there would be funding to study the psych effects of LLM usage. Until then...

TLDR: What a mess.

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Acin ☆

@shadowfals@toot.cat · activity timestamp 1 hr. ago

@woozle there are studies on this.

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Woozle Hypertwin

@woozle@toot.cat · activity timestamp 1 hr. ago

@shadowfals Yay! I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for more info.

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Woozle Hypertwin

@woozle@toot.cat · activity timestamp 3 hr. ago

@noiob Totally with you on that -- as I said, I really don't get that feeling of accomplishment from work that I didn't do, whether it was done by a person or a machine.

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Woozle Hypertwin

@woozle@toot.cat · activity timestamp 3 hr. ago

@noiob That's fair, and I wouldn't ask anyone to use a tool which they didn't feel was helpful.

...which, I'm coming to think, is a significant part of the problem: people being not only constantly nagged to use it but in many cases being required to, for absolutely no good reason.

The thing I am proposing in the OP is as much a thought-exercise about the ethics of using free AI SaaS as it is a possible low-key sabotage idea -- not a mandate for anyone.

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Woozle Hypertwin

@woozle@toot.cat · activity timestamp 4 hr. ago

@noiob I almost added a disclaimer about LLM usage carrying risks of psychological harm, please speak with a therapist if you have any questions...

I'm not going to say anyone's "immune", but I think some people are a lot less susceptible than others.

My mom, for instance, was telling me about the rush she gets from using AI to enhance (real) photos for promoting a noncommercial activity. Harmless on the surface (since she's not, as far as I know, paying them anything), but she was worried about getting addicted.

I've never experienced that, myself. I used AI image-generation once to make cover-art for a song-parody -- because I had the idea I wanted, but not the skill or time to draw/paint it (nor, at the time, the money to hire someone to do it for me) -- but I never felt pride (or a sense of accomplishment or whatever) in the cover-art itself.

This is something that needs to be studied...

I suppose one could argue that enough people might misjudge their ability not to become addicted, and end up buying premium services anyway -- is that part of your concern?

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