The Society of Authors (UK) is helping launch this: an identifier for human-authored (i.e. non-AI) books: https://humanauthored.co.uk/

[wordshaper@weatherishappening.network]

@Npars01 @cstross I'd say the current wave of AI investment is the greatest misallocation of resources in human history but I suspect we could legit Homer Simpson that one because I have faith in humanity that we can misallocate even *more* resources in the future somehow.

[lazarou@mastodon.social]

@cstross "aaaaaand they used AI-generated artwork"

jfc, they had ONE job....

[datarama@hachyderm.io]

@cstross This is how they get us.

Writers would never use AI-generated slop writing, but they'll happily use AI-generated slop imagery.
Artists would never use AI-generated slop imagery, but they'll happily display art to AI-generated slop music.
Musicians would never use AI-generated slop music, but they'll happily use AI-generated slop writing for lyrics.

(And nobody cares about AI-generated slop code.)

[cassolotl@eldritch.cafe]

@cstross

> EDIT: aaaaaand they used AI-generated artwork ‍️

That AI illustration isn't visible on their website now, so I assume it was a mistake and they removed it when they noticed.

[ainmosni@social.ainmosni.eu]

@datarama @cstross I wish I could say that people cared about slop code, but too many devs are showing just how little they care about the quality of their work.

[unkx@icosahedron.website]

@Lazarou @cstross the had ONE job and they decided to outsource it to slop machines ‍️

[datarama@hachyderm.io]

@ainmosni @cstross I mean, I do - but I know I'm very much swimming against the stream here, and also the stream is full of piranhas.

[meganl@mas.to]

@cstross Unfortunately I've seen this a lot - authors using AI artwork based on theft while decrying theft of their writing....

It's more of leopards eating faces, I guess...

#FuckAI

[pseudonym@mastodon.online]

@Lazarou @cstross

Ouch! The irony, it burns!

[ainmosni@social.ainmosni.eu]

@datarama @cstross I do as well, and everyone in my bubble does as well, but then again, I've also been picky about my bubble, and I'm assuming the worst from outside it.

[lemmus@social.vivaldi.net]

@ainmosni @datarama @cstross

_My_ field requires human finesse and insight, but those other fields are perfectly well served with AI slop. Which makes it really fascinating how many developers willingly destroy their code bases with slop. (Some are forced to, but many enough do it eagerly and willingly...) (Yes, I'm a developer. Yes, I refuse to work with genAI.)

[datarama@hachyderm.io]

@Lemmus @ainmosni @cstross I'm in that boat too, but I think it's a matter of time before I'm pushed out of the industry (inasmuch as the industry survives at all).

[lemmus@social.vivaldi.net]

@datarama

Yeah, interesting times, indeed...

[ainmosni@social.ainmosni.eu]

@datarama @Lemmus @cstross It depends, it's all built on a massive amount of subsidies, and even then, it looks like it's already doing more damage than even the slop pushers are willing to tolerate (although they're still in denial).

I wouldn't be surprised if it goes the way you say, but also not if this ends blowing up in their faces.

[datarama@hachyderm.io]

@ainmosni @Lemmus @cstross I really don't know. And that scares me, to be honest. The slop machines got a lot better than I thought they would, and also they improved faster than I thought they would.

Software dev is basically the only thing I can do, so if the entire field does get steamrolled by AI, I'm pretty screwed.

But hey: *Usually* the smart money isn't on the very worried guy who happens to have a clinical anxiety disorder or two being right. I could well be wrong!

[funhouseradio@mastodon.world]

@datarama @cstross
I hate autotune but I love drum machines. Maybe hypocrisy. Idk.

[holothuroid@rollenspiel.social]

@cstross
AI has shown us one thing. We vastly underestimate the complexity, skill and creativity behind *other* people's work. It's never our work that AI can replace only those minor things other people do.

[toerror@mastodon.gamedev.place]

@ainmosni @datarama @cstross Development is fairly unique among the creative professions in that it contains a lot of primarily financially focused careerists who know that the way to succeed ( and now survive ) is to ride whatever the current wave of hype is.

[cstross@wandering.shop]

@toerror @ainmosni @datarama This is new this century. I think things were rather different in the 20th century, changing significantly from the early 1970s through to the late 1990s. The new finance focus has really taken root since 2008. (Which was, oh, 18 years ago, so a generation. /me: old now.)

[bytex64@awesome.garden]

@datarama @cstross This is it. The danger is that generative AI content is corrosive to human connection.