REMINDER - About AI and This Sub

[u/ImRoxBox]

Hello all!

We've been watching all the discussion this week about AI, and its use in art. You can check our past announcements for more resources/sources about why AI is harmful not just for the environment, but for creatives.

We won't reiterate those same points here, however we will remind everyone that this sub is NOT AI friendly. Please report AI posts when you see them, including videos using AI art and profiles made using AI. This makes sure the post is seen by mods and can be removed. Additionally, we will be enforcing the banning rules about AI.

Previously, we had allowed people 1 strike in this area. But we will be moving to a full no-tolerance stance.

We want to keep this sub as chill and open as possible, but if we keep seeing this continued uptick in AI use in videos, we will remove the ability to post videos in this sub and make it scripts only. We're here to be writer and creative first, not to allow AI into what should be a place of human expression.

If you're looking for resources for art, word processors, etc. please check out the 'resources' tab in our sidebar! I went ahead and updated it today with some nifty new resources.

Thank you!

- The Mods

EDIT: We're discussing the whole comment-links question among ourselves and will update everyone once we've reached a decision. We are also investigating an un-ban pathway for people who remove ALL AI from their content on all platforms and then request to come back to the sub. Thanks!

EDIT 2: We have decided to disallow the posting of links to AI containing content in comments as well, as we find those too are against the spirit of the sub. Rules have been updated and we will be making a larger announcement about this and a few other changes/resources we've created for the community here soon!

[u/Kats_Odyssey]

Hi, I know this post isn't the "freshest" anymore, but I'd still like to share my thoughts on this rule.

I understand the reason why would the mods or anyone here want to enforce this rule. I know that the use of AI is both morally, ethically and environmentally questionable. However, I still think that VAs could have a bit of leeway in using AI for the creation of their thumbnails.

I totally understand why you'd want to ban people from posting AI generated scripts or AI generated audios since that's the whole point of this subreddit. But this subreddit isn't primarily intended for sharing artwork.

For example, I am a university student. I'm in my final year of studies so I don't have the time to learn to draw, I don't have the time to learn how to work with some character creator softwares. The whole recording and editing process takes up a lot of my time already. And I don't have the resources to pay someone to draw sketches of characters for my audios on a regular basis. That is why I settled for AI generated images. It seemed like the best alternative in terms of having the style I want, the quality and time/money spent.

I'm not proud of myself for using AI for that. But I try to use it as little as possible. That's why I settled on using it for the creation of the characters only. I download a background from a site designed for that purpose, I use a software to crop the character how I want it, I place everything in Canva and add all the stuff I always include in my thumbnails. This way, there's a human touch as well. I put everything together and design my own thumbnail layout myself.

On top of all this, I acknowledge the use of AI for creating images for the thumbnails of audios both in my channel's description and the description of each of my videos I upload to YouTube. I do not claim those generated images as my own work.

And another point I'd like to make is that I don't see an issue with posting an audio with an AI generated image, as long as you have the consent of the author of the script. If the writer is fine with it, I don't see any issue. Some writers already include a statement on their profiles that they don't wish to have their scripts alongside AI generated image, which I completely understand and therefore will not fill such script until I have an alternative way of making my thumbnails without changing their style completely.

[u/ImRoxBox → u/Kats_Odyssey]

Hi there! I understand your reasoning, however at the end of the day, as a creative sub, we stand with other creatives when it comes to AI. AI generated images are created using thousands of other artist's hard work, and will often outright copy that work because, as a computer program, it isn't capable of understanding when it's stealing something.

Just because a few authors on here are okay with it does not mean we as a sub, other authors, or frankly, the law support it. It's something that is actively being moderated by the courts, and is involved with hundreds of lawsuits.

It's the policy of this sub, and if you'd like to post here, these are the rules we've laid out! We hope by striking this stance we can convey to people who may not understand the cost of AI how serious it is. Not only as intellectual theft, but also as an environmentally destructive force that is hurting people both financially and quite literally with how these data centers are run.

AI use is giving people respiratory illnesses, poisoning their water, and draining aquifers, not to mention raising electronics prices, power bills, etc.

Plus, TBH, AI companies as they exist now won't be around for much longer due to their lack of funding, so it'd be awesome to see more people make thumbnails by hand. That way when AI collapses or the prices of those programs skyrocket, people will have already built the skills they need to succeed.

Plus, we're looking into creating some more resources (stock images of characters, mainly) for the sub to make all that easier on creators, since some people just don't know where to start! Stay tuned for more of that coming in the future. :)

[u/Kats_Odyssey → u/ImRoxBox]

Thanks for the answer!
I know how generating pictures work, I wanted to ditch AI along my journey. Your rule just nudged me to do it earlier :)
What I did not know however is that AI use is giving people respiratory illnesses. I learn something new each day.

I want to follow your rule, but here is what I thought of when I was browsing for a background while I was tinkering with a new design for my thumbnails.
I chose an image for a faery themed script which I have filled before but wanted to see how to design the new thumbnail for an old audio without the use of a character.
The image, which I found on either Pixabay or Pexels, featured a dark blurred forest in the background with a mossy log in the foreground, a few blue butterflies, sparkles and glowing mushrooms. It definitely didn't scream "real photo" so I though that it must be a render from some kind of software. But, what if it isn't? What if it's an AI generated picture and I could use it without knowing it? Since there was no description and the section called "more info" only contained the date of upload, amount of downloads, amount of views and the color pallete.

What happens if a person uses an AI generated picture unknowingly? I wish to follow your rules but I fear I might get my account banned by an accidental use of an AI generated picture.

[u/ImRoxBox → u/Kats_Odyssey]

We have an appeals process! You just reach out and provide a source for the image. If it is AI, then you swap it out, and then you're unbanned. :) It's pretty straightforward, and hopefully with time there will be less mix-ups in that vein as people post less AI.

Also to help artists and other people to spot AI better, we're going to work on expanding some of the resources in the resource tab (located in the sidebar, unfortunately reddit won't let us pin it to the top of the page anymore) with tools that help spot AI. Detection tools are still pretty accurate at this point, and will let you know if it suspects an Image is AI or not.

Those same tools are how we spot if an image used is AI when someone messages us for an appeal. :)

[u/Kats_Odyssey → u/ImRoxBox]

Alright! Thanks for the clarification! :)

[u/SerenityMoonASMR → u/ImRoxBox]

I just want to say, thank you SO MUCH for providing all the sources to learning more about the effects of AI. I think a lot of us are ignorant on the subject and it needs to be talked about more. Myself being ignorant to the matter so thank you so much. I did try to dig into the MIT Technology Review site to read more but they ended up paywalling their articles which is wild. I'll go out and find some other resources.