ben

videogame artist @CAPYGAMES. Previous: Grindstone, OK KO Let’s Play Heroes, Severed, Guacamelee!. Sheridan grad. He/Him.

[CAPY 💬 Find Your Words is available NOW! @CAPYGAMES]

We're just one week away from Toronto Games Week, so how about a couple more things from CAPY!? Find Your Words will also be playable alongside Battle Vision 💬✨ Be sure to check out both and say hi to the team while you’re at it!

More details here: https://t.co/E7G3t6PV5f

[Kevin Parry @kevinbparry]

My personal experience with AI is that most of the gen AI companies have offered me buckets of money (house money!) to publicly endorse their tools and claim they are central to my creativity (have turned them all down).

What's interesting is that there are SO many people who are hyped about these tools who should be getting the bag instead of me. So all I can gather is that these companies are throwing money around to control the story about who their tools are for. Seems like they'll pay anything to have non-AI folks endorse the AI tools.

[Ambrosia Sky 🪐 - now available on Steam & EGS! @softrainsgames]

Announcing our debut title... Ambrosia Sky. 🪐

Amongst the asteroids of Saturn lies your home, and a mystery that demands to be solved. Clean the contamination, lay the dead to rest, and find her.

https://t.co/pmZnV8yClH

[ben @benthomasaurus]

@MatinaStevis Thank you for this, Ontario Place was my escape during the pandemic. To wake up one day and see hundreds of those trees decimated for this senseless and shaky deal, was heartbreaking.

[wint @dril]

my hope is that AI can empower the Dumbest, Least talented slobs i know to replace everything i ever loved with One Million Years of Content

[Reid Southen @Rahll]

AI companies:

'Instead of artists, writers, and musicians getting paid for their work, what if we just take it and everyone pays us instead?'

It's really that simple.

[ben @benthomasaurus]

@AIandDesign "free exposure" is never an argument for this kind of theft.

[neil turkewitz @neilturkewitz]

We are on the precipice of losing so much of what makes us human. There’s a war on art. A war on empathy. A war on compassion. And they’re all connected and perfectly manifested in AI and the notion that life is machine readable. Artists & non-artists must join in resistance.

[Cartoon Brew @cartoonbrew]

The arrogance and ignorance of AI users goes hand-in-hand. Neither the motion nor design of this animated slop remotely resembles any of the styles this individual listed, yet at no time did they recognize that or bother to understand what they were even trying to replicate.

[ben @benthomasaurus]

@mjarbo You are living up to the claim in your bio my dude

[Ed Newton-Rex @ednewtonrex]

Miyazaki's words are being taken out of context - it's worth being clear about this.

When he said AI is "an insult to life itself", he was responding to AI researchers demoing an AI they'd trained to move like a zombie. He was reminded of a disabled friend, and he thought what they'd done was horrible. He wasn't responding to AI art.

But the documentary this quote is taken from makes his views on AI art pretty clear. He was heavily involved in the making of the documentary. Here's an exchange that slightly precedes the "insult to life itself" comment:

Researcher: “We think that computers will be able to paint like humans five to ten years from now.”
Miyazaki: “If they do that, we won’t need humans.”

And immediately after the researchers tell him they want to build "a machine that draws pictures like humans do", it cuts to him saying, "I fear the world’s end is near. Humans have lost confidence. Hand drawing's the only answer."

Sharing this because I think taking quotes out of context weakens artists' arguments, and isn't needed. Miyazaki's views on AI art are clear. And the wholesale theft of the life's work of the world's creators by AI companies is egregious enough to speak for itself.

[ben @benthomasaurus]

@maxescu @Kling_ai "You" spent 28 minutes creating empty, derivative garbage. There's nothing to celebrate here.

[Brian Merchant @bcmerchant]

The wrecking ball to academia + social services; the unconstitutional executive orders designed to result in a crony-filled Supreme Court nullifying the power of Congress; the rise of AI sold as an automating god to be operated by oligarchs. These things are not unrelated.

[ben @benthomasaurus]

@BijanShahir a Classic Leopard-Face scenario

[Bijan Shahir @BijanShahir]

This is kind of an amazing reversal of narratives. AI guys were laughing at people in different sectors that were threatened, basically telling actors, artists, writers etc. to cope. Now that it's happened to them, intellectual property and hard work is sacred, ToS a covenant.

[Karla Ortiz @kortizart]

Both in the US and the UK GenAi advocates are working overtime to ensure theft is legalized. The reasoning? Because following law and respecting the rights of creatives globally is costly.

Again, if your business depends on theft to function, it’s not a business.Its a racket.

[ben @benthomasaurus]

@AlexJayBrady this is the kinda sci-fi visions that sets my brain on fire

[dannyodwyer @dannyodwyer]

If folks hate H1Bs wait till they hear about L1s. I didn't even get in on merit. I tactically got a job at a satellite office outside the US & transferred. Now I'm a citizen like you. But I can also live anywhere in Europe (including post-Brexit UK!). BEHOLD, THE SUPER IMMIGRANT!

[ben @benthomasaurus]

@alexanderameye Thanks for the info!