EA should avoid using AI art for non-research purposes?
Ethical concerns aside, I’d rather EA not place themselves on yet another political axis.
I’m concerned about the extent (and this is a fully general argument, I’m aware) of the recent phenomenon where some highly-connected, highly-concerned, highly-online group is able to unilaterally polarize the discussion of <insert-topic-here>, by simply taking a certain stance and being very vocal about it, plus or minus associating this viewpoint with one of the big political camps. Thus forcing everybody else to be on one of two camps, because the matter is formulated so as to leave no possible middle ground of position of neutrality.
To this I say we should say “mu”, in “I explicitly reject your formulation of the question as invalid”. I say we should carve a middle ground even if it doesn’t seem possible. And wherever there is a supposed binary of “do or don’t”, I say we should explicitly reject that binary. You can do X and mean Y, with Y being <thing-supposedly-associated-with-X>. Or you can do X and mean not-Y. Or you can do X and mean Z, with Z orthogonal to Y. The same when you do not-X.
Having said all that, please use AI art, or do not use AI art, and ignore the resulting noise. For if “this causes noise” is to be the main drive for all of your decisions, you’ve already abdicated all power to the noise-makers.
EDIT: I voted “strong disagree” (as in “we should do it if it makes sense to do it”), though I don’t see it reflected in this comment).
After further reflection, I realize I embedded an implicit assumption in my reasoning. There is a default, neutral position, and it is “what everybody else is doing”. I’ve always thought that rule of “every blog post must have an image, by decree of the SEO gods” was silly, but we have to deal with it. I’ve seen a strong move towards AI-generated images around me, instead of clip art collections. This reflects simple economic logic: image collection sites are more expensive than AI (the paid ones), less useful than AI (the free ones), or both. Deviating from what is quickly becoming a de facto norm around us will tend to group us with one or another political camp. Thus, the safest norms are almost always either the “everybody is doing this”, the “it’s the price, stupid”, or both.
Ethical concerns aside, I’d rather EA not place themselves on yet another political axis.
I’m concerned about the extent (and this is a fully general argument, I’m aware) of the recent phenomenon where some highly-connected, highly-concerned, highly-online group is able to unilaterally polarize the discussion of <insert-topic-here>, by simply taking a certain stance and being very vocal about it, plus or minus associating this viewpoint with one of the big political camps. Thus forcing everybody else to be on one of two camps, because the matter is formulated so as to leave no possible middle ground of position of neutrality.
To this I say we should say “mu”, in “I explicitly reject your formulation of the question as invalid”. I say we should carve a middle ground even if it doesn’t seem possible. And wherever there is a supposed binary of “do or don’t”, I say we should explicitly reject that binary. You can do X and mean Y, with Y being <thing-supposedly-associated-with-X>. Or you can do X and mean not-Y. Or you can do X and mean Z, with Z orthogonal to Y. The same when you do not-X.
Having said all that, please use AI art, or do not use AI art, and ignore the resulting noise. For if “this causes noise” is to be the main drive for all of your decisions, you’ve already abdicated all power to the noise-makers.
EDIT: I voted “strong disagree” (as in “we should do it if it makes sense to do it”), though I don’t see it reflected in this comment).
After further reflection, I realize I embedded an implicit assumption in my reasoning. There is a default, neutral position, and it is “what everybody else is doing”. I’ve always thought that rule of “every blog post must have an image, by decree of the SEO gods” was silly, but we have to deal with it. I’ve seen a strong move towards AI-generated images around me, instead of clip art collections. This reflects simple economic logic: image collection sites are more expensive than AI (the paid ones), less useful than AI (the free ones), or both. Deviating from what is quickly becoming a de facto norm around us will tend to group us with one or another political camp. Thus, the safest norms are almost always either the “everybody is doing this”, the “it’s the price, stupid”, or both.