Raw LLM Responses

So, with the Internet Archive losing their appeal the other day, I think it's important that we take a moment to talk about dualism vs dialectics in this situation. I'm an artist. When generative image tools began popping up, obviously I was upset. I still don't like them. BUT I can also acknowledge that the same laws that have condemned a very necessary piece of archival work are the ones that will be used to take AI down (theoretically). And like... I don't know about you, but I'd rather work harder on my craft to KNOW I'm better than some robot, as opposed to suddenly getting very cool with fucked up copyright laws that have been making free access to art less and less viable. There's a trade here. It's not a nice one, but the reality is that you cannot be pro-Internet Archive AND staunchly, unerringly anti-AI. It's not possible. That is not how law works. Likewise, in reading more about the NaNo statement, there was mention of another author who recently (and I would argue ethically) published a novel using multiple AI tools. He made very conscious decisions of what to use, what to edit, and employed his expertise in order to make what is basically a literary collage that examines the tropes and stylings of your average scifi-noir story. It is, simply put, fascinating. It is art. It is a culmination of decisions and interactions that have resulted in a newly synthesized work. If you have ever seen things like blackout poetry and been content with their existence, then I think a valid case can be made for this novel. (The book is called 'Death of the Author', for those interested). I won't lie -- I had my own knee-jerk reaction when I first started reading about the author's process. There's still a lot of ethical loopholes that I think tech giants are finding and exploiting in order to garner larger datasets. You SHOULD be able to have a very visible option on every site to opt out of having your data scrubbed for those sets. The fact that opt-out buttons as a whole need to be FOUGHT for and hunted down is disgusting, and generative text/image companies would prefer if things stayed this way. There was, I think, a way for NaNo to prompt a nuanced discussion about what art is and how to pursue it in the digital age. They had examples they could've referenced that would have been thought-provoking and interesting! But instead of doing that, they showed their whole ass and created a mass exodus from their organization. All I can say is that I'm happy that people are still flocking to new places to keep writing, and the spirit of creativity is not dead. The world and the laws we've mapped out to govern it are confusing as all hell, but I am grateful to wake up everyday in a world where artists keep making art.