[ June 26, 2026 ] I am currently sippin’ and sippin’ on this cup of morning joe. I slept in a bit, and it is currently 11:30 AM as I type this. A little online scuffle occurred on the 23rd between me and another user on a doom-modding discord. It was brief, but it left me with a horrid taste in my mouth. Let me tell you about my problems with generative AI (especially in relation to people who believe themselves to be members of creative communities).

I do not understand the mindset that decides that an element in your creative work can just be generated and be done with. Seriously, I don’t. Strange, because on the face of it, it is rather a simple one. “I don’t really care too much about this element” is the first thought right? Not really having too much mental stock into a particular element, in the case of the aforementioned user it would be an album cover. I didn’t listen to the music (more on that in a bit). So instead of simply having a black box with white text to describe the album, y’know because we don’t care about how the album LOOKS since the music is the main attraction, we just AI it. This means the cover DOES NOT matter enough to have an amateur rendition at the least but still matters enough for… something to be on it. Anything.

The nightmarish inhuman simulacra of what might exist in some artist’s non-existent mind (feverish visions that have never even been dreamed of) is slopped out as the album cover. What is the point? Do we need a cover if the one chosen doesn’t exist as a product of someone’s aesthetic sensibilities? Even the simplest covers make us wonder what choices led up to the final outcome. Was it too much to reach out to a visual artist, even a really unknown one? Was this whole album cover quest too important to just put up a solid color with text and be done with it? It is nonsensical to me. All of this looks like a bizarre joke unless you genuinely believe that these algorithms are helping you as a solo artist…??? I accept the premise of soulless corpos using artificial imagery since nothing done in the sole sake of profitability is ever really in good-faith. We did not expect the best from them. From many individuals it comes across as extremely revealing to me. You are someone who doesn’t believe that it is important whatsoever that another person worked on this. That the end result is what matters. Worse yet, maybe you are trying to trick others into thinking that they are observing something worth looking at. What choices are there to ponder over? What influences? It is merely product, just something to fill-in or substitute what could’ve been.

I did not listen to this user’s music. I don’t need to listen to the music. If a creative didn’t care enough about their project (hence why they must’ve resorted to gen AI), why the fuck should I care about it either?

Oh, and the user essentially implied that I am beneath them for not contributing as much as they have and therefore not as REAL of a community member like them… from now on I am the non-contributor I suppose.

(I have neglected to mention normies like your grandma or uncle using AI to generate profile pictures or creepy family photos. These people do not believe themselves to be artists who are aided by these features and programs. I will also quickly declare that I am very much aware that these nightmares are trained with massive amounts of other people’s photography, graphic design and art. Oh and most important of all is the sheer amount of resources consumed and the economic offsets that it brings to rural and small populations. I will likely write about THAT in the not-so-distant future)