Day 273: Social Media

[Homer Potvin]

And isn't that a sad commentary on human nature? We talk ourselves into whatever is most convenient for ourselves, using the excuse, "Everyone is doing it."

Yeah, that's part of it. And the convenience and affordability and potential for achievement. You can feel the discussion rapidly shifting from AI is anathema to a well, I only use it for X, Y, Z but would NEVER let it write for me. I lot of that sounds like doping in sports, where athletes claimed to only use steroids or other PEDs to "recover from injury," "get out there with my teammates," "give the fans what they paid for."

Yeah, right. You did it to get paid... own it. Even the publishers are using it to sort through their slush piles. How long before they use it to generate their own slush piles? They're paying the editors to make chicken salad of chicken shit anyway. The same ones who said two years ago they would never publish anything AI related will be walking that back faster than... who's the guy who ran marathons backwards?

That guy:

 

[CatrionaGrace]

The same ones who said two years ago they would never publish anything AI related will be walking that back faster than... who's the guy who ran marathons backwards?

Until that happens, I'll try to retain what faith in human nature I possess.

 

[Homer Potvin]

Sites like Canva

I used Canva all the time.

I'm checking Canva out now. Seems pretty cool. How is this not AI, though?

 

[Luxuria]

I'm checking Canva out now. Seems pretty cool. How is this not AI, though?

It is cool. I am honestly not sure what is and what is NOT AI. So I apologize if it ends up being bad for artists and other creatives. Their database has a lot of images, but when I first started using it, I was thinking it was like the Microsoft Clip Art. Which it may or may not be like. Which makes me suggest that I and you should do more research into how much AI Canva uses. (Now I am concerned. I don't want to be part of that mess!)

 

[CatrionaGrace]

Canva users in my writing group explain that images on Canva were bought from the original artists and are availble for subscriber use, kinda like clip art, I reckon. Many of these folks write children's books picture books and use Canva for illustrations. Frankly, the illustrations I've seen look like canned illustrations. Given a choice of two twenty-dollar children's books, one by Jan Brett and one by Canva, which are you going to pick up? Several of the picture book writers do their own illustrations. A few others hire illustrators, most of whom appear to use Canva or a similar program.

 

[Trish]

I'm checking Canva out now. Seems pretty cool. How is this not AI, though?

I haven't used Canva in a long time, but when I did the images that weren't free use were licensed and you had to pay for them or if you were a subscriber you got some of them for free access, but I don't know if that has changed. I wouldn't personally use it for something like illustrations like Catriona said, but for a banner or creating a logo I don't think you need much more than cool lettering and colors. maybe a vector image. At least that's what I think for banners and logos