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AI Coaster Fun

Please don't.

Not only from a ethical point of view (how many millions of people's art work has been scraped non consensually to feed these slop machines?) but from an environmental point of view.
"Oh but Elly, just one image isn't going to affect much!" Do you know how much water and electricity is needed to keep these plagiarism machines running to spit out a single warped Ghibli mockery? The heat generated by all the data centres?
The amount of artists that no longer have jobs (not just the visual arts) because somebody decided "we trained this machine on your work and others and now it does your job!"?

Be better.

thesustainableagency.com

Environmental Impact of Generative AI | Stats & Facts for 2025

Generative AI helps us with our creativity. But it might be coming at a cost. Let's take a look at 20 statistics on generative AI's environmental impact.
thesustainableagency.com thesustainableagency.com
https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117
www.forbes.com

The Problem With AI-Generated Art, Explained

Generative AI is doing damage to the creative industries, devaluing the skills of artists to produce unsettling, uncanny AI art.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
 
Electric Elly said:
Please don't.

Not only from a ethical point of view (how many millions of people's art work has been scraped non consensually to feed these slop machines?) but from an environmental point of view.
"Oh but Elly, just one image isn't going to affect much!" Do you know how much water and electricity is needed to keep these plagiarism machines running to spit out a single warped Ghibli mockery? The heat generated by all the data centres?
The amount of artists that no longer have jobs (not just the visual arts) because somebody decided "we trained this machine on your work and others and now it does your job!"?

Be better.

thesustainableagency.com

Environmental Impact of Generative AI | Stats & Facts for 2025

Generative AI helps us with our creativity. But it might be coming at a cost. Let's take a look at 20 statistics on generative AI's environmental impact.
thesustainableagency.com thesustainableagency.com
https://news.mit.edu/2025/explained-generative-ai-environmental-impact-0117
www.forbes.com

The Problem With AI-Generated Art, Explained

Generative AI is doing damage to the creative industries, devaluing the skills of artists to produce unsettling, uncanny AI art.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com
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As someone who has worked in the creative TV, film and video industry for over 20 years, I politely disagree, but still respect your stance.

The machines learn in the same way that humans do. We take in information from the outside world and use it as a reference on the work we then create. We are influenced by the work of other artists, their visual styles, their techniques. We do not consider this plagiarism.

We see art in museums, we see art in books, and magazines, and newspapers, and on the streets. We hear stories, we read books, we watch performances, we play experiences. All of this informs the art we then create.

When we create a collage, we're using the work of others to create something new, in the crudest form.

We've been using AI in digital art, in some form or a other, for at least 40 years but it's always gone by a different name. The only things which have changed are the leveling of the field for access, and the use of distributed servers around the world to share the computing load.
The amount of artists that no longer have jobs (not just the visual arts) because somebody decided "we trained this machine on your work and others and now it does your job!"?
Click to expand...
I find this argument a little hypocritical, based on my own experience. Due to the proliferation of digital workstations, I can now operate as a one goose band.

I can create my own score to a video by using a digital keyboard, some MIDI instruments and Pro Tools.

I no longer need to rent an expensive studio for ADR or voiceover work, I can purchase a cheap mic and spend an hour or two in Audition to get the right sound.

Thanks to the DJI Osmo, I no longer need to rent a Steadicam and employ an operator. I can do it all single winged. I could buy a drone which will track and follow me, to get some truly outstanding visuals which would have required entire production teams to do just 10 years ago.

Technology evolves and it gives us new tools all of the time. These are new tools. They don't need to be feared, they need to be embraced. You can use them ethically and creatively.

The initial environmental concerns are of some note, but using the same logic I also shouldn't be uploading and storing videos on digital cloud services. I shouldn't use YouTube as a platform.

As technology evolves, as it always does, the environmental impact of using these tools will also shrink. Efficiencies mean that they'll be less energy intensive. They're also pushing companies to invest in cheaper and cleaner electricity technology again. AI could get us to the point of cold fusion. We couldn't get to the solar panel, wind energy, or nuclear fission without the fossil fuels which came before them.

Be nuanced.
 
Grow. Up.

Also as a creative in the industry, know the difference between Generative AI and AI. Sadly it's all getting lumped into one umbrella, which is incorrect. Software within cameras for stabilisation? Cool. AI that detects cancer earlier than humans can? Amazing. Grammar and spell checks? Great. The list goes on.

Generative AI that is stealing mine and other creatives work without our consent, no matter how many things we opt out of. Sure, you could just not share, and there is always a risk to posting anything online, but there is a stark difference.
To quote Hiyao Miyazaki, a creative far better than both you or I, Generative AI is an "insult to life itself."

I am not scared of new tech. I am against tech that plagiarises with greedy little man children tech bros crying that they want copyright laws abolished so their bloated ego can keep making billions.

To quote yourself, be nuanced and know the difference between AI and Generative AI.
 
This is a new and needless leisure related method of burning electricity, I must admit.
Every image does indeed use a considerable amount of energy, uncosted usually for the end user, and, as it becomes common usage and everywhere via social media, is yet another way of heating things up.

I had thought this in other topics where images have been generated for fun, but I didn't want to be seen as the miserable party pooper, again.

But it is another shiny new tool we have to get used to I suppose.
 
I'm not going to pretend I understand much of what either of you (Goose, Elly) ave just said, however I'm not sure that creating silly pictures of geese on coasters is stealing anything from anyone?

I get it if someone nicked "proper" art, smashed it through AI, and then sold it as their own, but used in this specific way (creating silly pictures for amusement purposes only) I don't really understand the level of vitriol?

If someone can explain (without shouting at me or making me feel like shit) I'd be grateful.

Edit: also, surely posting on this forum also uses electricity, so should we stop doing that too?
 
But even so, lots of stuff humans do for fun uses power and contributes to the heating - not sure this thread (e.g. humourous AI pictures) is the bit to have a ding dong about?

(Is there a climate change thread we should have this particular bit of the convo on instead?)
 
Electric Elly said:
Grow. Up.

Also as a creative in the industry, know the difference between Generative AI and AI. Sadly it's all getting lumped into one umbrella, which is incorrect. Software within cameras for stabilisation? Cool. AI that detects cancer earlier than humans can? Amazing. Grammar and spell checks? Great. The list goes on.

Generative AI that is stealing mine and other creatives work without our consent, no matter how many things we opt out of. Sure, you could just not share, and there is always a risk to posting anything online, but there is a stark difference.
To quote Hiyao Miyazaki, a creative far better than both you or I, Generative AI is an "insult to life itself."

I am not scared of new tech. I am against tech that plagiarises with greedy little man children tech bros crying that they want copyright laws abolished so their bloated ego can keep making billions.

To quote yourself, be nuanced and know the difference between AI and Generative AI.
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I understand and appreciate the emotional toil that such discussions can create, but there is absolutely no need to be derisive.

I engaged in good faith discussion with you. I haven't rubbished your stance, I haven't tried to discredit you, I haven't told you to grow up. I politely acknowledged your feelings on the matter but highlighted my own objections.

It is worth nothing that your original post did not distinguish between generative AI or general AI either.

I didn't and haven't called for copyright laws to be abolished. I specifically called for ethical use of AI. I certainly do not agree with Labour's intention to carve out exceptions in copyright law for AI training, without compensation.

Humans are generative AI machines ourselves, drawing on millennia of previous work. You don't get to rock and roll without the Blues, which is arguably an unethical whitewashing of black derived music. You don't get the neo-classical revival, without looking to the art of our ancient past. You don't get the Baroque Pop of the early 1970s, without Bach and Handel.

You and I have learned our crafts based entirely on work belonging to other people before us. It's the scale that's different with Generative AI.

There does need to be compensation for work which is currently under the protection of copyright, but at the same time the estates of the Brothers Grimm weren't compensated by Walt Disney for the use of their fairytales.

We are drifting wildly off topic, from the thread's intention, but if you would like to continue this discussion in good faith, and politely, we can always set up another thread.
 
GooseOnTheLoose said:
We are drifting wildly off topic, from the thread's intention, but if you would like to continue this discussion in good faith, and politely, we can always set up another thread.
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I do find it somewhat ironic that a thread that was created on the back of another threading drifting off topic has now also drifted off topic!

Clearly there is a valid debate to be had about the impact of generative AI, and as Goose says if people would like to continue with that then feel free to create a thread. This one was started with the purpose of having a bit of harmless fun, so let's keep it to that.

Thanks!
 
Rob said:
This one was started with the purpose of having a bit of harmless fun, so let's keep it to that.
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I'm sorry Rob, but the very nature of generative AI contradicts having a thread of "a bit of harmless fun." in the grand scale of things. Using it still trains these machines.

I'm very heated on this topic, and tired of GenAI.
 
Electric Elly said:
I'm sorry Rob, but the very nature of generative AI contradicts having a thread of "a bit of harmless fun." in the grand scale of things. Using it still trains these machines.

I'm very heated on this topic, and tired of GenAI.
Click to expand...
I understand that, but it's not for me or TowersStreet to say whether people should or should not use it. And posting it does not go against any of our Member Expectations.

As I said, there clearly is a debate to be had on the matter so someone is free to create a new thread for that debate!
 
These are both funny and scarily life-like in some ways; I’m very much enjoying looking through some of these images!

The videos posted by @GooseOnTheLoose in particular do look surprisingly life-like in some regards, and there is something strangely humorous about seeing pictures and videos of geese riding theme park rides!

Out of curiosity, which tools are people using to create these? Is this regular ChatGPT or Gemini, or is it an art-specific tool?
 
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