Crashout

I'm writing this, roughly two days into a self-imposed hiatus from most social media. I'm active in some places, but for the most part I've pulled back from a good chunk of my main use social media, and that means Bluesky, Mastodon, and Discord. Spoiler: This is going to continue for an yet-to-be-determined amount of time.

 

As of these last few years, world suck has increased exponentially. My mental state has declined rapidly. Mostly because of generative AI and the sheer volume of evil it has allowed. Worse, because I consider myself to be an artist (a hobbyist photog who has done some professional work here and there), we were one of genAI's first victims, with boosters who don't know what art even is demanding we adopt it, or get "left behind".

 

I've even seen people I'd consider to be friends say stuff like this. That human artists are "slow and expensive". Nevermind the fact that creatives have never been paid what they're worth, ever. We're usually fighting for table scraps. (And this is probably why when I took photography in college back in 2010, our instructor started the course off by saying "if you're here to make money with this, you're in the wrong line of work.")

 

Anyway, I don't want to retread old ground. Simply put, these AI slopheads have been looking to put multiple fields out of work for their machine god and creatives were the first target, so this was personal pretty much from the get go. And now, mathematicians are feeling that burn as OpenAI drops yet another slop grenade on another profession, with boosters coming out the woodwork to tell that field that their careers just got rendered useless and they should maybe go flip burgers at McNaldo's.

 

The world outside is sucky, and for the past few years the world of retrocomputing has been my (and many others') escape from the suck of modern tech. Going back to when tech was a net good, not this thing that we wish we could stuff back in the genie's lamp.

 

Unfortunately, there are some who would rather hold the door open, and welcome this garbage even into the world of retrocomputing, by vibe coding old software for old systems and getting down on their knees and praising the machine god for allowing them to do things they never thought they could ever do with these old systems. I just. keep. seeing this garbage. Over and over.

 

It's especially bad in the retro gaming space where decomps/recomps done sloppily with AI are everywhere, so it seems.

 

In a few posts from people who slop coded something for an old platform, you see the same garbage the artists got: "This is gonna change everything! Programmers better adapt, or get left behind! Their careers are toast! LLMs democratize software development and anyone can make a program and..."

 

sigh.

 

I was already kinda on the edge with this. Retrocomputing was one thing that made me feel happy, and now the slopheads are pinching it from both sides, both by making slopcoded software for old stuff, and the splash damage from AI companies bogarting all the RAM/SSD supplies such that prices have been driven up for even low capacity potato drives to keep our retro systems alive. (SD cards too!)

 

And just seeing how prevalent it has become in the retro circles has made me feel like just selling all my hardware and getting out. Because it's harder to find joy in this space. Not saying you have to feel the same way I do, but for me this space was supposed to be my escape from the suck of the modern world, and yet there are people just welcoming it in with open arms. I can't even. (There were even people trying to bring blockchain garbage to old machines a while ago! And that fizzled out, rightfully so.)

 

What finally just lit the fire that caused my brain to explode was the coverage going around about the supposed "clean room decomp and recomp of Adobe's creative apps". Which--shocker--is all vibe coded. All of it.

 

The coverage around it really made every bit of my faith in humanity just...fall to the ground and shatter.

 

"This is going to change software forever!" "Finally, someone beating Adobe at their own game!" "This is the power of AI!" and other gushing over this. I hate Adobe as much as the next person, but good fuck, not like this.

 

The software is vibe coded garbage so it doesn't even work properly (people who tried it report that so much stuff--even creating new documents--is broken). Vibe coded software is unsustainable and messy so even if a human took this on it's likely so messy that they'd have to jettison the whole thing and start over.

 

But worse...this software is made by someone (or a group of someones) who have their own generative AI garbage that you can buy credits for. Further, the reddit account promoting this stuff (which I am going to assume belongs to one of the vibe coders behind this) is aptly named ai_art_is_art, with a bio to match:

"To AI haters: AI is just a tool. It can be used by real artists to make real art. It's all in how the tool is used. We used to hate CGI, digital music, and even photography. Now they're normal. Adapt." 

 

So...yeah. They're one of those people. Sigh.

 

The way they're using AI, it is not, in fact, a tool. It is--to be generous here--like commissioning someone to do a piece for you and then claiming you made it, not the person that you commissioned to make it. 

 

The process is the same, for the most part! You type a prompt for what you want into a text field and the AI makes it for you. Just like you'd tell a human you commissioned for an art piece what you want, and they make it for you. You did not make anything. You only told someone else to make something you want. 

 

Anyhow. We're re-treading covered ground here. These people will never get it because they arguably never valued art in the first place. They don't value the talent, the decisions, the emotion and effort that goes into a piece. Why would they? They can just hit the instant gratification button and pay through the nose for the slopbot to give them something (that a human could probably do better for cheaper, honestly).

 

Seeing this project get cheered on because "omg it's the little guy, taking on Adobe! Fuck Adobe, they suck! Go on little guy!" just makes me sick, because I don't want nor need to be "saved" from Adobe by a group that has demonstrated that they don't value the work human artists do.

 

And just hearing what amounts to a "you don't get how big this is" when I'm like "dude, this is vibe coded trash from someone who doesn't value art in the goddamn slightest" just...fuck, dude. The future sucks and I'm tired of having my hobbies and what little things still give me joy being burnt to the ground by this bullshit. 

 

So, fuck it I guess. Hermit mode it is for right now, only really poking my head out in places that haven't been overrun with this trash. Because I'm half past done seeing it everywhere, and I'm also half past done with people trying to tell me "but no, this planet-killing netherbeast that can only exist because it slurped up peoples' works without their consent is good!" 

 

I'm just. Done with it all.

 

To the point where I just don't want to look at most social media right now.

 

I'm just going to go and focus on my work. And play video games. At least until I feel better. Because right now, I can tell you I'm in that mode of "why even make things anymore? Why even bother when AI is just going to suck it all up without my consent and profit off it?"

 

There's no joy in creation for me anymore. Not while this bullshit is still running roughshod over everything.