The one used in this thread: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/12973939

Mind you, I didn't set out to deceive anyone. It was more of a "why call attention to it" thing. It's probably the only time I've posted anything AI where I didn't explicitly call attention to it as AI. But I've learned in the times I did do that here that some person or other would be upset, pretty much no matter what the content was of what I posted.

I figured, one of the primary complaints about AI generated images, is essentially that they look like they're trying to look professional but make basic errors. Which I think is a fair criticism. So I thought, what if I use stick figures. That's closer to meme level of illustration and expectations are lower for it, so if some basic mistakes exist, that's par for the course.

I did write the text itself as rhetoric and fictional conversation, but I didn't draw any of the image, nor did I place the text in the image. It was received extremely well for a lemmygrad post. I'm sure it is easily the most upvoted post I've ever made. I don't know what made it work so well, maybe the commonness of issues with landlords, but I can only guess as the responses didn't tell me much about the why.

One person did say "Ai stickfigures?" which surprised me a bit. I didn't think it looked overtly AI genned. But I asked them "why do you ask?" because I wanted to be sure whether it was confrontational or sincere interest in where it came from. They never responded, so I'm not sure.

But anyway, the fact that it was AI somehow didn't prevent it from seemingly resonating with people. I never would have drawn any such image on my own. I could make an attempt, but it would probably look like a child's fridge drawing and I would have especially struggled with the vividness of the facial expressions, which was where I sought to do the contrast between the feigned victimhood followed by literal mustache twirling villain. Caricature, but gets the point across.

Given how I've seen some react on here, I can't help but think it would have been a shitshow if I'd called attention to it being AI generated or if it had been drawn in such a way that it looked stereotypically "AI". Instead, as of posting this, it totaled at 111 upvotes and 0 downvotes.

It's always hard to tell the impact things have in a virtual forum, but with the limited metrics I have to go by, it went really well. And I didn't draw a pixel of it. This paints a picture for me that the issue with AI generated content in these spaces is not when it's AI generated but when people believe that it is. But people can believe something is even when it isn't. Or in this case, likely assume it isn't when it is. Maybe I'm wrong and the 100+ people who upvoted thought "AI" and upvoted anyway, but given how things usually go here, I doubt it.

I hope no one takes this as trickery or something. Having seen more recent angst on here relating to AI, I thought calling attention to this is an opportunity to make a point. When I went to make that image, it was mainly about seeing what kind of effective agitprop I could make with AI. Maybe knowing this explicitly will inspire some people to think more about how they can use it too, beyond the hated stereotypes, with thoughtfulness of design put into it. I am still determined to aid in strategic thought and practice, no matter how much mud is slung. Liberation demands it of me.

You're right to be mad about a lot of things. Help me help you be mad at the right people in a way that will change the world for the better.

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[–] 4 points 53 minutes ago*

or if it had been drawn in such a way that it looked stereotypically “AI”

Well that's half the problem, isn't it? If something "looks" AI that's actually just another way to say it looks like shit.

Personally, I don't care if people generate AI images for forum slop. But if it looks like shit, it looks like shit.

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  • [–] 2 points 1 hour ago (3 children)

    Apparently they didn’t take away enough yet

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  • [–] 2 points 1 hour ago* (2 children)

    Who's "they" and what did they take away?

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  • [–] 1 point 1 hour ago* (last edited 46 minutes ago) (1 child)

    How should I know, I didn’t write the thing

    my bad it says “Communists”

    upon reflection, I get the impression that the original “meme” ends either with a veiled call for violence, or the suggestion that it may be possible to forcefully remove (take away) someone’s tendency for (or dependency on) extractive rent-seeking behaviors. I at the moment see neither suggestions as viable pathways toward a consent-oriented yet state-governed communist society so perhaps that is one other reason besides using the “stolen property” slop machine to illustrate a point that could have been illustrated else-how in a variety of ways that it did not resonate much with me tbh. But in the end, violence may be the only tool that some will respond to, as they may have been conditioned to only communicate in one dimension from early childhood, and certain configurations of consciousness may in some cases require state-altering substances or circumstances in order to learn new paradigms of interaction

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  • [–] 1 point 2 hours ago*

    Its pretty obviously AI. But I'm an artist for a living so I don't know how much my expertise plays into that. But I saw it and didn't care to start beef about it. I didn't send it to anyone.

    In my experience people who are still pro AI at this point are pretty difficult to have a conversation with about it. Both Comrades and non comrades. I usually compare AI to microwave food because yeah...its food but its not great and people usually prefer handmade. Even if we take it as a tool for the proletariat, the problem is that AI as it exists is in the hands of the bourgeois, as such its used to their advantage and not ours. We ultimately can't create LLM's to the same extent without a massive amount of organizing that is going to require a government structure. For now, AI is mostly used as a tool by bourgeois to obfuscate truth and reality which are enemies to Marxists. Even if I can tell images that are AI, I wouldn't be able to tell other uses, and it'd be foolish to assume nobody would believe such images to be reality. Even without knowledge of programming I can see the applications, mods, and games I've tried that have AI are extremely buggy.

    I see AI as more of an enemy of the Marxist movement than a tool. The working class loathes AI because of its low quality and attempts to use it to destabilize their lives. Both in mass producing evidence for lies and in replacing their jobs and livelihoods. Even If AI is not able to do so, bourgeois are stuck in idealism. Not to mention a good chunk of the infrastructure for AI is for surveilling against resistance to the state.

    In any case, the point is. Most people aren't going to interface with your AI content in the first place. Much like people who see an AI restaurant sign and identify it aren't going inside in the first place, let alone informing of the creator/user of the AI content. I'm sure you could make agitation propaganda with it that will sell people unaffected by or unable to spot AI. But many people have a negative association with AI and associate it with bourgeois violence. I saw the image, and I did not share it for its low quality and clear AI content. It actually swayed me, a Marxist, to not share the propaganda.

    I promise you, the worst most shitty drawn stick figure image will be better, on account of effecting both parties. Those who are fine with AI and those who are not. Most people actually really like poorly created material. It's somehow both ironic and genuine.

    I bolded messages for ease of reading.

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  • [–] 2 points 10 hours ago (1 child)

    In general, I think it's better to just use one of those template meme generators that are out there for free. Besides, you can kinda tell that the meme looks somewhat different here from other memes for some reason.

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  • [–] [S] 6 points 10 hours ago

    Memes can absolutely be useful at communicating. I don't think that is in question. The question here, in terms of agitprop, is whether AI generated imagery can also be useful and the image I posted a couple of weeks ago demonstrates that it can be, provided people are not reacting to it negatively out of belief that it's AI. I don't see how it looking different from other memes is a negative if the evidence leans toward it having resonated well with people. Agitprop can range from memes to tens of hours spent drawing with years of formal artistic training behind it, as effort goes. However, if there's one thing a lot of people have a lack of under capitalism, it's time. Memes are one way to save time, but they are also highly limited to pre-existing templates. You kinda have to know the templates well in order to use them effectively and if you want to communicate something outside the templates, you're stuck.

    Basically, there are strengths and weaknesses to different approaches and I don't think we should be neglecting uncommon ones as a possible help just because they are uncommon. A media team in Iran used AI lego videos to try to influence people. If you're a small group of people with limited time and resources, working outside the norm, looking for any way you can to make gains in saving time and cost without qualitative loss of quality, may be the only way you've got to give your influence a needed boost.

    Figuring out how to reach a goal under highly restricted conditions is a fundamental challenge of communists, historically. Entire AES states under siege who couldn't wait around for their development to catch up to western powers and had to make do as they were. Likewise, we cannot wait for conditions that provide us with the best tools for liberation, but instead have to make do with what is there.

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