I'm going through my blog post drafts, working on getting them published, this is a little one I started a while back when, longtime friend within the hobby, Dougie was having fun with AI backgrounds. He sent me some of my Iberians emerging from an ancient forest, intrigued I asked him if it could make an arena setting for the Newline Designs 20mm Gladiator conversions, and I was pleased with the result. I was meant to post these months ago (June I think) but as I have mentioned in a previous post general life has been too much all year and has been impacting hobby pursuits. I try to keep working on little bits here and there, floating between what I fancy, building miniatures, paper soldiers, research and rules writing. Sometimes just whatever I can manage, a look through a wargames book or magazine to keep or build interest. As of late it has impacted further and I've had almost no capacity for the hobby, my new hobby being, fending off "help" from various local services that lack awareness or training in the UK's Statutory Framework. This is why I have not really updated this blog for a while, all writing energy has been going into complaints and data rectification requests.
Back to hobby talk! AI seems to be regarded between a novelty and the devil incarnate, based on the things I've seen on social media. A fad will have a few moments of intense action, such as the AI images of imagined action figures or the bringing to life of wargames miniatures into an unsettling scene, reminiscent of the film Young Sherlock Holmes when inanimate sculptures come to life to attack people. Then there are reactionary responses that seek to ban their use in groups, and when its so overused, this is understandable, but for the fact that the gimmick soon wears off anyway, it seems heavy handed. There are the legitimate concerns of artists losing out and that creative work is being lost to AI, and it seems that technology continues its meteoric rise in replacing human labour in general. While this is clearly happening, commissioning an artist is out of reach for most people, personally I wouldn't buy cursed AI images over professional artists' prints, but one day we may not can tell the difference, however if you have a project in mind that needs some graphics resorting to AI generated images is an option.
Ultimately, these LLM are currently out there and like all human inventions its how you choose to use them that counts, users need to be very discerning and be wary. In a wider context how societies will regulate their use will be vital. So far however I'm finding it a useful tool, especially for bouncing ideas off, brain storming, and looking for feedback and suggestions. With a bit of work it might be useful for solo gamers, probably not so much as an opponent directly but for suggesting general strategies you could enact on the table top, probably in a RPG style format, it has potential but will require thoughtful use. I'm interested in how others view them, and if they use any AIs and what for?
How much of a rant would you like Tony?! (hahaha).
ReplyDelete"Ultimately,... like all human inventions it's how you choose to use them that counts, users need to be very discerning and be wary"—you hit the nail on the head. All technology has good and bad aspects.
These models are useful, but the convenient moniker of 'AI' is so misleading. They are really clever pattern-recognition-stochastic computer models but 'neither artificial nor intelligent' as many erudite critiques have noted. Excellent for multiple iterations, scanning and repeated tasks. It's little wonder that they are said to be solving maths problems and 'putting mathematicians out of work'. I doubt the latter statement though as the computer model may be able to work through a problem much, much quicker, but it cannot provide the application for it that a human can.
The problems and concerns are many and serious. I get my info. not from social media (which I avoid like the plague) but from papers published in journals such as Nature and New Scientist. Serious inaccuracies in the results, 'untrustworthy' information, use to promolgate mis- and dis-information, stealing people's IP (there are currently over 70 law suits against the developers of these models), producing really really crappy music, nefarious use, generation of ridiculous and unattainable 'beauty' models putting pressure on young people—to list but a few. The biggest one is that they are being pushed by companies that already have 'form' with ignoring the real damage that their products have caused. Companies that were developed by individuals who have near zero ethics and integrity.
So, to answer your question, this 'little black duck' is avoiding them like the plague.
As for putting your figures against a 'cute' background. This has been possible for years with graphics programs. Doing it yourself gives you the power to extract the image, duplicate it if you like and put it against a background of choice. In front of the Eiffel Tower, if you wish!
All the best with your painting, constructing miniatures and writing of rules. I look forward to whichever of them you post about, when time permits.
All the best, James