Casey MonroeAug 17, 2023
I saw a post from @Chronotope who talked about seeing an ad for an AI art avatar creation app on YouTube. He rightly pointed out how terrifying it was that the example prompt the ad used was "Jenna Ortega in latex," and that the sample creation used in the ad was unmistakably fetish art based on photos of Jenna when she was clearly underage, but the thing that stuck with me the most was the framing: "Generate photos that get the most likes."
Show threadCasey MonroeAug 17, 2023

There's so much wrong and broken about this but that framing made something click that I had never been able to put words to, about the way that AI art and text generators are being pitched to the public:

The target isn't "people who want to look at fetish art." I respect people who want to look at fetish art!

The target is "people who want to generate fetish art so they can use it to sell something."

Show threadCasey MonroeAug 17, 2023
This is why AI art, cryptocurrencies, and NFT's are all weird echoes that appeal to the same people and get pushed in the same way for the same reasons. The *feel* is the same--it feels like an MLM.
Show threadCasey MonroeAug 17, 2023
Like crypto tech had a lot of talk about it’s applications as a tool to help the oppressed and impoverished, but when it actually showed up at your door it was just a widget that you bought and hoped you could sell to some sucker for more. It was hustle with nothing behind it.
Show threadCasey MonroeAug 17, 2023
There are genuinely meaningful applications crypto could be used for (like paying sex workers) but no one seems to care about those, they’re too busy trying to convince suckers they can get rich quick.
Show threadCasey Monroe
NFT’s were supposed to be about getting artists paid but have you ever heard of an artist who got rich off them? Or a game which meaningfully utilizes them? The target audience was never gamers, it was hustlers who thought they could get rich selling them.
Aug 17, 2023 at 1:30amWeb
Show threadCasey MonroeAug 17, 2023
And AI art and ChatGPT are being sold the same way. The ideals are all some BS about sentient machines or getting plain language answers from Google but it doesn’t WORK. The ads betray the truth of it: AI is a tool to let hustlers pretend they created something of value to sell.
Show threadCasey MonroeAug 17, 2023
It’s the same story it always was. Just buy our book and we’ll show you the secret to wealth. Just invest in amway or leggings or beanie babies or dogecoin or bored apes or a premium subscription to our app and you too can get rich selling useless bullshit to suckers.