Personally, I don't have any strong feelings either way in regards to the use of AI art within this context. I can understand people's aversion, especially in the wider context of the conversation around AI at the moment, but I personally think Bounce's use of it has been transformative, and with Spawn and Aquaboy I can see the use in a tool like this for creating strong visuals for characters who don't have any to go off of. While others may not care as much about visuals either on the character sheet or in banners, it does personally help me at times to visualise the stylistic differences in appearances to the canon characters. Whether this be through an AI image or a fan design, etc.

My only strong objection to the use of AI would be using it to generate text for your posts, which I don't believe anyone has done here (although I'm probably not the best at spotting it if there is any). We're here to craft a story together, and write together, not with a robot.

All that being said, I'm happy to weigh in on this, but honestly as a GM I don't think such a hot-button issue is something I should have final say over, rather its something we as a group can decide on. It seems people have very strong opinions on this, but I'd like to keep things civil here. I know a lot of you have known each other a lot longer than I have, so I'd just ask we give each other the benefit of the doubt when we're arguing our case here, whichever side of the argument you fall on.

I think it's partly going to come down to quantity. I know we've all used visual media from time to time in these games, often for shock value or to stress a point when something big is going down. I feel like always running to AI is a crutch. Can you imagine how many more Q posts @Simple Unicycle would have written in his life had he not required to relentlessly search for images?

How many hours of his life he would have been able to spend being merry and falling in love?

To scroll through be enjoying reading posts and then you're confronted by numerous instances of it all in rapid succession... It's just not a nice feeling.

I just don't want the water wars to be jump-started by at least two decades earlier, for crying out loud!

I just don't want the water wars to be jump-started by at least two decades earlier, for crying out loud!

My next character

Guys, AI has its problems, but a post by post rp is really not the place for someone to commission an artist for. The artist needs time to work ahead and the roleplayer can't guarantee that certain things are going to happen. And given that this is comicbook inspired and Bounce has been saying that doing it helps her, then she's not in the wrong here.

I personally don't like AI either and don't want to try to shift through Martian Manhunter's few appearances for artwork for my posts. But I understand why Bounce is using it in this context and I would rather we don't witch hunt her for seeking to give her posts a more comic-book feel. It's not like she's claiming that she's drawing them all herself.

That's pretty much how I'm picturing Thomas yeah

He's not that old, chief.

@Half Pint

I had always planned for Manhunter to confront fire eventually and that it would be fun to have him interact with a fire-based superhero. But to have his first superhero fight be against Fire Giants, then the first hero he meets being Firestorm...This is too hilarious!

I'll make a reply post to you sometime this afternoon.

<Snipped quote by Sep>
He's not that old, chief.

Maybe not but the years have been tough on him.

You can't control how I imagine him. The more you fight it the older he gets.

<Snipped quote by Sep>
He's not that old, chief.

Don't worry, the cane doubles as a weapon.

The Robin sheet has been updated.

Are we safe to assume he has pants now?

Are we safe to assume he has pants now?

Nates Robin goes out wearing a wooly hat and mittens

<Snipped quote by Lord Wraith>

Nates Robin goes out wearing a wooly hat and mittens

Crime fighting is dangerous enough without worrying about hypothermia.

Are we safe to assume he has pants now?

No pants 1940-1989. Its like Superman's costume, some things are just iconic and the more you try to reinvent them, the worse it gets. Though I did like Tim's look in New Adventures. With Damian's repeated redesigns, the truck appears to have gone off a cliff though.

I am generally in the mindset of not using AI for posts and admittedly have been regularly jump scared by the AI children in the thread.

However I do find the dogpiling a little funny when I imagine everyone who is anti-ai for environmental co2/water use reasons here, is probably also not vegan (happy to be wrong on that one though). Of course no one is perfect on every issue, but that's a solid reason not to come at an issue with sanctimony, glass houses and all that.

Think only Mao Mao is on the environmental side of things.

My 2 cents on the AI argument.

Yes, in a perfect world, we would all pay artists to commission us fantastic pieces of art. But this isn't a perfect world. I would like to say that I can "Paint imagines your mind with my words!" But the fact is that when it comes to ACTUAL art, I am a ten-thumbed, talentless, paper polluter. So, making my own art is not going to be a fun time for anyone. I'll spend 2 hours making something that looks like dogshit and nobody is going to want to look at it, and then I'll feel bad for making something so terrible.

Now, i understand the aversion to AI, 100%. I get it, it is literally taking money out of the pockets of talented people artists. That is an absolute travesty and needs to be seen to.

But st the same time, this is a free RP site that we use in our spare time, at our own cost. I am broke and struggling financially as is. I have to justify £15 going to the cinema to prevent me from blowing my brains out most of the time. I can't justify £40 on a piece of art i am going to use exactly once for this 1 specific thing and will never have use of ever again. Meaning that if I want a picture of Bailey dressed as Captain Marvel, I have 3 choices:

1) Request a Drawfriend does it on one of the many Drawthreads and hope to christ that its not ignored (Its not a Waifu or a meme, it will absolutely be ignored)
2) Do as stated above of make something that looks like shit.
3) Ask an A.I. to do something that effectively gets the point across.

So, in this case, I dont see how I am "Taking the money out of the pockets of working artist" when "Paying an artist to do it" was never really an option, due to the niceness of this specific event and me not being willing to drop that kind of money on a free hobby anyway.

Now, i will specify that I am ONLY going to be using A.I. images for things that literally dont exist. I mean, every pic of just Bailey or Christina or Sivannah or any other characters that exist already, absolutely, I'll find some existing art. But the niche stuff that my only other option is to pay a bunch of money i was never willing to spend? Nuts to that. Before AI, I would just describe it or poorly photoshop it together myself. Again, the part where an artist gets money never entering the equation.

I have no drawing talent, I wish I did and I respect those who do immensely. But I dont see how me asking a bot to do something for free that I would have found another way to do for free if that wasn't an option is somehow "Literally slapping every artist in the world in the face!"

I mean, if I have the idea in my head for a picture of Batman, Wolverine, Storm and Wonder Woman at a sleep over together telling ghost stories, with Wolverine and Batman hiding under the covers because Wondies story is too scary, I can describe that here. I think its a funny image in my head. I just told y'all about it. Now, 5 years ago, thats where this story would end. I dont have the money to commission something like that, most decent artists charge about £80 for something like that (Usually about 40 for the coloured image, 10 for every 2 characters and 20 for a second panel.) And thats reasonable. But I dont have £80 to drop on that kind of silly meme in my head. I could, however go ask an A.I. to make that. It'd look like crap, but id have the image.

Now, i am NOT going to ask an AI to make this, so this idea will forever stay here on this page, unless someone comes along, finds it hilarious and decides to draw it, but thats hoghly unlikely, so lets just assume that this idea will forever stay here, unused. Now, if I did go ask an A.I. to draw that, do you believe I would have robbed an artist i never had any intention of paying to make in the first place? Because I dont think I have.

Now, as i said, I will agree, if you can use ACTUAL art to make a point, I highly prefer people doing so, but at the same time, this is a free hobby that we do for free and if there was a price tag attached to it, we'd probably just go find a free version regardless. So I have no problem with people trying to improve it using free tools, even if I'd prefer they use actual art to do so.

I am generally in the mindset of not using AI for posts and admittedly have been regularly jump scared by the AI children in the thread.

However I do find the dogpiling a little funny when I imagine everyone who is anti-ai for environmental co2/water use reasons here, is probably also not vegan (happy to be wrong on that one though). Of course no one is perfect on every issue, but that's a solid reason not to come at an issue with sanctimony, glass houses and all that.

I have shrunk my traditional dairy use in the last few years by huge margins, I will say. I drink almond and rice milk (almond/soy/rice have their own problems don't get me wrong).

Fair, the creative / art theft response is personally compelling as well and I particularly agree finding art of a young robin wouldn't be difficult, however I also write ASOIAF RPs and George R R Martin publicly hates fanfiction/roleplay (other than his officially sanctioned MUSH) so I still feel I kinda fall into the 'I'm not sure we come at this from a perfect moral high ground' on this as well.

Nates Robin goes out wearing a wooly hat and mittens

He learned from the best.

<Snipped quote by Ezekiel>
I have shrunk my traditional dairy use in the last few years by huge margins, I will say. I drink almond and rice milk (almond/soy/rice have their own problems don't get me wrong).

An achievement to be applauded. Generally I think meat and dairy reduction is the main way we save the planet.

My point was more it's not like AI is uniquely environmentally destructive an industry to garner the visceral reaction it often has from people who often 'pay into' much more destructive industries, as opposed to doing my own sort of value policing.