As usual, I had no idea what sort of theme I’d use for today’s puzzle when I opened my favorite stock art site to find a photo for the puzzle. What did I see when I opened the site that wasn’t there the last time I opened their webpage? An invitation to try their AI-picture generating program!
I’m super late to the AI game. Right now, do I really want to learn something new? When I type that, I realize I sound really, really old. I’m not old and cranky and resistant to change, I think. I’m more in the style of my own mother (rest her soul), who embraced Facebook, email, and online games in her seventies. She was the most “down-with-it” woman in her art guild and wrote and distributed their on-line newsletter. When she passed, it died because no one wanted to fiddle with the website.
I can’t be tech-averse. I started writing on old manual typewriters, but very quickly fell in love with electric, and was the first on my block to own a personal computer (a Radio Shack TRS-80, “trash-80”) because I could then deep six the white out! And I could save a file—an entire document that I could come back to any time I wanted? I was in heaven. Let’s not talk about printers—okay, I have to share one story.
I remember writing/assembling/editing a large document that contained the details of our team’s inspection of a unit’s battle readiness. We did this at the post’s data center and printed out a large box of punched cards to carry to the computer and load to get the printed report (it was as thick as a manual). You did not want to load the cards out of order or, heaven forbid, scatter them on the floor, or you had to print the cards all over again. Want revisions of the document? Trash the cards you have, make the changes to the document on the computer, then print the whole box of punch cards again. But that was still so much better than what we’d had before.
Now, we’ve got this AI thing that kids are using to generate their essays for school, writers are using to generate ideas for stories, and some are even using to write their dang books!!! I feel like a luddite—someone opposed to new technologies. That all just feels like cheating. Or laziness. Or… Um, now I’m thinking I should be playing with some online AI program to catch up. Am I missing out on something wonderful? Or are we setting ourselves up to be taken over by an AI monster like the Terminator’s Skynet?
Anyway, I tried the website’s AI photo generator, typing in the first thing that popped into my mind: Spaceship in Candy Land. Today’s puzzle is that photo! Have fun!
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me whether you’ve tried one of the online AI programs. Tell me the program you used, what you used it for, and how did you like the results?
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When it comes to authors. I won’t read or even try a new author if it’s AIR generated. That’s cheating if you want to write a story, you’ve got to write the story. Same with covers. Especially when AI companies are stealing authors works to teach AI how to write. I know some authors and cover photographers work is being stolen. The AI companies are not paying copyright. They’re stealing the copyright. You can’t have a computer write your story. Personally I think AI is too much like iRobot or Terminator.
That’s my opinion.
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No, I have not tried an AI program. I can’t get past Skynet myself. Looking at this, and hearing some AI generated adible, it is still young. I would prefer it stay there. The human imagination is vivid enough without help from an AI. AI is spell check a few years older. I can hardly do anything these days without AI trying to “help” me. It’s irritating. A pushy toddler asking “Why?” all the time. Sorry. I am not really a techno-phobe. I, too, enjoy the convenience of my computer. But Skynet! MHO
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I’m definitely not tech savvy, that being said, I have no interest in reading or listening to anything AI, to fake the pictures, and stealing is stealing no matter how you look at it, and that is what AI is doing to so many authors,
But I love the puzzle today
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Have not and will not willingly try or use AI. Working in Banking I have had customers scammed by people using AI generated voice to impersonate a persons family member to get money. I have stopped this from happening more than once. If anyone ever gets this type of call, ask who their parent is and a few other questions that only family would know, use a different phone to try to reach the impersonated person.
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no AI programs for me….
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No, I haven’t used any of the AI programs. Plenty of my FB friends have. I keep going back to Terminator where SkyNet takes over call me old school. LOL
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Nope. Haven’t used AI.
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Never used AI although they have announced we will be using at work soon.
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The fundraising committee used chatGPT once to look up possible funders for a capital campaign. Otherwise I stay clear from the generative AI programs.
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I have used it some for work. It makes some tasks much easier. It will convert text to another format easily. It also will organize text and group logically.
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I have not used any AI programs that I am aware of.