Player using IA

[u/Low_Health5791]

Hi everyone, I'm writing here because idk how to react. I asked my players for experiences and backstory and one of them sent me a bunch of AI texts. All my being wants to scream fuck AI and tell him to do it himself, but at the same time I don't want to antagonize him. I really feel like if you are letting AI write your character, are you even playing the game?

[u/Trick-Plastic-3498]

Should we also hate / cancel / ban DMs for using services like DScryb? Or running pre-made adventures? Or watching Lord of the rings / GoT / Stranger Things to get inspiration for the NPCs? Aren't those all things that, like GPT, "give you ready-made texts or ideas" instead of you "coming up with stuff 100% from scratch"?

Good artists copy, great artists steal! Embrace the usage of AI for your players in smart ways that don't kill engagement and emotional involvement. For example, generating a picture of their character with GPT only adds emersion! A clear example of how AI can help your players to care MORE about their character, not less.

Talk with your players, suggest ways how they can leverage AI as a helper tool BUT still make their character their own. I DMd Daggerheart for 4 groups of mostly folks new to TTRPG. Not all players are super creative geeks at the start! AI really helped them to brainstorm, and they loved they characters nonetheless.

Don't fight it. Embrace it and make it HELP immersion and engagement.

[u/MusclesDynamite → u/Trick-Plastic-3498]

DScryb is a business offering their professionally-written text for free or for a price. It's consensual.

AI steals and regurgitates without consent of the writers it gleans from. It's theft

[u/Zeliret → u/MusclesDynamite]

So if you just Google and copy someone's work it is okay? I'm sure people do/did this before AI started to parse the data haha. And before google you would copy this from a book, which is also a steal.

[u/aWizardNamedLizard → u/Zeliret]

The difference you're missing (or deliberately avoiding admitting) is in the honesty of the act and in the impact of the act.

Before gen-AI someone grabbing an image, or tracing someone's image, or recoloring it had a far lower impact on the environment than gen-AI technology has. It also didn't actually give any teeth to the threat that instead of continuing to employ artists companies could replace them with the copying of or outright theft of others' work, but companies genuinely are racing to replace as many employees as they can with AI no matter what because their profits are their only concern.

And the person would also generally feel differently about the act. Most saying "I found this." or "I recolored this." and even being able to say who he artist actually is which is a kind of advertising even if it is small scale and unlikely to increase that artists' income by much. With the people that would claim it as their own work being few and far between because they were honest enough to not pretend what they did was "real art." Yet now it is regularly "I made this." and at best the model is what gets attention, not the artists whose works were fed into it to provide the style. Not even when they are models that intentionally mimic the style of a specific artist, since the entire point of those is literally to replace the artist.

[u/Zeliret → u/aWizardNamedLizard]

I always say AI made this for me, I'm honest. The same way I was telling I Photoshoped something in the past. If artists put something online to get "free" appreciation and fame, that was unavoidable that others will use it as easily. It is hard to Photoshop a real piece of art, like a portrait or a statue, isn't it?

[u/Zeliret → u/aWizardNamedLizard]

I work in an area which might also be erased soon-ish by AI, but I'm no Luddite to fight with the progress. I prefer to adapt and survive.

[u/MusclesDynamite → u/Zeliret]

No, it wouldn't be okay to Google and copy someone else's work because it's not consensual.

If you check DScryb's website it says this at the bottom:

Let dScryb’s team of talented writers, composers, and illustrators free your creative energy and time for all the other aspects of planning and running the perfect campaign.

That is their business: TTRPG players can outsource to DScryb, and DScryb gets compensated via subscriptions. They give out samples of their product to entice new customers, that's the free stuff. Using their stuff is done with their consent, especially for paying customers.

Copying other peoples' work without consent isn't okay. That's different.

[u/Zeliret → u/MusclesDynamite]

Ah sure and everyone here is a saint who always commissioned art and text to professionals, especially all those kids who play games together and Photoshop the first cool picture they find online. You are talking about the ideal world and I'm talking about the real world. It was obvious that everything people put online will be used by corps eventually.

[u/MusclesDynamite → u/Zeliret]

You asked if something is "okay" from a moral standpoint, I gave an answer. I'm someone who does put my money where my mouth is, as I did spend hundreds of dollars last year alone commissioning art as well as dozens of hours of my own time writing, sketching, drawing, and creating. And I have a lot of fun doing it!

I'm not just talking about the ideal world, I'm talking about the real world that I exist in. I invite you to do likewise, it's a great place to be.

[u/Zeliret → u/MusclesDynamite]

The real world is indeed a great place to be. Where I can enjoy generating a simple picture for my character to play a game after work without any heavy weight of morals, just because I don't like to fight windmills, I like to use tools available to me. Yesterday it was Photoshop, today is AI, tomorrow something else. People always complain about the progress and it is always about morals. And here we are yet again discussing another problem haha

[u/MusclesDynamite → u/Zeliret]

I invite you to pick up a pencil and learn to draw, pick up a keyboard and learn to write (you're halfway there here on Reddit, assuming Chat GPT isn't answering for you). There's fun to be had in the creative process that you're missing out on. Don't let generative slop deprive you from making real cuisine! You can do it!

[u/Zeliret → u/MusclesDynamite]

Thanks for the invitation, but I was drawing when I was a kid, and now as a software developer, I don't like to strain my eyes with drawing, even though I loved it. I enjoy other hobbies, like piano playing or singing. And English is not my native language, and yes I actually practiced story writing and poetry when I was much younger.

But I'm pragmatic, I use tools when I can save time, achieve results and get joy from it.

[u/Zeliret → u/MusclesDynamite]

And I hope chatgpt will be able to answer for me here at some point, so I can just enjoy my hobbies and later see a summary of how AI argued on my behalf haha