Yes, I'd be happy to find any of these typewriters—if they existed!
The AI has gotten very good at creating texture, lighting, and parts of real typewriters, but the way they're put together is just statistically plausible fantasy.
Unfortunately, it's very easy and cheap to generate something like this now, and hope for a little payoff. This video joins the AI-generated book about typewriter collecting whose "author" whines that "I’m just trying to feed these kids and my Pomeranian."
I think we need a new term for this kind of product. I propose slopbait.
What a strange moment in human history. Slopbait is right. It's baffling to me what the motivation is for people to create such content. Why go to such lengths to make what amounts to a low-effort video? I mean, I guess it's sort of harmless. But it's obviously garbage. Isn't it obvious? Is it made in the hope that someone (possibly six or seven fingered, possibly AI-born themselves) will buy these books? But then, is selling books really a sound moneymaking scheme at this point when the other side of the profit/loss equation is compute to generate videos?
ReplyDeleteI suppose the theory behind the video is that someone, somewhere, will eventually drop a few pennies into the creator's hands in the form of watching an ad. But at the moment, no ads are being shown.
DeleteBy the way, I was approached with a request to link to a new site that was offering advice on typewriter repair based on "firsthand experience." But the images were obviously AI slop, and the instructions were often absurd. I won't even deign to copy the URL here.
The profit is low, the effort is even lower... :-/
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit depressing to me, I have to admit. These scenes look polished at least, nonsense, but polished nonsense - but then to contemplate the effort and resources that have been burned to enable this. Oy...
There’s an ironic twist here, too, in that such a contemporary technology is used to draw attention to old typewriters. And yet the real typewriters are way, way more enduring than such cheap, effortless productions. As my wife often observes: “Just because it can be done, doesn’t mean it should be done.” I hope the newly-coined term gains traction because it so accurately describes this kind of thing.
ReplyDeleteUGH. I hate this stuff so much. I'm encouraged though by the fact that my kids and their friends respond to AI slop with contempt and derision. Maybe the kids are all right.
ReplyDelete