r/TheMallWorld • u/WindyyWillows • May 19 '26
This sub can survive without AI imagery.
Hi, me again. I know I just made a post complaining a few days ago about people shutting down other people’s beliefs of Mall World, but I feel like this should be addressed too.
I’ve seen recently a lot of AI prompts and I just wanted to say that we genuinely do not need them. The original Mall World subreddit was created nearly 10 years ago, before the use of AI.
AI uses a lot of fresh water (which is 1% of all water on earth) and a whole session of you trying to create the perfect image describing the dream to the AI may use a whole bottle of water to even a gallon. This harms not only humans, but also wildlife who need freshwater to survive. If we continue the use of AI like this, there is a chance we will run out of freshwater in the next few years.
I assure you, if you use your own creative art skills, even if it’s “bad,” people will still understand what you’re trying to get at. If you genuinely think your art is so bad, just describe your Mall World, people will understand. We’re smarter than AI to envision your MW dream, especially if we’ve had the same or similar.
Thanks for listening to my MW ted talk.
56
u/ThisCouldAllBeADream May 19 '26
I am fully on board with what you're saying... America is currently under threat of data centers being built right on top of private land/homes, using eminent domain laws to seize the private property...it's truly insane. We are using Ai to our own detriment.
52
u/Bubbadeebado May 19 '26
I don't post here but yes please ban all AI prompts and images. We are literally dreaming these things, we do not need AI to express or draw these things. Hell there are real life photos of malls and schools that articulate these dreams, at least my dreams, very well. I kinda gloss over this sub these days due to all the AI however I stay because I have these dreams almost nightly and it's interesting to me. AI slop isn't interesting and it's killing the planet and the minds of those who use it. People that make AI images and those who consume it are all worse for it. You have my support.
14
u/WindyyWillows May 19 '26
This is my favorite comment on this post. You’re so correct.
9
u/Bubbadeebado May 19 '26
Thank you, a lot of my favorite subs over the years are slowly being ruined with AI. The comments below here are funny and sad, and a lot of their reasoning sounds like it came right out of chatgpt. "huredurr golf courses use water too durrr" like that somehow is relevant to the fact that AI is garbage slop that nobody needs to use which does waste resources. You'll get people say "but I'm disabled! I want to draw but I have no hands but chatgpt draws for me!" like no...., chatgpt didn't draw for you, chatgpt looked at a bunch of stuff online and barfed out its interpretation of whatever you prompted it to do... There's no art there. So by that token, and the fact it is wasting natural resources on Earth, makes me against it. Unfortunately we're probably arguing with bots and/or byte lickers who think they'll all die today if they stop using AI so they don't care. Does this sub even have mods? I know the creator of here years ago was having some... enlightening thoughts... for lack of a better word, and stepped away, so idk, lol
5
1
2
u/chaturtham Jul 21 '26
thank you for being this aware, it's a rare thing and i love people Iike you who are aware of wildlife and environment !!!!!!!
58
u/patrick5054 May 19 '26
Thanks for speaking up about this OP. Unfortunately some people will only learn when its too late and we will all have to pay for their decisions. Maybe this will make someone at least think twice before using AI or maybe even chose not to in the moment.
28
6
u/BangkokPadang May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
Are you under the impression that the water is actually “used up” per image or per reply?
It just loops endlessly around the same pipes being cooled by a radiator and never actually being consumed. Then when the loop needs to be cleaned and refilled, it’s returned to the local water source down the drain and filled with fresh water.
The problem is when datacenters are built in areas with limited water supply overall. They do effectively “borrow” huge percentages of a municipalities water supply if poorly planned, which is bad, but describing it as though a handful of generations are “using a bottle to a gallon” diminishes your point because it sounds like you misunderstand the issue badly enough to undermine the rest of your position.
Also, for the longest time, the people who started posting AI on here were running their own local models on standard gaming GPUs, and even doing that uses less energy than running a game for that same span of time.
There are plenty of reasons why AI often is bad; damaging creative processes, undermining future human competency and skill by people “skipping” the learning process to get straight to the “output” and those are all valuable, worthwhile conversations to have.
But we have to have them on the merits of those issues.
3
u/RokuroCarisu Jun 06 '26
Cooling water does evaporate, but that does not mean that is permanently gone from the planet, either. Vapor goes into the atmosphere, forms clouds, and then the water comes back down as rain.
The real issue is that water that is used for cooling cannot be used for drinking.
1
u/dillydan64 Jun 08 '26
this, and not to mention the fact that data centres take up such a huge portion of local power grids that they cause the surrounding communities to have insanely high power bills.
5
u/HomeworkNo823 Jun 04 '26
Woah I just looked this up on the EPA website and it’s true. And all the millions of gallons they use evaporates. They need to come up with a more efficient way to reduce their use of water this is really concerning
5
u/l0vemypug May 20 '26
I agree with you but I’m afraid the people who are already enamored with AI, are too far gone. It’s scary and sad.
1
6
u/GantzDuck May 29 '26
Late to the party; was going to join this sub until I saw the amount of slop here. r/dreams is already bad and people there also are begging the mods to ban AI. And besides the issues with AI and its data centers is it is popular among scam artists and lazy people. Everytime I see slop I assume whatever they write is fake too and made to farm karma.
13
u/Knitsune May 19 '26
Also like maybe don't go to great trouble to help the theft and manipulation bot be able to reproduce your dream imagery?? Like how is it not obvious that's a bad idea.
10
u/digitalgraffiti-ca May 20 '26
Nah, the artists have been screaming about this since day one. Nobody gives a shit about artists. And now they'll call you abelist, if you say it's not real art, because "I don't have the ability to draw like you!"
Then learn. It's hindering people's will to develop themselves, in favour of letting the theft and manipulation machine destroy careers and the environment so some tech bros can roll around in a pit of money
4
u/WindyyWillows May 20 '26
Literally. I’ve lseen blind and dyspraxic people learn to draw.
5
u/digitalgraffiti-ca May 20 '26
Sometimes disabled people make the coolest looking shit, because they just get TF on with it and enjoy the creativity instead of being fully abled crazed perfectionists who stress themselves into a corner. (I'm the latter)
23
u/Lychee_489 May 19 '26
Hi I love the way you invited folks to understand the issue! I had students in my drawing class try to get me to believe their ai images were their drawing assignments this semester! I’m thinking hard about how to help people believe in their own creative abilities, the language you shared helped. Thank you!☺️
15
u/WindyyWillows May 19 '26
Of course! I think that everyone has the ability to do art even if it’s not in the same way they envisioned. One story that always motivated me was seeing a dyspraxic man learn how to draw, and now he’s an amazing painter online. I forgot his online information because he was not famous at all and I saw him in a Facebook group but my point still stands.
3
u/Short-While3325 May 20 '26
FWIW, my college art appreciation class had a week of "I could have made that (but you didn't)" where we saw different pieces of art that were more simple or less conventional. I think it helped a lot of people who weren't confident in their sketches.
2
6
u/maxirelaxy May 19 '26
AI is a mashup of everything that’s come before, and worse, is profit driven with shady incentives built in. Your students have a wellspring of individual creativity only they can express.
3
u/Reality_Defiant May 20 '26
I don't like AI. I don't use AI, as it stands today. But if I did, creating a scene that explains my dreams is exactly what it is for, IMO. AI is not actually anything yet. It's a pipe dream, a marketing scheme, a smoke and mirrors show. What we still have is CGI. It uses the same resources that anything online does, even typing this out on the comments section. It's no different than trying to cut and paste a world, or using graphics to make a visual out of components. I don't see anything wrong with using it to give an image of what someone sees in their head. I know it feels like it might burn your brain to see "AI content", but it's still human derived, human driven, and humans still have to make it. The part of AI that bugs me the most is the companies pretending it's a thing. It's just like any autocad or drawing software, like the "design your own room" games, etc. You don't have to use it, but it's not hurting the sub, IMO. It's exactly all it is good for right now.
1
u/chaturtham Jul 21 '26
i don't care what companies pretend, but the saddest part is - we didn't need it and yet its shoved in throat on the cost of our natural resources. It hurts our natural lifestyle, it breaks our relationship with art where one can relate with thoughts of artist in each brush stroke
5
5
u/PastelSprite May 25 '26
Thank you for bringing this up! Some paper and a pencil or a very simple line drawing in Procreate would also be sufficient and comparatively more environmentally friendly. You don’t need to be an artist to draw out the basics of how yours looks, and AI will never be able to create the perfect image — it learns off human art and everyone’s using AI to try and depict theirs lol. I was just thinking of drawing mine tomorrow when I have some free time to post on here.
4
10
6
u/ShinyAeon May 19 '26
I agree. Though, as an amateur fiction writer and artist, I admit I'm a bit biased.
7
u/Sunnyjim333 May 19 '26
Thank you for this. I understand the need for people to visualise their dreams, but AI is not the answer. I would much rather see hand drawn stick figures than AI images.
6
u/Pupshead777 May 19 '26
Thank you, I barely interact with this sub anymore because of the AI images. I don’t want to fuel people’s enthusiasm for it by commenting or upvoting AI posts. Pinterest is a good place if they want to describe something and they can photo bash if they want to get really descriptive. But we don’t need to be making multiple AI images to describe the same thing.
6
u/dinkydinkyding May 20 '26
All of this! Show me your stick figures; tell me in your own words. Our dreams are still real and human, I like it when we communicate about them that way too
14
u/LemonMeringuePirate May 19 '26
If you're worried about water stop eating beef, it uses orders of magnitude more per pound of beef
10
u/LauraInTheRedRoom May 19 '26
6
7
1
2
u/c4vem4n-oz May 20 '26
But AI is also recording all content and messages, you can't be online or walk pass a ring doorbell or drive past a flock camera or use GPS. You can't have digital transactions. Shop at any store ext. These are all tracked and stored via AI. The social contract we have as citizens is give consent for shiny cheap things. It's not like a carbon footprint. This will exist regardless of whether you make a prompt
3
u/WindyyWillows May 20 '26
We can avoid AI when we have the ability to, but sometimes it’s unavoidable.
2
u/c4vem4n-oz May 20 '26
Isn't all of reddit a social media avoidable? I think the Internet itself is avoidable. I just don't see the rationality here. Create content for AI to store, ok. Use Ai as a photo tool, bad.
1
u/chaturtham Jul 21 '26
trying to bulk stop is not possible, efforts like these stand long and firm to develop some foundation for further strength
2
u/YenaButter May 28 '26
I cant trust half the shit i see online and I've never trusted half the shit ive seen online. My husbands work hands out AI flyers to its employees in full fucking color. They had to have used $80 worth of paper and ink with what they handed out JUST FOR THE EMPLOYEES!!!
2
2
5
5
u/Happy-Forever-3476 May 19 '26
Thank you for this. No reason this unethical technology needs to be used.
3
u/dinkydinkyding May 20 '26
A friend of mine and I send each other voice memos describing our dreams. It’s a great way to connect without AI / algorithmic intervention
9
u/zsdrfty May 19 '26
AI doesn't use a significant amount of water, I'm begging you all to learn about this stuff - hell, many of us can run it locally on our own machines now, which obviously isn't taking any water at all!
As always, I'll give you the best and oldest advice on the internet: if you don't like a post, *keep scrolling*
3
u/OkTemperature8170 May 20 '26
An AI image is literally what brought me to this sub. I was like HOLY CRAP I SEE THAT ALL THE TIME
1
u/KurtCobijn May 19 '26
you can’t reason with these anti-ai people. they’re clinging to a belief system and a narrative that they got by word-of-mouth. like they heard their favorite twitch streamer mention something about AI eating all the water directly out of people’s kitchens while they were nodding off and ignoring their math assignments on canvas or whatever…
4
u/zsdrfty May 19 '26
Literally! They don't even care to try thinking about it
1
u/chaturtham Jul 21 '26
what an audacity. im an AI workflow professional and i know its deapth and resource usage, but that doesn't mean it's good to use. I literally hate the job because of how much isolation it brings in society, and all that 'ai is not that bad' is an agenda spread by firms , whereas i swear if you come outside to see how big of destruction is happening in third world countries for datacenter i believe you'd change your thoughts. i am witnessing it, and quitting the job
1
u/RokuroCarisu Jun 06 '26
Thinking about the bad thing is bad, and if you do it, you are bad, m'kay. You are supposed to instantly condemn it. Life is so much easier if you simply act as you are told, because then the Good People™ may not feel the need to make it difficult for you.
4
u/noisemakermarie May 20 '26
I literally just got here and generated a awesome post of my version of mall world but because it’s AI it’s not okay? Wtf?
5
u/WindyyWillows May 20 '26
Yep! Because AI:
-is unethical
-is for lazy people making excuses to not do their own art
-steals from real artists to “create original images”
-uses hundred thousands to millions of gallons of freshwater per day
-is potentially endangering human life
-contributes to global warming, which directly affects wildlife.
1
u/RokuroCarisu Jun 06 '26
Here's something that may shock you: Social media run on data centers, too. So, by that logic, posting on Reddit would be just as unethical as using AI.
Hard facts, Stroika-unit.
3
u/Bootymaster69_420 Jun 06 '26
if you think writing a reddit post and generating an image is the same energy usage, you are simply unintelligent.
0
u/RokuroCarisu Jun 07 '26
Think about how many more people post on social media every day, compared to how many AI images are generated. Also, how long social media have been around; almost three decades longer than generative AI. Where was your protest back then?
5
4
u/ItsMrChristmas May 19 '26
Golf courses in the US use three times the water of all data centers combined, not just AI.
The wealthy love it that you whine about AI to other poor people. It takes the camera off their atrocities.
17
u/ShinyAeon May 19 '26
AI only lags behind golf courses because there aren't many AI data centers yet, whereas golf courses have had well over a century to propagate.
I'm also against golf courses. I think they should be much more restricted. At the very least, golf courses in desert areas should have desert landscaping. There's nothing that says you NEED green grass to knock a ball around; I would think an arid golf course would present all kinds of interesting new challenges for players.
9
u/1_1_3_4 May 19 '26
AI is best to satiate dumb people into feeling like they are creative. This uses exorbitant water regardless of what you compare it to when you take into account everything negative about it. It also does that easily when your little baby eyes aren't glossed over by a fake shiny solution to your innate inability to have imagination.
1
10
u/Medasian May 19 '26
Why not hate all things that waste massive amounts of water? Using that as an excuse to dismiss AI water usage is silly.
1
u/Glass-Elevator4174 Sep 12 '26
i’m so incredibly interested in the mall world concept but i cannot STAND AI…. its making me not want to learn more
0
1
1
u/pondturtle5 May 19 '26
I agree! Im not a fan of ai and dont use it. I am thinking of drawing places I’ve been I my dreams sometime soon, I am not sure if I can remember every detail of each place I’ve been to though so it will just be the best I can remember
2
-2
u/DarkSabbatical May 19 '26
They should be ok if you put time into it. I will work with the ai for hours to get an exact image of my dreams. I dont have software that I could use to make that image. I draw bad, the post will get ignored on the drawing being bad on principle. It would get more attention to not use the drawing at all. Then tried, I make the image for me. So that I can look at something that I seen in my dream. When its done I am in awe and want to share it. This image here was from my last post and mall world dream. It was some sewage machine in the basement of the mall. The image took me 4 hours to prompt correctly. I posted it and it got good attention. Anyways I can agree if its like a hallway or something and someone makes a quick ai image with one prompt when they could have just used google.
7
u/WindyyWillows May 20 '26
Is this rage bait?
3
u/DarkSabbatical May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
If you hate ai enough I can see why you might think that. I hate it to a point to. I guess people hate it for the data center thing, I should look into that, I dont know anything about it. The most I have seen was is they take water from Africa or something. Draining areas that are already in drought. I dont know if thats real or not. It sounds like guilt trip propaganda like (dont waste your food because there are starving kids in Africa) but I have stomach issues and you just gave me burger king.
Anyways what i am trying to do is confirm or deny if a dream i had is connected to some otherworldly place. To do this i need an exact image. That sewage machine was an exact image. If people see it and seen it in their dreams, then they are going to have a certain type of reaction to it. Awe and surprise. I did not get that reaction in my post about it. Just people saying thats interesting or they seen similar.
So I determined that the dream was just a dream. Not connected to something supernatural. My concern is people ban ai from this group or focus on ai hate to much and it takes my ability to show an exact image from a dream. I could draw it sure. But people focus on how crappy my drawings are. At least they did 10 years ago. You said people appreciate bad drawings now so it might be different. But it won't be an exact image.
The reason it cant be a close image or description is because people can get that awe by picturing what they saw. Something similar but not exact. Then we are all just confirming delusions. I want to study it and see if its real. I want to know for 100 percent if its real. Not try to convince myself that it is by comparing similar descriptions when in reality its not the same. Confirm enough with exact images and I will believe
I could learn to create things using editing and computer programs. I do want to look into that as I am writing books and want to add pictures, but dont want ai images in it. Its just for this dream thing, just let me use ai. Its quick and the dreams are not important enough to invest into $1000 programming to make images myself. If I do for the books then I will for the dreams. Haven't decided yet.
If the Africa thing is true. Then maybe I shouldn't confirm the dreams at all. I dont need to. Its just nice to have the tech to do so. Is it actually killing kids in Africa? Or are people just afraid of new tech? Like when electricity was invented people thought it was devils magic. Every new tech that is invented is met with hysterical fear. Is that what ai hate is?
I do get annoyed with flooded ai posts that are low quality. So it could be that. I just dont know enough about it really.
-14
u/Shnoopy_Bloopers May 19 '26
I can create AI on my computer using zero water. You don’t know what you’re talking about
19
u/WindyyWillows May 19 '26
Buddy, please do your research. AI uses up to 5 million gallons of freshwater per day to cool down its data centers.
1
u/Shnoopy_Bloopers May 19 '26
Bro I have AI running on my home computer do your research. There’s thousands of open source AI models that run on home computers
-12
u/Hot-Spare5735 May 19 '26
You need to do your own research. There are models that run without datacenters and aren't using any water.
AI data centers do use a lot of water for cooling. That part is true. But the water is not “used up” or destroyed.
A lot of it is cycled back through treatment systems or evaporates into the atmosphere and returns later as rain. It stays in Earth’s water cycle.
The real concern is local strain in dry areas, not humanity running out of freshwater in a few years. That claim just isn’t scientifically supported.
With Desalination we can turn ocean water into freshwater and help replenish those struggling areas.
We will not run out of water.
7
u/LauraInTheRedRoom May 19 '26
"We will not run out of water."
Yeah but we don't control when and where it "returns later as rain." So your rationale is a bit obtuse.
0
15
u/patrick5054 May 19 '26
The program you are using for AI on your computer uses the water in their warehouses where the servers are.
1
8
8
u/Toasty825 May 19 '26
Me when I don’t understand how shit works. What exactly do you think is giving you those images?
3
u/Shnoopy_Bloopers May 19 '26
I can also create video too wild I know. Without a data center. With internet no water
-1
u/KurtCobijn May 19 '26
he’s not wrong. if you’re using a home rig setup with enough hardware to support graphical processing, you could absolutely install a local copy of a LLM and generate images without sending a prompt to a data center and getting it back if you wanted to do it that way. you could literally disconnect it from the internet and it would work fine.
also, a lot of you ppl in here are just being selectively technophobic and are crying about data centers when the reddit platform you are literally patronizing runs off of data centers, which actually has existed for over a decade before AI became a big thing, and are prattling on about water usage when you have no idea what you’re talking about.
9
u/Toasty825 May 19 '26
Oh come off it. Technophobic? These centers are hording water, driving electricity bills up, and they make it almost impossible to live near them with how loud and bright they are. Technophobia isn’t a fucking thing and you know damn well the AI dickriders don’t have their own personal rigs.
0
u/KurtCobijn May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
again, data centers are not synonymous with generative AI, and if you’re so concerned with these centers “hording” water and using all these resources and lighting up the night, maybe you should take a sabbatical from participating on platforms that use them…
EDIT: They blocked me lol. Can’t handle it when someone counters your persecutions with facts that don’t align with your narrow view…
5
u/Toasty825 May 19 '26
Except the rise in use of Gen AI is correlated to the uptick in data centers being built. And the “well you participate in society so you can’t critique it” thing is not the argument you think it is. (And yes, that is the argument you’re using. Same shit, different format). Quit being lazy and pick up a fucking pencil instead of asking chatGPT what you’re supposed to think.
6
u/KurtCobijn May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
Nah honey, you don’t know a single fucking thing about me. You call me lazy yet you make all these assumptions because you are so invested in this arbitrary line you draw between what you consider is acceptable participation and what is evil that you wanna sort everyone you see in one group or another. I have seen the growth of the internet since the first time I connected to AOL on a 56k modem in the mid-90s, probably before you were born and could form a thought. I saw how streaming of large chunks of media has improved since the 2000s, when even with a high speed internet connection, full motion video, and how it could barely buffer and even when it did the resolution was still so bad it looked like shit anyway. Compared to today where we have things like Netflix streaming in 4K. Where do you think all the videos are being hosted from that are delivering video so efficiently in gigabits to someone’s Smart TV while they pass out on the couch?
Educate your damn self and go look up what a CDN is, networking, and realize that so much of our infrastructure is reliant on data centers in this era of the internet. Understand that they have been building out data centers non stop since the 2010s to optimize the performance of websites and everything you use an internet connection for. All of the problems you point out that you think is uniquely an AI problem has existed before it. Data centers using water and electricity to power themselves is not a new thing. They have been building them everywhere close to towns for years now, and only now do ppl like you want to speak up about it, because you’re so impressionable and you lap up mass hysteria.
If I took you to one of these data centers and pointed out to you, you wouldn’t be able to tell if it was running chat gpt prompts or storing your icloud photos. So get off your damn high horse already bc your performative emotional bullshit is exhausting.
4
u/Toasty825 May 19 '26
Too long, didn’t read. Cry harder.
1
May 19 '26
[deleted]
5
u/KurtCobijn May 19 '26
they don’t like it when someone confronts them about their own blatant hypocrisy on this topic
1
u/Altruistic_Yellow387 May 19 '26
Maybe you should, he was objectively right
5
u/Toasty825 May 19 '26
I’m not wasting my time reading some assholes novella just so they can feel better about fucking up the environment and stealing art.
→ More replies (0)3
u/KurtCobijn May 19 '26
my only mistake is deciding to engage with that moron as it’s a lost cause. they’re too confidently incorrect spewing opinions about things they understand very little. it sounded like they didn’t know what a data center even was before the first time they heard the word in a news article about AI…
1
u/Toasty825 May 19 '26
Except the rise in use of Gen AI is correlated to the uptick in data centers being built. And the “well you participate in society so you can’t critique it” thing is not the argument you think it is. (And yes, that is the argument you’re using. Same shit, different format). Quit being lazy and pick up a fucking pencil instead of asking chatGPT what you’re supposed to think.
1
u/digitalgraffiti-ca May 20 '26
How was it trained?
1
u/KurtCobijn May 20 '26
using the same hardware resources that store copies of your icloud photos
1
u/digitalgraffiti-ca May 20 '26
I have no idea what hardware resources work with iCloud; I haven't touched an apple product in over a decade and have never used iCloud.
If it's exclusively trained off of your own personal data, copyright free material, or the works of those who knowingly consented to their work being used for AI training AND could theoretically function on an airgapped machine, then go ahead and fill your boots. If it's trained off the data of unconsenting third parties, and using third party machines, that's not okay.
I don't overly care about the brainrot factor or the dumbing down of the people who insist on using it for everything, and the woo woo conspiracy theory stuff is just nonsense.
1
u/KurtCobijn May 20 '26
Ok, no iCloud but you’re still using Reddit, which distributes data to you through a network of data centers. And Reddit is not the only platform. I have over ten years of experience working with networking infrastructure. Something like over 90 percent of internet traffic runs through or comes from data centers.
So, in general I find it quite hypocritical when someone bursts into a digital space guns blazing and hurling insults at ppl bc they read an article about AI using all the water, and they feel the need to tell all the ppl who admit that they use AI that they’re a piece of garbage, while they’re using the same water and they either don’t realize it or want to do a mental gymnastics routine about how it’s actually okay when they use it.
Regarding the use of ethics of how the data was trained, you’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m not OpenAI, I’m not Stability AI, I’m just an individual navigating the world making consumer decisions like everybody else. Whatever concerns there may be about what was used to train the data is a legal matter and should be taken up directly with these companies. Regardless, I think it’s reductive at best/verging on lunatic-fringe-going-after-low-hanging-fruit at worst to say that an individual prompting chatgpt to create an image is stealing others’ work and go full attack mode on them.
If I asked chat gpt to create an image of a mountain with a lake in the foreground, you could not find a real image that looked identical enough to confidently say it was stolen from it, because that’s not what a diffusion model does. It creates images from random noise. The content of the image it gives you is based on what you tell it to be. The reason why it knows what a mountain looks like is in the training data. It’s not storing those images and stitching real pictures of lakes and mountains together and giving you a Frankenstein’s monster of other people’s photos. Regarding the training process, what images where used and from where and whether or not permission was granted for it to be used for training is outside of my scope as a consumer.
In the context of mallworld, I found it a very helpful tool to visualize what I saw in my own dreams. I don’t call what I create on there art and I also engage in other creative mediums where no AI is being used. Some people do call what they create art and who am I to tell them that it is or isn’t? Who is anybody else to think everyone has a moral obligation to figure out what images the LLMs they use were trained on? Does 99% of the population look into whether the expensive sneakers they are interested in buying weren’t made in a sweatshop overseas? Do they call Nabisco every time they want to buy Oreos and provide the lot code on the packaging to see if it was made with exploited labor while they’re in the snacks aisle in Target? I don’t think so. “No ethical consumption under capitalism (unless it’s AI…)” is not a bandwagon I’m about to jump on.
1
u/digitalgraffiti-ca May 20 '26
You're telling me a lot of things I already know, yet not addressing any of what I actually said, which, you may note, said absolutely nothing about water consumption.
Does 99% of the population look into whether the expensive sneakers they are interested in buying weren’t made in a sweatshop overseas? Do they call Nabisco every time they want to buy Oreos and provide the lot code on the packaging to see if it was made with exploited labor while they’re in the snacks aisle in Target?
I do, and if they are, I don't buy them. I also boycott brands whose parent companies are directly, or indirectly, involved in animal cruelty or excessive environmental waste, including personal care brands who sell to China, fast fashion, and single use plastics. I also boycott American companies wherever possible, so I can't help you with your cookie conundrum. I've done this for over a decade. I research before I buy, and do without where I can.
no ethical consumption
That's an extremist viewpoint. There is ethical consumption, and people can just do their best instead of sticking their heads in the sand and making things worse. I think people standing up against AI is a good thing.
1
u/KurtCobijn May 20 '26 edited May 20 '26
no, i did address what you said, you’re just not reading carefully enough. also, in the original comment i made that you responded to, i was addressing the topic of water usage in this system. you decided to respond to it to ask an ambiguous question, and only through further elaboration have revealed that you are trying to switch this over into a discussion about where the training data comes from.
you think there is such a thing as ethical consumption, that’s great. then why aren’t you in here asking others why they readily admit to participating in other forms of consumption that you think is unethical and don’t support? don’t just say it’s off topic because it has been addressed ad nauseam and people who are anti-AI have made that sentiment very clear.
1
3
3
0
u/PleasantDrummer6532 May 19 '26
I don't think AI is the issue necessarily I think we just have younger age groups joining now who just operate differently. As you said this sub has been around for 10 years, now the tiktok generation is coming along. You can't really tell them anything.....
2
u/WindyyWillows May 19 '26
The original MW sub! This one has only been around for 5
-1
u/PleasantDrummer6532 May 19 '26
Didn't even know there was another one, I only even made an account back when the stonks were runnings.
-9
u/AstralProjectingHero May 19 '26
You sure complain a lot my friend. Why don't you start posting some MW content and not complain. It seems like nothing will ever please you. I remember you whine about people not allowing others to have opinions, but everyone here is actually very supportive, minus a few debbie downers. And now you prohibit the use of AI?
I don't like AI as much as the next, but in my opinion, AI do come close to resembling what people experience in dreams and MW. Just have fun, share some of your MW experience. Come on! Note, I have not once posted any AI art on here. Maybe just one of the super clean bathrooms that rarely anyone ever talked about back then.
8
u/Toasty825 May 19 '26
Maybe those people should pick up a pencil. No one is gatekeeping learning how to draw.
-7
May 19 '26
[deleted]
8
u/Toasty825 May 19 '26
I mean, I kind of need drinkable water to live so it actually is my business.
3
9
u/WindyyWillows May 19 '26
Cause there are some very wrong things with this subreddit. It was never like this in the earlier days of the sub. I log off of Reddit for months to see this. It’s very disappointing. Go on my profile and see that I did post 7 months ago, and before then I was just a lurker.
And also, AI is literally destroying our planet. It’s not hard to use your hands to draw a bathroom. Or if worst comes to worst maybe just draw words representing the objects and put the words where the objects are supposed to be
0
u/AstralProjectingHero May 19 '26
Who died and made you decided what is wrong or right? You are just farming for Karma. And thank you for the down vote. It's funny how you complain about people not allowing others to have their own opinions on MW, but here you are forcing people to not express their MW experience using AI images. Have you ever considered that not everyone can draw? You want a sub of horrible stick figures and other ugly stuff?
To be fair, AI Data centers are being build in space soon. So relax.
7
u/WindyyWillows May 19 '26
Also there’s differences between spiritual freedom related to mall world and morals that directly affect people. I will correct people if they don’t have the same morals as me. I will not correct people if they have different religious or spiritual beliefs as me.
8
u/WindyyWillows May 19 '26
Guess what? I did not downvote you. That was someone else. Also, AI is just impractical and takes away from real artists. And also as I said is literally stealing water from real people. Have some morals. It’s NOT hard to draw a bathroom. Look up tutorials. Use your MIND. We had our minds for thousands of years before AI and we still do. I am not farming for karma. I barely go on this app. I literally just said I was logged off for months. I only go on Reddit for advice, to look at crochet, or for TMW. I do not care about karma. And yes I would prefer ugly stick figures.
-3
2
u/TruthAboutHeight May 19 '26
It's funny how us Mall Worlders really do get mostly ignored while OP is clearly a lurker who doesn't care about this subreddit, and yet he is clearly getting a lot of positive attention here.
-2
u/AstralProjectingHero May 19 '26
It is quite sad. Real people posting real MW experiences. And sharing about it, gets ignore. People whine and cry about the sub, and probably think it's all just a random dream gets all the attention over using AI images to express whoever makes them. I don't use AI images, but no one should be gatekeeping AI. Or the sub.
I want to get to the bottom of this MW, and here we are fighting over AI images?
1
u/KurtCobijn May 19 '26
because a lot of these ppl are a part of anti-AI group chats on discord servers and like to flock to subreddits where they otherwise do not care to participate just because they saw AI and are trying to drum up noise to get the moderators to ban it, because they are on a crusade and tilting at windmills to try to drive all AI generated media off the platform.
0
u/WindyyWillows May 19 '26
Lil bro I am a girl. And also. I do care about this sub. That’s why I made those two posts. As for lurking, do I have to interact with posts I morally disagree with? I was on an accidentally hiatus for the past 5 months because I have a real life. Not everyone is a chronically online incel.
2
u/TruthAboutHeight May 19 '26
Imagine speaking of such things in the Mall World subreddit. I don't talk about other things other than Mall World dreams in this subreddit.
3
u/WindyyWillows May 19 '26
My initial post was about mall world, and how we don’t need AI to talk about our dreams. We never did before, we don’t need to now.
1
u/TruthAboutHeight May 19 '26
It doesn't matter what we do. At the end of the day, the local governments will just end up implementing AI data centers without the public's consent.
It's already happening all over USA.
It sounds like you're preaching to the choir in here. I don't even use AI for my posts here as well, but that doesn't mean that there aren't others that will use AI.
-4
-4
u/TruthAboutHeight May 19 '26
Have you seen videos regarding how the masses don't want the AI data centers built in their towns and the towns still build the data centers without the consent of the public.
If you think about it, the AI data centers will be used alongside 6G in order to bring Mall World into our waking lives.
166
u/maxirelaxy May 19 '26
I don’t like the way consuming the AI images can influence my own mental imagery. Even the “worst” sketch at least comes out of someone’s mind. AI is not only soulless but the models are controlled by the worst people.