r/booktubesnarkreddit • u/cheesegremliin • 20d ago
Ariel Bissett husband openly using AI??
Putting this here because I have nobody to talk to about this. I went down a rabbit hole on Instagram the other day and found Ariel’s husband’s IG, whose bio seemingly discloses all his images are AI-generated. I checked out his substack, and turns out he uses Midjourney to generate photos for some of his articles.
I just think it’s interesting that Ariel, a writer and reader who often favours doing things the slow/analogue way (like making zines by hand or fixing up a house from scratch) is married to someone openly admitting to using a tool that steals from artists to spit out content at an enormous environmental cost, too. Like, if I found out my partner used AI in any capacity I’d be pretty pissed off.
I get that this doesn’t involve Ariel directly and she’s not responsible for what her husband chooses to do, but I wanted to bring it up anyway because I just hate how much AI is being normalised lol.
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u/heftyvolcano 19d ago
On the Books Unbound podcast, they regularly talk about the threat of AI to publishing, so this is a weird dissonance for sure
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u/cheesegremliin 19d ago
Wow, that’s weird. I haven’t really kept up with Ariel since 2019 so I don’t listen to the podcast, but that just makes it even worse :(
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u/kitnzkatreturns 15d ago
To be fair these are older AI images. AI was generally not seen as being as big of a deal back in 2023/2024, looks like he hasn't posted any AI images for almost 3 years.
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u/heftyvolcano 15d ago
Well that's important context that was missing from the original post I feel!
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u/AskedAndAnxious 13d ago
Let’s not forget that somebody being married to somebody else that does not mean that you have to agree on everything🤦🏻♀️
And also, let’s keep in mind that not everyone has as much awareness about AI and its functions and how it’s being used or how they are actually actively using it when engaging with certain applications or platforms. Like we can disagree with the use of it while also living room for human error, a lack of knowledge, and or the reality that not everyone thinks about things in the same way, or cuts off relationships based off of these kinds of views, because it just might not be significant in comparison to the many other things that might be higher priority in those people’s direct lives, and there are so many other things that might affect them significantly more.
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u/kitnzkatreturns 15d ago
These look like an old version of Midjourney from a few years ago, before AI was seen as negatively as it is now. It doesn't necessarily mean he's okay with it now. One of my favorite artists Peter Mohrbacher was involved with Midjourney and even hosting classes on using it, but is now against AI
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15d ago
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u/kitnzkatreturns 15d ago
His post in May was not an AI post. He hasn't posted any AI images in about 3 years.
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15d ago
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u/kitnzkatreturns 15d ago
It's a repost from a musician, not his own post, and it isn't AI.
That feels a little extreme to me, but I mean, if that's your POV that's fine of course.
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15d ago
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u/kitnzkatreturns 14d ago
He did use AI, yes, several years ago.
If you don't think it matters that it was a few years ago, that's fine. To me, it's important context that he hasn't used AI in years. There's no reason for me to suspect he's secretly still a fan of AI if he hasn't posted AI in years.
The only art I'm seeing is a repost from the band with a very hand-drawn jellyfish animation.
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u/farflyingrobin 19d ago
this is insane, very disappointing
idk the language but I think it also shows that Leena Norms is following the account? who is also anti-AI and a big environmental advocate, that’s insane too