Just saw in my news feed that Character Ai just made themselves into a social media platform and I feel sick.
People already struggle with LITERAL ADDICTIONS to this site, and TO REAL HUMAN SOCIAL MEDIA.
Now, I'm no mathmetician, but I do know 1+1=2, and I know this equals a very very bad idea.
Character ai is not only horrible for the environment, dumping liters of water into a cooling system while people are begging for the ability to drink clean water WORLDWIDE!! But it's also really bad for your brain as a human.
I'm so serious. Take it from someone who used c.ai from its hayday to this year, IT FUCKS WITH YOUR HEAD. You never have to be lonely, you never have to sit with your feelings, you never have to think or put your own effort into writing a fic when you can roleplay with a soulless bot.
Now imagine getting EVERYTHING from a soulless bot. Recipies, friendship, beauty, money, therapy. Everything you say is fed to a machine, and spit back out at you. You never know what a real human actually bothered to say and what they demanded an algorithim do for them. You never know what could actually be true or what could be fake.
Ai will MAKE UP fake sources. Ai will lie to your face with no remorse because it cannot truly FEEL. It is a machine with no true understanding of nuance.
Not to mention you can't know who's controlling those algorithims. I don't wanna be a conspiracy theorist, but ai could very well be taught bigotry. It's not that wild of a concept. Have you SEEN how racist those fuckass ai clapbacks are???
"Doomscrolling is dead!" (C.AI article said this) No!! No it's not!! This is just going to make it so so SOOOO much worse!!
People can already spend their entire days on this app. Any and all free time can belong to this app. Years of your life, YEARRRSSSS, can be stolen.
Character ai never should have existed to begin with. Generative ai should have never come this far. Our planet is dying. Our people are dying.
BUT NEVER FEAR!! We can still fix things! For one, if you actively use any generative ai, c.ai included, just stop cold turkey.
I did it. And guess what? It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be! Real human writing and roleplay is not only so so SO much more fun, but it's also just better.
"But I don't want to roleplay with other people/my fandom is too niche!" At worst, you can always imagine fake scenarios, or commision/make requests for writers on this app.
"But I wanna make some freaky shit." Make that freak shit brother. Be horny about it. I don't care. You also never have to share your work!! Keep it in your own personal files.
"But I lack talent" nope! Talent isn't what makes good art or writing or roleplay. It's all skill, and it's all skills you can build!
Trust me kiddo- also yes you're all kiddos right now even if you're older then me- you can do this. I believe in you. You can make a difference. Your actions do matter. You and the planet you live on are worth the effort.
And if anyone does see this and stop using generative ai, though I doubt my crusty ass has enough influence to get this widely seen, I am so so SOOOOO PROUD OF YOU!!
Massive hugs for all my ANTI-ai bros.