So about that AI post huh?
If you're in the Aphverse fandom and you don't know what that title is referring to, you might want to sit down to read this. It's not... the best.
I want to use this post to both compile all the information I have from my own sleuthing, and express my thoughts and nuanced opinions in one place. I'm incredibly depressed by this whole situation, and I think everyone who's ever been a fan of anything made by this team deserves to sit with this uncomfortable truth with as much information as they need for as long as they need it. So lets get started.
Well... there was more stuff said because Jason can't not post on twitter. Screenshots and further discussion will be under the cut again because there's a lot more to it. Keep reading to see the bad meme I made in response to all of this
So Jason Bravura doesn't know when to shut his mouth and lie and now we're all paying the price for it. In response to... all the stuff I talked about in the original post, Jason took to his favorite website to give us an update (shout out to @menphias-flame for getting these screenshots for me so I don't have to open twitter).
There's so many problems with this I don't know where to even start. I guess the first thing is that clearly there needs to be some kind of work done on the internal Catface team if this kind of thing is happening without Jess or Jason's approval. That's a huge L on their parts.
The second thing is that comment about how this comes at the tail of character skin tones on merch and all I have to say is YEAH THAT'S NOTHING NEW. Skin tones of these characters have been off in merch for a while, and they have been completely butchered in thumbnails for even longer. Their thumbnails can't even get certain characters eye colors right, let alone their skin tone. That is a weak argument for why they weren't involved in this, because skin tones have been an issue for this team since they were Blujay studios.
Third, I really hate how Jason is making a martyr out of himself here. Talking about how he's responsible for everything, how he personally halved his salary for the team, how this is all his fault. I wish he just. Hadn't done that. Because if your content production is so overwhelming and incapable of keeping up with itself without using AI, MAYBE CHANGE YOUR CONTENT PRODUCTION SCHEDULE???
Nobody is making Catface upload that many cocomau videos a week, and I'm sure if they heard me say this, Jess or Jason would start talking about how much money it takes to run their operation. And my response to that is to downsize your operation along with downsizing your content generation. Because as it is now they are burning the cabdle at both ends, overworking every artist contracted under them, and still failing to meet their own requirements. Methinks their requirements might not actually be humanly possible anymore and they need to change what those requirements are in order to survive.
Fourth, and finally, we have confirmation. Confirmation of the job posting (lightly), and confirmation that yes Catface uses AI in their content creation. Now Jason is trying to convince you in this post that they use it in an ethical manner, that there is no art or writing generated for their works, only ideas and production tool creation, whatever that means. And uh, hey Jason...
THERE IS NO ETHICAL WAY TO USE THE STEALING AND LYING MACHINE THAT KILLS THE PLANET!! YOU ARE KILLING THE PLANET WITH EVERY TIME YOU ASK A CHATBOT TO GENERATE SOME IDEAS FOR AN ASMP VIDEO!!
We now have confirmation that Catface studios uses AI in the process of making cocomau videos. And that sucks!! I wish they had lied to us!! I wish that Jason had gone on twitter and told a bold face outright lie to the entire fandom! I wish we could've been forever stuck in speculation with squinted eyes, instead of having this ugly truth laid bare. This sucks.
That's all there is to this. This sucks.
I'll probably still finish Mermaid Tales because in my social circles I've been the only one who's watching it and reporting back to people on how bad it is, but once that's over? I doubt I'll watch another new Aphmau video. Even if MyStreet Season 7 actually comes back, even if Jeffory and Blaze and Cadenza are all in it, I'll not want to watch it. Because now I can't trust the creators or anything they make. I never can. Until I see a comprehensive behind the scenes production process on MyStreet with reliable proof of no gen AI usage, I can never trust them, and that kind of documentary would cost too much money to film.
I'll still work on my fanfictions, have my fun with these characters in my own worlds, and engage with other fan content. This fandom is a special thing to me, and I've never needed them actually making anything I wanted to watch for that to be the case. But I will probably talk less about critiques of the writing and just do more silly Blaze posting when I'm in the mood for it, cause he's mine now as far as I can tell.
Thank you for reading this far, thank you for keeping a critical eye about you, and remember that Jason can't take your childhood memories away from you. Sparkle on and remember to be yourself
Oh and here's that meme I promised, made in about 5 minutes with a reliable zero usage of generative AI in the creative process
