Agreed

No, what I’m saying is that the people that draw the marvle comics, animate them or write the plot won’t make a living from that anymore for much longer. It’s really as simple as that. Why? Because they make their living creative work, which is great.

But they already earn their living more from autographs at conventions than from the payment for their outstanding work. That too will soon be a thing of the past, because Marvel will not be renewing their contracts - leaving these talented people out on the street because they can no longer sign autographs if they are neither authors nor illustrators, nor animators or whater.

That’s true, but culture has also been a business for a long time. What you see and hear is the result of this, because there are media that reinforce your awareness of your senses. If you think that you would remain unaffected by this, you don’t understand my point.

Is dictated make-believe still culture? I don’t think so, but that’s what it boils down to.

Honestly, I can’t understand how you can’t see that, because it’s been the case all over the world for a very long time. Take a look at the so-called social media applications. Do you seriously believe that what people see there has anything to do with who they really are? With their every day lives? What they understand as culture based on their experience there?

Yes, of course, the real world still exists, but do you really think it’s independent of what people see online?

What does that add to the statement in the post? There are hundreds of thousands of such examples.

It doesn’t change the statement: writers, artists, and all other creative professions are now in a much worse position than they have been ever before - and yes, disproportionate pay for even extraordinary achievements has always been been the case historically for these very important people. But with LLMs we have reached the point where it’s not even enough for a dream scenario. There is no business model for this anymore.

There is no longer any money to be made because consumers do not pay for quality, but for mass and free content. The best example of this is the decline of journalism, which had always been financed mainly by advertising - this has not worked for twenty years because Google and social media platforms have completely taken over this business, which is why there is no longer any serious journalism today. It can no longer be financed because consumers cannot cover the costs, even if they wanted to, which is the case at all.

The question is what the future will look like when culture is created by machines. This is already very evident today with all the social media bots and the logic that directs the attention of the remaining human users. The result is already quite dystopian, don’t you think?

Yes, that’s true, but until now, people could still make a decent living from scraps. That is no longer the case.

Then I can turn it into a business. With LLMs, that’s hardly a problem anymore. Don’t worry: I’ll do it alongside my job - just a hobby that brings in some nice extra income.

I am neither a musician nor a particularly good writer, but I am somewhat good with LLMs. Thank you very much for your encouragement. That removes all my ethical doubts about closing this chapter. If it has always been this way, then I don’t need to worry about it anymore.

What makes you so sure, when there’s not even the prospect of making a living from it anymore? Do you think most artists do it as a hobby?

There are many people who make a living from it. Where else do you see them earning a living?

You don’t seem to understand what I mean at all. I mean people who try to make a living from their creative work. Do you think that’s still possible?

People paid very well in the past - although most of it publishers and the like. Still: Professionals could somewhat live from the scabs.

Today, however, all these business models are obsolete, even though they brought in billions until around the turn of the millennium.

My statement is quite simple: in the future, no one will even try the hopeless anymore, because there is not even a dream to be chased.

The conclusion is pretty obvious: there will only be AI slop, which is not even close to being a substitute for what has been lost.

There is already a term for this, which has long been a reality in many areas: Dead Internet - and this affects all industries that depend on this medium; without exception, this includes all entertainment industries that have ever existed. In other words: the entire cultural industry, which is doomed to die and is consequently dying.

Yep, Grok is probably already working on it, or at least getting people excited about it…

The evidence that the fungi overlords will soon take over continues to mount…that’s why I don’t eat mushrooms…better safe than sorry…

Thank you, I really appreciate that.

Figures and/or examples would be very interesting for:

1. The statement that LLMs will continue to develop rapidly and/or that their output will still improve significantly in quality. I currently assume that development will slow down considerably—for example, with regard to hallucinations, where it was assumed for some time that the problem could be solved by more extensive training data, but this has proven to be a dead end.

2. The statement that the value of the companies involved can be justified in any way with real-world assets. Or, at any rate, reliable statements about how existing or planned data centers built for this purpose can be operated economically despite their considerable running costs.

3. How you justify your statement that it would be realistic to replace human workers on a large scale. Examples where this is the case would be interesting (by this I don’t mean figures on where workers have been laid off, but examples of companies where human work has been (successfully) made obsolete by LLMs – I am not aware of any such examples where this has happened in a significant way and attributable to the use of LLMs).

4. I am aware that the technology is being used in warfare. I am not aware of its significance or the tactical advantages it is supposed to offer. Please provide examples of what you mean.

Considering what LLMs are useful for, I wouldn’t say so. But in terms of how it’s all being marketed, how it’s being pushed on consumers for no apparent reason, I definitely agree.

Do you have any sources that cite figures that would suggest this? To be honest, I have my doubts—except for the statement that money is being shifted back and forth; however, I don’t understand why massive investments in data centers would make sense in this context if it’s not just making a profit for Nvidia and such.

As I said, I don’t consider LLMs and image generation to be technologies without use cases. I’m simply saying that the impact of these technologies is being significantly and very deliberately overestimated. Take so-called AI agents, for example: they’re a practical thing, but miles away from how they’re being sold.

Furthermore, even Open AI is very far from being in the black, and I consider it highly doubtful that this will ever be possible given the considerable costs involved. In my opinion, the only option would be to focus on marketing opportunities, which is the business model of the classic Google search engine—but this would have a very negative impact on user value.

Thank you for this comment. I completely agree with you: I think all it takes is people who act according to their conscience—that results in a community worth living in. That’s all it takes.

I would say that we will very soon find ourselves in 1984 or perhaps Brazil, with a little bit of The Circle and Her thrown in, but overall it will be more like The Road due to climate change, unless Elysium technology has been developed by then, which is unlikely, but if so, it will certainly be used as depicted in the film.