So I've Been Playing Mage The Ascension

so i've been playing mage the ascension

we're playin a bunch of orphans who all knew each other pre-awakening, went our separate ways, but are now livin in a fucked up house with very little memory of how we came to be living here. we did not know the others were mages upon moving in. as we've been forced to use magic in front of each other in life or death situations tho, we've figured it out.

the rent is free, tho, bc our landlord fucked off to the bahamas suddenly. the level of haunted is not enough to beat not paying rent.

this shitty little doodle comes from my character (the redhead) spilling weird magic liquid on herself in some seemingly-abandoned mages lab in our house's own personal backrooms (long story), being immediately forcibly thrown into a horrifying seeking (my arete was only 2 so pray for me goin forward) where she almost died and her avatar shit talked her, came back to consciousness, had this interaction with her friend, then fell into a seizure. i cannot stop thinking about this sequence of events.

Hobie is my babey my brother my Angel my child my son I gave birth to him I raised him I love him he is the bestest boy HOBIE I LOVE YOU

Optimistic nihilist no fear of death hollow one vs. her might have already died at some point best pal

i want to talk about my mage character forever but also i have to keep my secrets from the other players

The point shouldn't be to identify for sure 100% what is ai art and what isn't. I keep seeing posts advising one to look out for wonky perspective (as if perspective doesn't routinely trip up even the most experienced artists) or to pay attention to fudged detailing (as if impressionism wasn't one of the most influential artistic movements in history), and I think that's coming from a good place but frankly it's a losing battle. Remember when everyone was on about counting the fingers or counting the teeth, and a week later they had that shit ironed out completely? All you're really doing is giving these people more data points to work with to refine their algorithm. It's just going to be constantly shifting goalposts, and at a certain point real artists are going to get exhausted trying to make their art look as not algorithmically generated as possible. It'll be impossible to keep up.

So what should we do? Honestly, I think old practices are still best practices. Find real artists and follow them. Don't repost art, and dont spread reposted art. If something doesn't have a source, skip it. Support artists you like, either by sharing their work directly or donating. And if someone's work looks suspicious? Maybe give them a second look. See some of their other art before jumping to conclusions.

And yes, that means sometimes, you're gonna be tricked. Some people are going to fly under the radar and pass off ai art as their own. And that sucks, and they're liars, but you can't let the obsession with bad actors police real artists out of their communities, or discourage new artists from entering the scene.