The use of A.I images in RP?

[Ivory11]

Your thoughts on this? Do you use AI for any of your roleplay character images or locations?

 

[Chalarm]

While I haven't used AI art for any roleplays, it certainly sounds like it would be a perfect use for the technology. There's always moments when I spend a long while searching for an image of what I have pictured in my mind and it would be easier to just have one created from scratch. While aspects of AI art seems to be controversial to some, I can't think of the use of it for RP could be seen as a negative in any way.

 

[Siph]

I currently don't, since most of the art I "use" for RP nowadays is for the sake of inspiration rather than visuals in the "this is an accurate depiction of my character" sense. However, back when I RPed in SWTOR, I've seen more than a few people take in-game screenshots of their character and throw it in an AI that would make a more realistic portrait or simply something more aesthetically appealing than the decade-old engine could muster.

I tried it on one of my characters and turned this into this, which definitely has some shortcomings but I'm sure I could've improved it if I put more effort in the toggles. I didn't really bother since a friend had already drawn something that's superb by all measures.

 

[Doctor Manhattan]

I have not generated something myself but I'm amenable to try it, if nothing else. Generally I tend to use real-life faceclaims for my characters unless my partner isn't a fan and then animated or drawn images are fine.

 

[TotesBurger]

Eh not really. I kinda find most AI art to be lame as fuck

 

[Revelations]

I am not particularly a fan of AI art like TotesBurger. That being said I wouldn't begrudge anyone for using it. There's a few ethical concerns about AI art however, but then again the asme could perhaps be said for using art as a character in the first place.

 

[VentureErrant]

The most common ethical concerns I've heard voiced about AI art are basically equating it to plagiarism. To some degree, what folks do with art in the context of roleplaying is essentially reproducing said art without permission, but it's kind of a jaywalking-level infraction. You dial-in the AI to (sort of) reliably reproduce a given artist's style and then generate a lot of basically-disposable art in a hurry, which has a lot more serious implications. (And note that the AI writing bots are doing the same!)

 

[Saiya]

If it looks right? Honestly most AI art I've seen has been 'off' to the point of being distracting so I haven't used any I seen, granted I'll admit I haven't exactly went searching for much to begin with. I personally don't have an issue with it existing and I think its a good quick resource to use that won't ever match the ability of an artist, particularly with an artist being able to draw some to an exact degree and completely original to what someone might want in an image.

 

[Heartsnest]

I support the use of AI art non-commercially. Some people can't draw and don't have time nor money to get commissions for all the characters they want to play, so they can use such a program to act as their avatar. No real difference from taking a picture from an image site as your character reference.

 

[Sir Weiss]

I’m personally pretty casual and not too experienced in the RP world, but I’ve used AI art to generate general backgrounds, although it’s usually easier to search for an existing image for inspiration. I’m mostly on board with Saiya and Heartsnest. The biggest issue in my opinion is that generated faces always trigger that uncanny valley response. The tech just isn’t refined enough yet.

 

[ƒeral]

on the topic of generative AI and roleplay...when can chatGPT generate roleplay replies

 

[Lydia]

on the topic of generative AI and roleplay...when can chatGPT generate roleplay replies

This is an interesting question. I don't know enough about the nuances and particulars of chatGPT, but wouldn't this defeat the whole purpose? Isn't writing - developing ideas, characters, honing your art and skill - the whole point? If someone wanted to do this, more power to 'em, but at that point... why even bother? Why not just read someone else's story?

 

[ƒeral]

This is an interesting question. I don't know enough about the nuances and particulars of chatGPT, but wouldn't this defeat the whole purpose? Isn't writing - developing ideas, characters, honing your art and skill - the whole point? If someone wanted to do this, more power to 'em, but at that point... why even bother? Why not just read someone else's story?

that's a fair point! I was more thinking along the lines of RPing with chatGPT rather than having chatGPT write my replies, if that make sense.

The thought process was more - can I 'train' a generative AI into a perfect RP partner, and if so, what are the pros and cons around it.

 

[Sir Weiss]

This is an interesting question. I don't know enough about the nuances and particulars of chatGPT, but wouldn't this defeat the whole purpose? Isn't writing - developing ideas, characters, honing your art and skill - the whole point? If someone wanted to do this, more power to 'em, but at that point... why even bother? Why not just read someone else's story?

That’s my take as well. RP is appealing to me because there’s a connecting element with a real person. Without that draw of having a person to share an interactive story with, I might as well just write by myself. Maybe it’s good a exercise in creativity by reacting to a story you don’t have full control of, sure. But as a replacement for ‘real’ RP? No thanks.

 

[Lydia]

that's a fair point! I was more thinking along the lines of RPing with chatGPT rather than having chatGPT write my replies, if that make sense.

The thought process was more - can I 'train' a generative AI into a perfect RP partner, and if so, what are the pros and cons around it.

Ahhhh, gotcha. I think there might be a thread about this somewhere on the boards, but I don't really see the appeal of this. Like AltWeiss mentioned, it could be interesting as practice, I suppose - or some type of side project to share with a wider audience for comedic value. But when it comes down to it, a lot of people who write do it because they have something they want to share, and that's usually with another person or other people (exception being personal journals, etc). There's something really inspiring about organic brains and human connection, even if it's anonymous and via a shared story.

 

[ƒeral]

circling back to the original topic after my side tangent --

nah, haven't been big on AI art. most of the open-sourced ones are not quite there. But I am very keen on the development of generative AI generally. When the AI art inevitably improves, you betcha I'll be using it a ton.

 

[Ironic]

on the topic of generative AI and roleplay...when can chatGPT generate roleplay replies

UNRELATED BUT RELATED!

My fiancé and I were talking about AI and such, and I’m on the fence about it because of stealing different art styles etc, but he said “What if AI was a movie generator and it created your RP story into a visual movie for you to watch?”

I don’t even care at that point. Take my money. I wanna see that.

 

[Doctor Manhattan]

UNRELATED BUT RELATED!

My fiancé and I were talking about AI and such, and I’m on the fence about it because of stealing different art styles etc, but he said “What if AI was a movie generator and it created your RP story into a visual movie for you to watch?”

I don’t even care at that point. Take my money. I wanna see that.

 

[ƒeral]

UNRELATED BUT RELATED!

My fiancé and I were talking about AI and such, and I’m on the fence about it because of stealing different art styles etc, but he said “What if AI was a movie generator and it created your RP story into a visual movie for you to watch?”

I don’t even care at that point. Take my money. I wanna see that.

so one of the generative AIs I have my eyes on is google's musicLM, which supposedly can make music from text prompts. This would be the logical next step, movies from text prompts.

And like, HELL YEAH dude. Gimme that AI, NOW.

 

[DeRe]

Honestly, I'm not a fan of AI images. It's some seriously uncanny valley stuff. They seem to be overrunning the faceclaim corner of the internet and I'm a bit worried, I hope it's just a fad. I do appreciate how much easier it's made faking, but by the same token it just seems so fake in turn. As much as something like topless angel Taytay {NSFW} appeals to me on an aesthetic level, it also makes me feel like a cat being stroked the wrong way.

 

[Sudian]

I think AI could definitely be useful in setting the scene — photos of worlds, locations, etc. I think on a character level it’s a mixed bag but I’m open to it.

 

[variablevector]

The day it can perfectly emulate a specific game or anime's art for me... that'd be ideal. Being able to write stories that turn into a manga for me would be incredible. I've never been big on FC's though and if it was a real person, then I kind of tilt my head because at that point my brain feels like it's losing touch with reality.

 

[Cosmic Witch]

I've recently discovered Midjourney and I can honestly say I am addicted to AI art and the whole trial and error process of generating it. I have a feeling that most of my stories will now be littered with visual references made with it.

 

[impreg21]

I have used NovelAI in the past, which is the greatest AI generator I've seen when it comes to anime art style. It was trained on Danbooru images and outputs amazing results which are highly configurable, and, best of all, the outputted images are permissively licensed to the person who generated them (they are all stored locally in your browser and are lost if you don't save the ZIP file before leaving the image generation page), meaning you are free to do what you want with them and license them however you want as you are the owner of the images. The licensing aspect is appealing to me since I can avoid copyright issues which may arise from using copyrighted anime artwork which is not freely distributable or carries other restrictions; sure, no one on this site is likely to get called out by the copyright owner of the images used here, and they likely fall under fair use, but, as a software developer, licensing is important to me and it is natural to attribute it correctly.