Hello, Adventure-Raisers! Whooo, it’s been a big week! Little Dragon had his first round of Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease, and evidently I never got it as a kid… I’m proof that adults certainly can feel symptoms. Aaaaand, we finally played an actual session!!! I think it’s been 3 months for me, it’s ridiculous. More to probably come on that later. BUT, all said, we’re back and ready to give you all the promised Session 25: AI? Part Two! Let’s get into it!
AI Art
So, continuing the AI discussion one of the first topics that comes to mind is AI generated art. First off, I do want to come out and say that I do think that it counts as a form of art. However, just like autotune, it’s a crutch in the art world that could be turned into a tool, or a feature, or even a statement. You either can sing or you can use autotune; or do both and target a unique sound. That does not make autotune the same as singing. Same difference here. I think a lot of freelance artists on Deviant Art and Tumblr are right to be a little afraid of the advent of AI, because it is a far-reaching and intuitive alternative to their product. However, I said in Session 24: AI? Part One that I believe humans have an innate NEED for human-told stories and that applies to all art. It’s not like I have a statistic to prove that point, but I will site as my evidence the fact that you’re reading this instead of an AI-generate article right now. Plus, if humans were content to let something else make all our art, then we’d never have made art to begin with. Mother Nature is gorgeous and if we were all THAT lazy than she would have been enough. But instead we’re here talking about how to role play, LARP, and power build to have fun. So with that, I’d like to shoutout to one of my favorite artists on Deviant Art, xMorfina – they actually helped me design the t-shirt that my friends and I will be sporting at GenCon in 1.5 very short weeks, hopefully we see you there! xMorfina was an absolute sweetheart to work with, and for the quality of work the price was reasonable. And, most importantly, I learned how freelancing artist work by going through this exercise. I gained more than just the art.
An interesting take that I did find in this article by Polygon) was AI depicting different races, both real and fantasy. According the referenced article AI struggles to recreate races of color, which was something that I honestly hadn’t considered. So that is certainly an area of development for the tech, no doubt. It’s an area that I think will be developed very quickly, but the article also highlighted some opportunities in AI’s limitations. There is a point heading into the uncanny valley where things can take on the coveted “fey” look. AI’s own blunders can do that. Or, if you’re going for a more Lovecraftian-It-May-Be-Human-But-I’m-Just-Not-Sure kind of vibe, AI art in its current state may just be your best friend.
Now, in the art world, can a tool be used for evil? Anyone who’s watched a fashion show can honestly tell you: yes. Art can get out of hand, and shortcuts can make things worse. And water is wet. Take for instance, the featured image in this weekend’s post (not made by me, but found on X)! Wizards of the Coast is openly datamining their artists – you know, that beautiful, detailed, varied and expressive art from Magic The Gathering that practically FORCED the world look at the trading cards at all????? (Gosh I hope Game Freak isn’t next – and just leave me in my ignorance on this one). I understand that the argument there is that the art these folks make is owned by WOTC, and I am sure that is legally what they signed. But on a moral level, that’s called screwing people over…. so you know, it’s lawful neutral, I guess. A lot of times in engineering, my field, if an employee uses company resources to create a patent that is used in company products, the company usually owns the patent. I get that. And artificer/ engineering jobs get outsourced all the time; that was part of why I left my previous position, because I was told to teach someone overseas how to do an important function of my position but “not to worry about my own job security.” At least I had another person on the other side of the screen, and it wasn’t the screen just grabbing my work from me. WOTC hasn’t been winning a lot of people over lately, and it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they’re in for another customer revolt like we had back in 2023 over monetizing D&D. But honestly, what will people play in the meantime, Lorcana? Please. Maybe this is Lizard Boi’s (my friend’s) chance to get us all back on the Yu-Gi-Oh train.
AIs and Little Dragons
How does any of this relate to your little dragons directly: in short, I want you to stop asking that question. Instead, I want you to ask this: what am I teaching my child? Don’t just ask this about AI, ask this about the food you serve them. Ask this about the language you use in front of them. Ask this about the school you choose, the amount of time you spend with them, the parks you frequent, the games you play, the pets you buy, and the debates you and your partner have at dinner. I want more parents to think about that. And when you do think about that for a while, then you can ask yourself: what is AI going to teach my little dragon better than me? That’s where the line is. That’s the line between a tool and a crutch.
I was curious about AI in broader education in America, and I have a few links here for anyone else who is interested:
The overall gist is that AI can help streamline teaching jobs, which is obvious. It goes on to say that teachers, in the face of AI, should pivot to reinforcing social behavior and artistic expression. But beyond that, some schools are trying to use AI to personalize the education experience of the student. My worry with that is that education may become lopsided, in that one subject is over-emphasized. I think my stance on that is clear, but to recap I don’t think any education should entirely on one or the other. But as an adult in the technology world, I can safely say that what I learned about interacting with humans growing up, was much more valuable to me than anything Google has been able to teach. Again, this is a major reason why I love board games and TTRPGs in general – screen addition is bad. And my friends are funnier anyway. While the initial statistics in these articles are promising, there isn’t any long term data to confirm that this method works yet. And I’ll defer to “screen addiction is bad, understanding how to use a computer is good, there’s a wide river in between.”
AI + TTRPGs + Little Dragons
I don’t think little dragons are ruined for life if they happen to see you using a tablet at the game table. If they see you whip out a comical painting of a NPC you named on the fly, that can all be incorporated into the experience. But using AI to win at Pictionary – that’s what WOTC is doing, you see? I won’t being AI art in the near future, because I am blessed to be in a place where I can afford human artists right now. But I understand people who can’t at the moment… maybe just try to keep the OGs in mind, and save up to buy something from them eventually (like at GenCon!). But AL that serves one function at a time, like transcribing or messaging, is just a part of modern life now. There’s no shame in raising your little dragons in the modern world, even when you’re both pretending to be in the Medieval one.
That’s all I have for you guys today, please feel welcome to drop your thoughts in the comments! I’m still learning about all of this and I embrace new information! I’m excited to be prepping one more article for you all before GenCon, please expect that next weekend, I’ll see you there!
And don’t forget, you’re not on this journey alone.
