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The tool isn't the standard. Accuracy is.
And this issue existed long before AI.
Before AI, I used RhinoGold to create studio renders of my jewelry. Those renders often looked considerably better than the jewelry could look inworld at the time—not because the product was different, but because professional rendering gave me control over lighting, reflections and the environment.
Virtual worlds don't have natural sunlight. What we see is rendered by software, and the final appearance depends on the viewer, graphics settings, lighting, environment settings and the technology available at the time.
Then PBR came along, and suddenly materials such as gold could look dramatically more realistic inworld—for people using a PBR-capable viewer with the appropriate settings.
That's an important point: there are many variables affecting what any individual visitor sees.
Two people can stand in front of exactly the same object or in exactly the same region and have a noticeably different visual experience because of their viewer, graphics settings, lighting and hardware.
So expecting an advertisement to reproduce exactly what every person will see on their own screen isn't a reasonable standard.
The reasonable standard is that the advertisement fairly represents the region or product being advertised.
AI doesn't change that.
What works for one creator may not work for another. What looks good on one person's system may not look identical on someone else's. That's always been part of creating for virtual worlds.
Nobody gets to declare, “My AI use is responsible, therefore mine is acceptable, but I don't approve of yours.”
Creators don't need permission from other creators to use new technology.
If you don't like AI, don't use it.
If you do use it, use it responsibly.
And if you're wondering whether my AI advertisement represents Tumbletwig, there is a wonderfully simple way to find out:
Come visit Tumbletwig and see it for yourself.
That is the comparison that matters.
And this issue existed long before AI.
Before AI, I used RhinoGold to create studio renders of my jewelry. Those renders often looked considerably better than the jewelry could look inworld at the time—not because the product was different, but because professional rendering gave me control over lighting, reflections and the environment.
Virtual worlds don't have natural sunlight. What we see is rendered by software, and the final appearance depends on the viewer, graphics settings, lighting, environment settings and the technology available at the time.
Then PBR came along, and suddenly materials such as gold could look dramatically more realistic inworld—for people using a PBR-capable viewer with the appropriate settings.
That's an important point: there are many variables affecting what any individual visitor sees.
Two people can stand in front of exactly the same object or in exactly the same region and have a noticeably different visual experience because of their viewer, graphics settings, lighting and hardware.
So expecting an advertisement to reproduce exactly what every person will see on their own screen isn't a reasonable standard.
The reasonable standard is that the advertisement fairly represents the region or product being advertised.
AI doesn't change that.
What works for one creator may not work for another. What looks good on one person's system may not look identical on someone else's. That's always been part of creating for virtual worlds.
Nobody gets to declare, “My AI use is responsible, therefore mine is acceptable, but I don't approve of yours.”
Creators don't need permission from other creators to use new technology.
If you don't like AI, don't use it.
If you do use it, use it responsibly.
And if you're wondering whether my AI advertisement represents Tumbletwig, there is a wonderfully simple way to find out:
Come visit Tumbletwig and see it for yourself.
That is the comparison that matters.
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Comments
Awesome just Awesome, I am a huge huge fan of ai love everything about it, and yes using ai to enhance the build or the place being it lights and few flares here and there polish up the texture fine details go a long way, replacing the whole thing then that's another story, great work 👏
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Just having my say here because i posted an AI picture of my region yesterday. For all my years in opensim and SL, i have leaned towards making things as realistic as I can - that's just my own desire. I didn't hesitate to use the tools available to enhance my visual experience inworld - I'm a greedy piggy for eye candy! I saw AI as the next logical move after Materials and PBR , so of course I was seriously delighted with the image of my region that AI gave me, it made me want to crawl inside the screen :) AI didn't create my region - i did. That's my landscaping, years of work. Snapshots never look as good as being on the region, so while AI makes it look better, snapshots make it look worse. So yes, i will occasionally post an AI enhanced photo of my regions.
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And that is exactly what I meant with my post. You posted a picture *of your region* showing your work and enhanced it with AI. And it looked great. Others will adjust the lighting of an in-world image in Photoshop, add a filter, make it sepia, etc. All of that I am totally fine with. But letting AI generate an image that's supposed to represent a product/region that looks nothing like the actual place/product. No. Not cool. I am sorry if that was not clear ❤️
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If your post was aimed at my stating that I believe that ads for regions/products should show the actual region/product and not be AI: that was never meant to say "people should not use AI". But yes, like youself, I believe in using AI as the amazing tool it is. Honesty to me too is key, I've just teleported to too many regions or products for which the ad looked amazing, only to find items looking completely different from the ad or end up in a region that was basically a flat, mostly empty piece of land with some items tossed around at random. You are an amazing artist and I adore your work (and have quite a bit of it, thank you so much!) Like Cassia, I am truly sorry if my post prompted a need to defend your work process. That was never my intention. There is a huge different between posting AI slop and using it as the amazing tool it is. You.. are definitely on the right side of that :) ❤️
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Thank you, Gentle. ❤️ My post wasn't aimed specifically at you or Cassia. It came from seeing so many discussions and comments about AI lately and feeling that we sometimes focus too much on the tool instead of what the creator actually does with it.
I absolutely agree about honesty in advertising. Nobody wants to teleport somewhere expecting what they saw in an ad and find something completely different.
Where I think we may differ slightly is that I don't believe an AI-created image automatically means it isn't showing the actual product or region. AI can be used to represent something very closely, just as traditional rendering, Photoshop and other tools have done for years.
And thank you so much for what you said about my work—and for having some of it! That means a lot to me. ❤️ I think we're actually saying much the same thing: use the technology, enjoy what it makes possible, but remain responsible for what you put your name on.
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I absolutely agree about honesty in advertising. Nobody wants to teleport somewhere expecting what they saw in an ad and find something completely different.
Where I think we may differ slightly is that I don't believe an AI-created image automatically means it isn't showing the actual product or region. AI can be used to represent something very closely, just as traditional rendering, Photoshop and other tools have done for years.
And thank you so much for what you said about my work—and for having some of it! That means a lot to me. ❤️ I think we're actually saying much the same thing: use the technology, enjoy what it makes possible, but remain responsible for what you put your name on.
"remain responsible" is the key phrase here. If you can look at an ad that you make and look at the product you are giving away and say to yourself "This looks the same (Or very close to the same)" then that is being responsible. Otherwise it is false advertising. I am going to start clarifying in my ad's that my items are made by AI, although my ad's are not. I think this whole topic of AI is a good discussion to have.
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I agree. The problem is that many people dislike AI on principle. They may see that an ad is AI-generated and dismiss the region or creation without ever visiting to see whether the advertisement accurately represents it. Disclosing AI use is perfectly fine, but there will always be people who dislike our work simply because AI was involved.
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So true. And to those people I say "It's free, if you don't like it don't pick it up". But I do use actual snapshots of my products because I don't want to make people waste their time if it's not going to be what they see in the ad. I think that is just wrong (and of course that is just simply my own opinion) Sometimes getting around places with HG isn't easy. Sometimes going somewhere and trying to find the one thing that is in the ad is hard. I won't do that to people. What they see is what they get when I post on here. And it's not because I don't like AI. I use AI for scripts, mesh, songs, images, and just general information or chatting. I love AI! :) I just don't want people to feel lied to or like I am trying to pull the wool over their eyes.
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I understand that, but I also think part of the charm of OpenSim is the adventure of exploring and finding our way to things. An ad should never deliberately mislead or falsely represent what is there, absolutely. But I don't think everything has to be an exact photographic roadmap either. Let the ad invite people in, then let them explore, wander, and discover. That's part of the fun of the Hypergrid.
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I am just paying attention to those who post ad's that are clearly not what the product looks like and using it in a way to get traffic. And then I choose to see the ad's for what they are and ignore them. They look like real ad's so I am treating them the same way I do when I see a Wayfair ad that might pop up on this page. I scroll right past.
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Excellent food for thought, Mari...
AI is meant to AUGMENT, not REPLACE the artist. Like you I have had to learn how to make my own art (I've been in multimedia for 3 decades) and code LSL by hand. This has enabled me to do work I could have never done before. It is nice when you can consult an advanced model which understands the framework you are running on and can write code for that specific build. In the old days I used to bug Satyr endlessly with my "how do I do this in LSL questions"... I really miss that part.
Using the technology without a solid foundation is a recipe for disaster. I have the battle scars from letting 'the machine' have too much freedom. If GPT or Grok is going to assist my work, I cannot allow daydreaming or features I did not ask for. I do not wish to be one of the modern purveyor's of "AI SLOP" these days.
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AI is meant to AUGMENT, not REPLACE the artist. Like you I have had to learn how to make my own art (I've been in multimedia for 3 decades) and code LSL by hand. This has enabled me to do work I could have never done before. It is nice when you can consult an advanced model which understands the framework you are running on and can write code for that specific build. In the old days I used to bug Satyr endlessly with my "how do I do this in LSL questions"... I really miss that part.
Using the technology without a solid foundation is a recipe for disaster. I have the battle scars from letting 'the machine' have too much freedom. If GPT or Grok is going to assist my work, I cannot allow daydreaming or features I did not ask for. I do not wish to be one of the modern purveyor's of "AI SLOP" these days.
Thank you, Spax. AUGMENT is exactly the word.
AI hasn't replaced my creativity—it has expanded what I'm able to do with it. I still have to have the idea, know what I want, recognize when the result is wrong, correct it, and ultimately decide what becomes part of my work.
And believe me, I've learned the same lesson about giving AI too much freedom. 😂 If I don't tell it precisely what I want, it can happily wander off and create something I never asked for.
That's why I see AI as another tool in the creative process rather than the creator itself. The human still provides the vision, judgment and final decision.
What excites me most is that it lets us attempt things we may never have had the tools or time to accomplish before. That's the part of this technology I think is worth embracing.
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AI hasn't replaced my creativity—it has expanded what I'm able to do with it. I still have to have the idea, know what I want, recognize when the result is wrong, correct it, and ultimately decide what becomes part of my work.
And believe me, I've learned the same lesson about giving AI too much freedom. 😂 If I don't tell it precisely what I want, it can happily wander off and create something I never asked for.
That's why I see AI as another tool in the creative process rather than the creator itself. The human still provides the vision, judgment and final decision.
What excites me most is that it lets us attempt things we may never have had the tools or time to accomplish before. That's the part of this technology I think is worth embracing.
Interestingly, I timed myself writing a teleportation script by hand versus having the machine do it TO MY SPECIFICATION. It took me more time to describe to the machine what I wanted exactly than it took to write the script myself... AI is NOT ALWAYS a time saver but it is an EXCELLENT TOOL.
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I agree with that. Where I find AI can become time-consuming is when the instructions aren't specific enough—or when they are specific and I still have to repeat them several times to get exactly what I asked for.
But I also see the technology becoming much more efficient. In the early days, even something as simple as creating an advertisement with readable text could be a nightmare. The misspellings and mangled lettering sometimes made an otherwise beautiful image completely unusable.
That has improved enormously, and I expect it will continue to improve. Learning how to communicate precisely with AI is becoming a skill in itself. The better we get at directing the tool—and the better the technology gets at following those directions—the more useful it becomes.
So no, it isn't always a time saver. But when it works well, it lets me create things I simply couldn't have created before, and that's what makes it exciting.
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But I also see the technology becoming much more efficient. In the early days, even something as simple as creating an advertisement with readable text could be a nightmare. The misspellings and mangled lettering sometimes made an otherwise beautiful image completely unusable.
That has improved enormously, and I expect it will continue to improve. Learning how to communicate precisely with AI is becoming a skill in itself. The better we get at directing the tool—and the better the technology gets at following those directions—the more useful it becomes.
So no, it isn't always a time saver. But when it works well, it lets me create things I simply couldn't have created before, and that's what makes it exciting.
For the NAYSAYERS: We have had machines writing code since the 1950's and before AI in the art tool department, we used Clipart, each new computer used to come with reusable art CDs... remember those?
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I remember Gimp :)
I remember those clip-art CDs too. We used stock art, texture libraries, fonts, brushes, filters, templates, 3D rendering programs and every other new tool that came along. Nobody expected a creator to manufacture every pixel from scratch.
That's really the history of digital creativity: new tools arrive, people complain that they aren't “real” creativity, and eventually those tools simply become part of the toolbox.
AI is the newest tool in a very long line of them.
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I remember those clip-art CDs too. We used stock art, texture libraries, fonts, brushes, filters, templates, 3D rendering programs and every other new tool that came along. Nobody expected a creator to manufacture every pixel from scratch.
That's really the history of digital creativity: new tools arrive, people complain that they aren't “real” creativity, and eventually those tools simply become part of the toolbox.
AI is the newest tool in a very long line of them.
Still... You can take the tool away from the artist, but as long as you have sand on the ground and a finger to draw with, you can make art! (wink)
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I love your image here. It may look different in different lighting but this image gives me a pretty good realistic representation of what I can expect to see when I go there. Also I don't see anyone telling you that you need their permission to use AI however you want. But everyone is allowed their opinion on if they like the AI ad's or not. For me I find them great for AD's for events and singers etc. I don't like them for products. I rather enjoy seeing things in the old fashion way. You are an amazing creator and you give your things away free. That's so generous of you and, of course, you deserve to make what you want and advertise it as you wish. AI is so much fun to use and if you are having fun with it then that is really what matters. I'm sorry if my comment on the other post made you feel like you had to defend your process.
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It wasn't your comment, Cassia. ❤️ It's the many comments I've been seeing lately about AI in general that prompted me to say something.
I really think we need to embrace the technology and the wonderful new tools it is bringing to creators. That doesn't mean everyone has to use AI or even like it, but technology has always changed the way we create. We've watched that happen with mesh, Blender, advanced rendering, materials, PBR and so many other tools over the years.
AI is another tool in that evolution, and I'm excited about the creative possibilities it gives us.
For me, the important thing is still honesty—whether we're advertising a product, a region or an event, it should fairly represent what we've created. How we get there can involve many different tools.
And thank you for your lovely words about Tumbletwig. I truly appreciate them. ❤️
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I really think we need to embrace the technology and the wonderful new tools it is bringing to creators. That doesn't mean everyone has to use AI or even like it, but technology has always changed the way we create. We've watched that happen with mesh, Blender, advanced rendering, materials, PBR and so many other tools over the years.
AI is another tool in that evolution, and I'm excited about the creative possibilities it gives us.
For me, the important thing is still honesty—whether we're advertising a product, a region or an event, it should fairly represent what we've created. How we get there can involve many different tools.
And thank you for your lovely words about Tumbletwig. I truly appreciate them. ❤️