Execucult Of The Techno God
In a business of Makers and Takers, the Dread God AI devours with a mouth that cannot eat yet chews the world to pieces. The Machine's executive priesthood serves us to her on a digital platter and tries to convince us that we are her consumers. The games business is a death cult, and its axe is sharp.
(As per the last State of Sterling blog, videos will come as and when they're ready rather than every single Monday, focusing on quality over quantity and helping me maintain a healthy relationship with the work. We will be doing the traditional award shows for the end of the year though. Thank you everybody who supported me on Patreon during the hiatus, I love and appreciate what you've helped me to do so much!)
Comments (20)
I was going to say Hi-Stephinition would be great as a name but yeah looking at that words makes my eyes bleed... Still think it would be good though lol. Good to have you back in video!
I watched this, then watched it again. Here it is, the next day, and I’m watching it for the 3rd time. Much love, Steph, to you and Phoenix! 🐦🔥
I'm just waiting for the A.I. bubble to pop. The mass panic will be hilarious.
First time I didn't reflexively check on Monday. You totally made my Tuesday. As always Thank god for You
Damn. Didn't know how much I missed that voice. Nice to have you back Steph.
Welcome back! It feels much longer than 3 months, especially when measured against the yardstick of AI's flaccid penetration into the tech and creative industries. As a videographer, I'm tired. Tired of Silicon Valley yaslighting themselves into thinking regurgitative = creative. Tired of seeing the hard-earned aesthetics of Wes Anderson and Miyazaki taxidermied by those who can't perceive their value, puppeting them in front of us like jingling keys and thinking they really achieved something. Tired of the water, energy, time and money being wasted and wasted and wasted. AI content platforms champion themselves as sources of "infinite creativity", a selling point that reveals the central fallacy. Creativity is born through limitation. How long do you have? What is your budget? How much do you believe in this idea? What will you sacrifice to bring it to life? By outsourcing this singularly human act to a machine-led aggregate of everything that came before, the results will not be creative in any sense of the word. But why should we be surprised? The 🎶SKELETON WARRIORS🎶 on top already believe the myth of infinite growth. Why not the myth of infinite creativity?
Funny you'd bring up Miyazaki, here is the real human pain that the craft of Studio Ghibli exacts on the people that works into bringing their works of art to life (from the lovely people of Tale Foundry), it starts at the 12:30 mark: https://youtu.be/iCrRBqVk08w?si=uP5RbWt2aSXSuHHz The morality and ethics of such commitment is a discussion for another day but in my opinion it makes the defiling of the work via AI even more heinous.
Really enjoyed this episode. The writing has always been good but the additional time taken here resulted in a really well put together and apt criticism of our current situation. Glad you are focusing on a healthy relationship with work and am looking forward to the next one whenever that may be!
Thank you guys for the video. Enjoyable and true as always. BTW I've got one of those monsters on the top shelf right here. Sadly lost the chains in 1989.
its the damn death cult of capitalism eating us all alive... i genuinely want these idiots out of every industry...
You are, as always, fucking 110% correct about this. It's people suffering from delusional thinking, fear, and idiocy all rolled up. Microsoft is terrified and has invested so much that if they pull out, they're ruined. So they're going to ride this thing to it's ruinous end. And while that'll probably be pretty damn soon, they're going to burn every thing to the ground and lie their asses off constantly in order to scam their investors into pouring more money into the fire. Because Sam Altman at OpenAI may have admitted it's a bubble, but he promised that if he can somehow make $129 billion a year by 2029, then the bubble won't pop.
WELCOME BACK! Love the new intro. Love the lobstersona. Love Zilla. Missed you lots. Fuck AI. ♥♥
Well that was a nice surprise, thank you :)
Fucking welcome back, hon!
Damn good video! glad you're gonna make more in a sustainable way :)
Welcome back Steph, we missed you.
Oh heck yeah
I'm so excited for the "you'll get this when it's good and ready" era. I hate the idea of having to put stuff out on a super regular basis in order to appease the algorithm powers.
Seconded
Oh yes!