Imperfect

liberate your creativity

In Keep it a hobby, a beige notebook writes:

On "Slop comes for everything you love", I've read the somehow sad story of people using AI to generate interactive fiction.

I don't consider it sad. If it isn't clear from my past posts, I believe that using LLMs, GANs, and other forms of AI for creative expression is cool and should be encouraged. I have also commented on the intersection of AI and interactive fiction with posts like ai-friendly if communities. As such, it's nice to see posts like Azdhdarchid's propagating "slop" and the inventive ways in which you can create it. You're smarter than accepting a false dichotomy portraying AI as generating "outcomes of creative exertion without the actual exertion". The more accessible we make sufficient action plans involving such technologies, the quicker we can move on from this tiresome moral panic.

Since cover image quality hasn't been an issue with ifcomps, the world is your oyster. Use a GAN image, public-domain image, photo taken with your own two hands, or a simple word mark. Don't discount how much some definition of AI is involved even for non-GAN images.

You don't have to preclude creative choices based on how hypothetically "gross and low-effort" readers or onlookers will consider it. Use your "own two hands" the way you want to for this purpose. It's your cover image.

A beige notebook continues:

Now, I could give a more nuanced view on that. If, let's say, we should stop using spell and grammar checkers, and so forth.

Instead of being forced down this slippery slope, buck the conventions of "IFComp and the broader IF community" if it doesn't represent your standard of genuine creative exploration. Chase AI use, commercial considerations, trends, or standards of popularity should you wish to. Chase their opposites if you want to.

"A field where professionalism is not really the goal" doesn't have to match your own goal. Even for a hobby that doesn't require you to achieve a professional standard, make your involvement as amateurish or professional as you want.

It's okay to produce products that certain people "are not going to look at out of principle" and will deem "barely adequate". You only need one big win. It may just come from friendlier cohorts. How can you best signal your interest in them?

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