Our little instance is closing to 6 months of operations and it occurs to me I never really asked for some open feedback from our peeps. So I wanted to start a discussion to see your concerns and comments in general. So tell me, in the context of the divisions by zero, what bothers you, what pleases you, what would you like to see improved.
Feel free to share your thoughts about anything.
It feels like there has not been a whole lot of drama while I’ve been here. I really like that - the ability to scurry off to the other instances and witness their happenings, and then return to our own little safe haven.
We (as an instance, according to my observations) do appear to have some run-ins with a certain other instance every now and again, but they don’t appear too much of an annoyance if you don’t interact or engage their taunts.
I love that @db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com is also a contributor of fed-related projects. Makes it feel a little more personal.
If I were to note anything bad, it might be that I feel reluctance towards the stable diffusion communities. Mostly because I’m not sure whether their training data is ethically sourced. But that and more is a concern I have regarding AI in general, as automating our hobbies was kinda the opposite many initially wanted it for, namely automating labor so we can instead do our hobbies. Not I can judge anyone automating a hobby, as I’m kinda skimping the edge myself, but we, us who work with MLAI, should generally try and push away from any dystopian futures.
All in all, I’m happy being here. Thank you @db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com for providing this space! And for everyone else on this instance, don’t forget to appreciate it, either by donations or labor, as that is how we keep such spaces running.
MLAIs need to be trained before they can be used, and the data an MLAI might need depends on the type of AI. The diffusion AIs often rely on artwork which mostly is gathered from artists trying to make a living off of their hobby - the professional “hobby” artists kinda being the forerunners of what many envisioned AI would hopefully lead to in the future.
Now, if we carelessly use these artist’s artwork, copyright or not, we might remove or inhibit their ability to live off what they love, which would be a giant blow against those of us fighting for AI as a relief of forced work and enabler of personal freedom.
My concern is therefore, in a world where many use AI without consideration for enshittfication of others lives, do the models often used on dbzer0’s communities just scrape the internet of training material, or do those who make and sanitize the datasets ask the artists for permission/use openly available (using the equivalent of the unlicense) material instead?
dbzero0 is a instance which represents copyleft, but my impression is that it also represents the want for more personal control and being able to do whatever one wants. Though, I’m unsure if the general community consensus is to do whatever one wants even at the expense of other common people (everyone for themselves, kinda like the big corps do), or if the community consensus is to do whatever one wants while making sure that others also have the ability to do so (FOSS, commissioning the little man instead of buying from big corps, donating money or labor to small communities instead of being the product of some large social media platform).
I really do like being part of dbzer0, but this question on the instance’s stance has held me back from recommending the instance in my circle of friends.
Dbzer0 is a pirate instance. I don’t think you will find much sympathy for copyrighted artwork here.
