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Glyph

But it isn't. Unless you are a *real* master with these tools there is an unavoidable sheen that they leave on the generated image. It's the smell, if there is such a thing. This is not just me; if you go anywhere that younger people are congregating online, "boomer art" is the *most* polite thing that they call this stuff. It damages your credibility. If you were lazy enough to fake the image, are you lazy enough to fake the facts? It is *much* worse than just having no image at all.

13 comments
Glyph

This is hardly an original insight. Lots of other people are posting this exact advice. But I want to emphasize it because I just passed on linking to a page for like the 10th time this week because it included a big genAI hero image which looked like absolute shit. Scanning the article briefly it actually looked pretty good, it did not read like LLM slop, but it is a reputational risk to link to something that will give readers that immediate negative impression, and it's not worth it.

Glyph

As a reference, one of the best and most prolific writers that is (relatively) positive about genAI tools has a website that looks like this: simonwillison.net . Please observe the amount of genAI art that he is using for punch-ups or hero images

Glyph

psst @simon you should add attribution tags to your site :)

hackermatic

@glyph GenAI images are now at the top of most information security blog posts I read, and they're honestly just annoying. The topic or headline drew me in, I want to get on with it and read your post!

Xandra Granade 🏳️‍⚧️

@glyph Saw this example of a neat interstitial image that isn't genAI and doesn't require being a skilled illustrator.

Parker Molloy used a screengrab from the video that she was discussing, and edited it for visual effect in a really cool way. It takes artistic skill, but not necessarily skill as an illustrator.

readtpa.com/p/in-a-stunning-ad

datarama

@glyph If it is that article about monetizing a blog (that I passed on several times for the same reason): That image *has* to be diffusion model garbage. Nothing else would make the particular point it's trying to make.

Glyph

@datarama the blog-monetizing article is an amazing work of… it's not even writing or even graphic design, really, it's more like performance art… but no, this is other stuff

Feoh

@glyph Thank you for writing and posting this. It may not be original, but that doesn't invalidate the truth of the advice.

The psychology around this is interesting because I've been blogging for YEARS and always felt like my posts were naked because I didn't have any splashy images to add, mostly because I'm visually and fine/gross motor impaired and art just ISN'T a thing I can do myself.

I do not intend to stop having fun with generative AI tools, because they allow me to exercise creative muscles I don't and CAN'T have, even if the quality of the produced images is highly suspect (They all have their tells, to be sure. Just look at all hard and you'll see them just about ever time).

However I will stop adding these images to my professional posts and will remove those I have already added. That's not the message I'm looking to send.

@glyph Thank you for writing and posting this. It may not be original, but that doesn't invalidate the truth of the advice.

The psychology around this is interesting because I've been blogging for YEARS and always felt like my posts were naked because I didn't have any splashy images to add, mostly because I'm visually and fine/gross motor impaired and art just ISN'T a thing I can do myself.

Feoh

@glyph I'm moderately pleased with myself in that my professional blog has none but my personal blog has a ton I plan to remove.

They don't REALLY add anything, it just FEELS like they do.

Glyph

@feoh yes, a counterfeit sense of purpose characterizes much of the current “AI” plague

Sami Juvonen

@glyph Thanks, I’m going to use “do you know the youngs call this boomer art” from now on. Should be a good argument because the people using slop in this way think they are at the vanguard of tech innovation. (Of course the likely outcome is they will just hate on me for being negative. 🤷‍♂️)

Joe

@glyph I'm sympathetic that you might feel you need to have some kind of image to use for og:image; otherwise preview cards look pretty bad

I think we could bring back the Victorian "title page", with a bunch of information in different fonts:

Nini

@glyph I'd argue there is no "mastery" over it. just the least terrible output which is still bad and gloppy around the edges somehow.

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