In a blog post published earlier today, Discord – a communication platform, and nothing more– announced plans to introduce what they call “AI” (but which should more accurately be called “machine learning”) to moderation, support and chat of the service.
the poster, called DISCORD IS YOUR PLACE FOR AI WITH FRIENDS, is full of cheery images and promises of how “AI” will make everything easier for anyone using Discord, whether they’re chatting with friends or trying to moderate a group.
Why is Discord becoming the home for AI? Simple: on Discord you can enjoy AI with friends. Rather than just going it alone with an app, you and your friends can see what exciting, wild, and sometimes silly results come from prompts like “robo-hamster trapped in a cardboard box, renaissance painting.”
No thanks! AI-generated images are, as we’ve often discussed, built on the bones of uncredited and uncompensated human artistry.and plans to implement a sort of ChatGPT feature—which is abundant with serious factual errors—to Discord conversations seem premature at best.
The contrast between Discord’s upbeat presentation and reaction to the news itself couldn’t be starker. Responses to the Tweet announcement are almost universally negativewith users quickly realizing that handing over the keys to so many features to machine learning is threat to privacyaccuracy and legitimacy of communications on the platform.
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“Will there be an off button for server owners who don’t want their server to become machine learning training material?” asks one user, while most others are just as many variations of a “nah” meme as you are. can be found on the internet in 2023.
“Ah yes, ‘sharing AI experiences’, that’s exactly what I’m on Discord for, my mistake thinking I was there to spend time with my friends, network and meet new people,” says another.
They even manage to screw up the one good announcement in between, with news of a “shared whiteboard” feature—something people have been wanting. forever— spoiled by the fact that it will come with a “text-to-image generator that you can iterate and experiment with together.”
Companies, I promise you, you don’t need to do this. I know you’re forced through the irresistible forces of capitalist inertia, the need to grow everything all the time, but like, this is a chat show. It doesn’t need any of this crap in it. We literally only use Discord for one thing: to talk people.
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