This weekly roundup thread is intended for all culture war posts. 'Culture war' is vaguely defined, but it basically means controversial issues that fall along set tribal lines. Arguments over culture war issues generate a lot of heat and little light, and few deeply entrenched people ever change their minds. This thread is for voicing opinions and analyzing the state of the discussion while trying to optimize for light over heat.
Optimistically, we think that engaging with people you disagree with is worth your time, and so is being nice! Pessimistically, there are many dynamics that can lead discussions on Culture War topics to become unproductive. There's a human tendency to divide along tribal lines, praising your ingroup and vilifying your outgroup - and if you think you find it easy to criticize your ingroup, then it may be that your outgroup is not who you think it is. Extremists with opposing positions can feed off each other, highlighting each other's worst points to justify their own angry rhetoric, which becomes in turn a new example of bad behavior for the other side to highlight.
We would like to avoid these negative dynamics. Accordingly, we ask that you do not use this thread for waging the Culture War. Examples of waging the Culture War:
-
Shaming.
-
Attempting to 'build consensus' or enforce ideological conformity.
-
Making sweeping generalizations to vilify a group you dislike.
-
Recruiting for a cause.
-
Posting links that could be summarized as 'Boo outgroup!' Basically, if your content is 'Can you believe what Those People did this week?' then you should either refrain from posting, or do some very patient work to contextualize and/or steel-man the relevant viewpoint.
In general, you should argue to understand, not to win. This thread is not territory to be claimed by one group or another; indeed, the aim is to have many different viewpoints represented here. Thus, we also ask that you follow some guidelines:
-
Speak plainly. Avoid sarcasm and mockery. When disagreeing with someone, state your objections explicitly.
-
Be as precise and charitable as you can. Don't paraphrase unflatteringly.
-
Don't imply that someone said something they did not say, even if you think it follows from what they said.
-
Write like everyone is reading and you want them to be included in the discussion.
On an ad hoc basis, the mods will try to compile a list of the best posts/comments from the previous week, posted in Quality Contribution threads and archived at /r/TheThread. You may nominate a comment for this list by clicking on 'report' at the bottom of the post and typing 'Actually a quality contribution' as the report reason.
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
I'm having trouble finding the demands actually clearly stated, but everything I've seen has been about actors not wanting companies to create their own AI replicas of actors without paying actors royalties for using them or allowing any limitations or creative control over how they are used (e.g., so it could be legally used to fake up video of the actor supporting any product or political position).
As a pure, "don't use AI at all" claim, this doesn't actually make sense. Why would the studios want to make AI replicas of minor actors no one can recognize when they can use generative AI to create virtual actors that look like no real person? Either (1) they're seriously trying to claim the right to not pay big stars for AI replicas, (2) they want AI replicas of everyone who might one day be famous, or (3) they are worried about the legality of existing AI systems and want a data source they know they have rights to.
(Of course, while deep fakes do already exist, there's also the complication that this contract negotiation has to cover future AI technology that doesn't exist yet, so it's hard to be precise about exactly what uses they're worried about.)
Someone I heard talking about it on the World Service a few days ago (an actress representing some union or organisation or other) basically said that things like reshoots and follow-up gigs in, for instance, TV shows can be pretty important for small-time actors, and what she was worried about was that production had sometimes started filming with a real actor to begin with, but if they wanted to make changes/add small pieces late in the day using AI for such things. She objected to this both on the count that it deprived the actor of income from reshooting but also that it's unfair for them not to be able to 'control' their own performance, partly in the sense that they might not be happy with the quality of the AI performance and that that might reflect poorly on their reputation.
More options
Context Copy link
More options
Context Copy link