May the Fourth Be With You

 

Just got a lovely message from someone saying they bought Magic in the Water (because the MAYFLASH15 offer extends until tonight).

In this day of 'AI' and Google searches that direct a person only to AI related results, I can only say this:

I will not use LLM resources if I can possibly avoid them.

I understand that AI is 'just another tool' but it is also a tool that can - and increasingly is being used for - the spread of mis- and dis-information.

Everything you see here has been generated by me.  My resources do include the use of the internet, but not LLM.  My editors are also human beings.  Having seen the results of LLM generated information (sic) about other textile crafts, I have no confidence, as in zero, that anyone who actually wants to know how to weave (or do other crafts) will find information that actually helps, let alone teaches them anything.

I have also seen that using LLM/AI is a huge  drain of energy consumption.  One person gave an example of how much it uses by saying that every *prompt* that AI addresses is like taking 16 oz of water and pouring it straight onto the ground.

While I don't know about that, I do know that it takes huge amounts of energy and our province has been facing pressure to allow the establishment of LLM 'factories' that can access our 'cheap' hydro generated power.  You know, the power that may soon disappear, given the current drought conditions.

The really irritating thing about the current push to incorporate LLM into my daily life is that the whole point of getting people to use it is to cut out the artists, the thinkers, the creators.  Billionaires would rather pour billions of resources into cutting out the people who actually create fresh, new products, than pay those people for their time, energy and creativity.

I am not against people using digital tools in the pursuit of their own creativity.  I *am* against the effort to cut people like me out of any kind of income by making it impossible for me (and others like me) to earn any kind of living, writing, teaching and developing new information about my craft.

So no, I'm not even going to 'give it a try' and 'see how good it is'.  I'm going to stubbornly sit here, in my office and studio and think about things, and then write about those things.

And if you want to support me (and others like me) you will support us by buying our products.  Or, you know, buy me a coffee on my ko-fi shop.  

Just saying.