I don’t usually engage with trolls, but my train is late and I’m all out of productive things to do while I wait.

I am not going to debate whether this is AI. If you want to believe it isn’t, you’re welcome to do that. As for why it’d be bad - I believe that a technology that is trained on the work of many artists, without permission or compensation, that puts control of visual - I am not going to call them artistic - outputs under the control of a few tech oligarchs, is bad, and should be boycotted and sabotaged if possible. Even open weight models are, ultimately, usually trained by large corporations, and openly available by their ‘benevolence’. If they decide their next generation model will be closed source, it will be.

I also believe that the sheer amount of both monetary, and physical, resources currently expended on generative AI and related technologies is largely wasted, in a world where we can hardly afford such waste.

Also, please substantiate why using rather clear signifiers of ai generated content to claim something is ai generated is likely to cause harm, and why, in your eyes, ‘pro-ai’ aren’t required to proof the merit of their believes.

Oh, and while we’re at it - do you happen to know whether there is a seahorse emoji?

If you don’t see it, I dunno what to tell you.

They themselves have often been criticised for potentially producing their product in occupied territory, but I don’t think there is any direct evidence they’re influencing the ebu.

The ebu themselves say there isn’t any connection between Israeli participation and the sponsorship. At the same time, a sponsor probably has some amount of influence, and the ebu might try to avoid doing something that might not jive with their main sponsor without direct pressure.

In the end, it’s all speculation, though.

That’d be nice, but they, maroccanoil, have been main sponsor for the last five years, and are confirmed to again be this year. Dunno what the chances are of that changing at this point.

Also - I’m pretty sure they had corporate sponsors 10 years ago. They aren’t shown in some countries broadcasts, but they’ve been there for some time.

If I remember correctly, it’s a European Broadcasting Union thing, and they’re in cause there used to be a British colony there.

An Israeli company has been the main sponsor the past few years.

Kinda. It’s still all very silly and stupid, but the 747-8 is a few metres longer, and generally more modern than the 747-200b the current VC25A are based on.

On the one hand, I don’t doubt it’s gotten worse. On the other hand, I’ve always heard stories about US immigrations being unreasonable, entirely humourless, and possibly detaing you or sending you back for the smallest mistake or omission.

They’re quoting Bardella directly, which kinda makes sense for the headline, but yeah, I haven’t seen any mayor English media sources that are willing to call a cat a cat here.

Might be worried about libel suits? Though I can’t see an unbiased court deny that those are Hitler salutes.

Always fascinating what cruelty can be excused as long as there’s some perceived utility.

There’s no evidence he said that, and antisemites like to use it to underline their conspiracy theories. People have been getting into hot water for using it for a while - just from the top of my head:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-68853672

That’s a whole lot of words to say almost nothing.