Hello, everyone. It has been a while since I've made a Journal post to this group. I guess because until now, there hasn't been much significant to talk about.
But as you can guess from the title of this entry, that has changed with the advent of AI-generated pictures. I don't really want to call them "art" since that implies a degree of actual work being put into them, instead of just feeding prompts into a program.
Anyway, until recently, I refused to include any AI works in this group, as AI infamously could not do feet well at all; they would more often than not show up as indeterminate blobs as opposed to actual feet and toes. But with the rise of Loras specifically trained on feet, and especially the game-changer that is DALL-E 3, AI began to actually be able to create feet that look like... well, feet. Even with sandals being worn. Sure, DALL-E 3 in particular still will make errors such as extra or missing toes, backwards feet, two right/left feet, and so on, but compared to what came before it, it was a huge leap. Even I--having been dabbling in AI generators for a while--started getting DALL-E 3 to create lots of macro-themed, sandal-themed pics, at least, when my prompts were being blocked. A very small fraction of those have already been posted onto my profile, and I still have plans to upload more of them onto my AI profile once I stop being lazy about it.
As such, as you all have likely noticed by now, due to these improvements, I've decided to allow them into this group, which since has seen a deluge of AI-generated pics being submitted into the newly-created AI folders.
While AI has improved and I myself dabble in it, I know that AI is very controversial, especially here on DA, which prides itself as an art site. Even DA seems to have not even bothered fighting the tide of AI-generated pics, even offering its own (subpar) AI-generative tool in DreamUp. But most seasoned artists do not like the influx of AI works being submitted here, as it drowns out artwork that they actually put time and effort into. Indeed, I myself have come across galleries with hundreds of AI pics in them, even if the owner of said gallery has only been active here for a short time.
But to get to the point of this post, I want to know... How do you guys feel about AI pics being submitted to this Group? Are you fine with AI work being incorporated into the Group's Galleries, or would you rather that they be submitted elsewhere?
Now, I am floating the idea of starting an AI-focused version of Macro-Sandals as well as its sister group Ladies-in-Sandals using my AI profile, and if I do that, then I will no longer allow AI works to be submitted into this group. Alternatively, I could also make a Group Favorites folder dedicated to AI, so they would be separate from the main Galleries and thus, Watchers will not be notified of them.
Let me know what you all think about this.