this post was submitted on 24 Apr 2025

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300

floats away in disgust (discuss.tchncs.de)

submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

89 comments fedilink hide all child comments

(page 2) 39 comments

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Things haven't been the same to poor Helium since the new constitution was sign and nobility was stripped out of their privileges.

[–] [email protected] 90 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Is that what we're doing now? AI comics for old jokes?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

Yes.

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[–] [email protected] 136 points 3 days ago (2 children)

AI comic 😞

[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 days ago

I've resigned myself that this will be the state of memes in the future, but god would I take a paint doodle over this.

.. only for ai to start drawing paint doodles because making an effort is not a human nature

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (7 children)

How can you tell?

edit: I learned a lot today

[–] [email protected] 43 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

The inconsistent backround,

the cutoff text in the second panel,

that every panel is slightly different but featuring the same content(for example the "He" on helium is very slightly different in every panel, a regular artist would copy paste the text, not draw it every frame),

the font not being consistent(Look at the "E" in "HELIUM WALKS" and then the "E" in "WE DON'T"),

the absence of period symbols(Image Generation LLMs love to do this)

and the artstyle is very specific to other AI comics that are currently floating around the net.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 days ago

Assuming you’re asking in earnest:

On a surface level, the banal averageness of features. There is no artist’s style — it’s just drawn in form of the “generic web comic” genre.

On a closer level, there are inconsistencies with background details that wouldn’t occur with an actual artist’s work. If somebody was manually drawing the background digitally, they would likely copy and paste the assets to both be consistent and to work efficiently (without a compromise to the work itself). The door and shelf of bottles behind the Helium change between frames, for example. If an artist were drawing this with physical pen and paper, they would care enough to meticulously recreate the bottles between frames if they were even going to include them with that much detail at all.

The text itself is also revealing. Not only is it inconsistent in size, boldness, and centering (ex. from one He to another), but the words spoken by the bartender are running out of space in the speechbubble. Artists can make mistakes like this in their publications, but consistently making errors that a quick lookover would catch shows that the “creator” of the content just wants it made, rather than it made well.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 days ago

Inconsistent bsckground shelving

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Sodium walks into a bar pushing a shy electron, and orders two drinks.

"Three drink minimum" says the barman.

"Oh dont worry", says Sodium, "I'm waiting for him to come out of his shell so that I can hook up with someone else."

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

Sodium walks into a bar, orders a drink and tips the bartender an electron. The bartender asks what it is for. Sodium says: "nothing. Just feeling positive today".

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

No one likes my well-thought out joke.... 😢

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 days ago (1 children)

HeHeHe

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

Shit makes me high

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

bu dum (no pish)

[–] [email protected] 127 points 3 days ago (3 children)

AI slop

[–] [email protected] 19 points 3 days ago (3 children)

op here, I reposted this from a group chat and didn't notice, sorry for forever cursing your eyes with the forbidden art

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

why are people downvoting this? it seems it was an honest mistake.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The bottles on the shelf behind the He change rapidly between panels.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

To be fair if I drew bottles they would rapidly change as well like how my signature is never the same

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[+] [email protected] -33 points 3 days ago (9 children)

I’m assuming that the OP has about the same drawing skills as me, which is to say, none. So in lieu of a tool to produce the cartoon for him, and (I bet) not willing to pay someone at least €20 to draw it, the only other option is that this comic would never have seen the light of day. Is that a better world for you?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 days ago

For me, it's a matter of this joke being old. If someone had sat down and drawn it as a comic anyways, that would make it cool and the thought of it can be humorous in its own way. But since they didn't, it's ultimately just an old joke. It not having been made through manual labor does change my enjoyment of it.

(And much like the others, I don't care that it looks well-drawn. I just care that someone decided, fuck it, I'm a silly goose, I'll spend some time crafting something for no good reason.)

[–] [email protected] -2 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Combining some other comments:

Not only is this an old joke and not even particularly interesting, it also took a shit load of resources for the machine to produce it. A human being eats a hamburger and makes a few nice things + remains alive but one of these algorithms will consume ludicrous amounts of energy just to copy a mediocre joke and only so many people will even see it.

Not every joke needs to be pushed to the world and not every amateur musician deserves a main stage(certainly not if they’re just playing covers). Art is wonderful in that there are certainly barriers but at the same time it is relatively cheap to get the materials to practice. I literally know of a homeless woman who people give paper and pencils to and she spends her time drawing to pass the time.

So, yes, the world is a worse place for having this “art”.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

It’s amazing how you manage to keep up such a double standard in the same comment. Have you been practicing doublethink for a while?

On the one hand you say a human can output this while consuming just a hamburger, on the other hand you say it takes practice (conveniently leaving out the ‘years of’ part).

On the one hand you say “the algorithm” consumes ludicrous amounts of energy, but on the other hand keeping a person alive seems to be free in your world-view. (And no, a homeless person getting just enough to survive does not count as an example of consuming few resources. That’s not a life, that’s misery.)

When AI outputs something for a small audience, that’s a huge waste, but if a human draws something for themselves, that’s somehow adorable?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

It’s not double speak, it’s nuance(or just entirely different things). The hamburger is the energy required to create a quick comic of this level after gaining the skills, the practice is something else you do, and which you do for personal enjoyment so it comes double.

I get free beer at the bluegrass jam because we play for the bar. My instrument cost over a thousand dollars and I was playing for a little under a year when I first went. If your goal was to save money on beer then yea, bad investment, but my goal was to learn an instrument that I enjoy and play with other people. I don’t consider the cost of the instrument and my time when considering the money I save on the drink. Keeping someone alive does a whole lot more for the world and themselves. It’s not free, but they also do more than create one generic comic before throwing off their mortal coil.

For fuck’s sake, I make very good Heroforge minis and, while appreciate the creativity I put into it, I understand that I’m still behind people making custom 3D models or putting pen to paper. At least I can still be proud of my work, unlike this “AI” garbage.

Your entire argument stems from the idea that this comic is somehow adding value to the world. Not only is it stolen and using all these resources but the “artist” doesn’t even get to have any personal satisfaction because it’s just an algorithm and the other “artist” didn’t actually put any effort into it when they just wrote “write a funny comic” into a text field. Nothing of value was created, not even genuine personal satisfaction in a job well done, but so much was lost.

Also to your last sentence, I pity you for not being able to understand the difference.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I don’t consider the cost of the instrument and my time when considering the money I save on the drink.

But you do consider the cost of training when we’re talking about the AI’s output. That’s the double standard.

Your entire argument stems from the idea that this comic is somehow adding value to the world. […] Nothing of value was created

The comic made me smile. It made my day better because I like the presentation and the style. The post currently has a vote ratio of 266:78. So I’m clearly not the only one enjoying it. I do believe that bringing joy to people adds value.

[T]he “artist” doesn’t even get to have any personal satisfaction because it’s just an algorithm. […] [T]he other “artist” didn’t actually put any effort into it when they just wrote “write a funny comic” into a text field.

I can’t understand why that is a problem. Why are you hurt because a machine cannot get personal satisfaction? Are you mad at an mp3 player because it doesn’t enjoy the music it plays? The point of this comic obviously isn’t to benefit the creator. It’s to enjoy the reader.

If you insist on drawing parallels to a human artist: Do you think everyone enjoys creating every single piece they create? That there are no commissioned words that an artist grudgingly accepts because they have to pay their bills? Sometimes the process of doing something isn’t the end goal, but the product.

If you want to create music for your own benefit, there’s no need to do it in public. You can do it in a garage. You’re going to a bar because pleasing the audience with a good product is at least part of your motivation. Do you think they care if you’ve enjoyed making the music? They only care if they enjoy consuming it.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You don't need any artistic skills to make a comic. Draw that shit on a napkin for all I care - if it's a good joke, we'll laugh. In fact, drawing it on a napkin would instantly increase the amount of charm ten-fold.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I think XKCD is a good example of this.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Yeah, absolutely no artistic talent there.

https://xkcd.com/3078/

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

But the AI wrote the joke, too. OP(or rather OOP) didn't contribute anything more than typing "make me a comic about science", clicking generate, and then uploading. And the entire process used a shit ton of extra power to generate the image compared to conventionally doing the art.

I use AI. I'm not better than anyone, I'm just not going to pretend there isn't a lot wrong with the whole situation.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago (1 children)

The joke is pretty old though.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

That's why the so-called "AI" was able to "come up" with it.

It lacks context to create anything new.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 days ago (1 children)

this comic would never have seen the light of day

Go to Google image search and type in “noble gas walks into a bar”. This farce of a comic and its joke are not special or unique in any way.

You could take one minute to draw this comic in pencil and it would look less gross. Or even MS Paint or PowerPoint. It’s slop because the creators, promulgators, and defenders of it don’t care about the audience who sees it because they each think that the veil of professional quality and soullessly averaged characteristics are enough to placate the lowest common denominator of consumers. Don’t misrepresent my position to make yourself feel better about your media diet.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

I googled it and the three comics seem kind of terrible.

Not everyone finds MS Paint to be the most pleasing form to look at in any case. Really, it's a bit much to see the constant witch hunt, you literally spam your 2 word reply just to start a fight. It's just calculated negativity and gatekeeping.

I think you are making huge assumptions with the "not caring about the audience" segment.