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Comment by BeetleB | Hacker News Reader

> The "99%" tends to be either: 1. Pointless throwaway content which we can just ignore as a new source of noise, 2. Something that could have ended up being a $5 commission[^1] to a kid somewhere out there but now never will be.

Or 3. Something I made and I actually use, but I would never have paid a kid $5 to do.

Yes, I know of Fiverr and similar sites. Even planned on using it once. Even know someone in another country who made side money from it. And yes, it does suck for them. But none of that changes the fact that well over 99% of uses are not depriving them of any money.

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I disagree, because when someone can just get those simple works made on a subscription you already paid for, then the $5 commission goes from something someone might end up doing if the idea is stuck in their head long enough (or they find the idea amusing enough), to be something that can never become a commission.

Not pointing fingers or saying that you must pay kids to draw things for you, but it most definitely does take work away by replacing an entire class of commissions. Not sure what to do with that fact.

(I'd put things that would never, ever be worth a $5 commission into the throwaway noise category, even if you do use the outcome.)

I have seen arguments that a lot of your nr. 3 is basically just addiction. You are making the AI slot machine generate stuff for you and you get to have the sense of accomplishment that comes with thinking you created something without putting in any of the work of actually creating something. To the rest of the world this is indistinguishable from your parent’s nr. 1.

Fair point. It's just that his number 1 was "Pointless throwaway content", and I was saying "Well, actually, it's not thrown away but actually used".

You may look at the output and say "Crap!", but the reality is the person using it found value in it.

(To be honest, I used to think "Crap!" to stock photos long before LLMs came on to the scene, so I have little sympathy with stock photo photographers going out of business - those photos exist primarily to attract readers and do not provide any value to the content - they're just like ads in that regard).

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