See, the real thing that I bring to the table is the fact that no one is on my server, so there's like two notifications a day, if that. It's a real gem of silent tranquility because I'm constantly forget to post in it.

Okay but, Hornet could get it. Girl got that SHAAWWW!!

That's my soap box spiel to @stellaris.paradoxinteractive.com
Again, none of this is based on game mechanics. But Trade is an abstract resource, like Unity and Influence, and I just feel that it makes sense for out of empire trading to use energy, as it translates between empires universally.

I think, game mechanics aside, Trade makes sense as an in-empire currency, as a means of navigating logistics. 99% of what it does, ship upkeep, planet deficits, all that, is very good.

Market and inter-impireal exchanges should use energy as the currency. Like Unity & Influence, I think it tracks.

To expand on that, it has 0 to do with game mechanics, and purely has to do with speculative evolution.

EVERY society can be boiled down to the collection, storage, and utilization of energy. If Math is a universal language, Energy is a universal currency, and having it be money made sense.

For whatever reason, my previous group found singing Eye2Eye from the Goofy Movie before each session to somehow be rather helpful. Dunno if it works with all tables though.

That's kind of where my thoughts went as well. The company seems very forward and vocal of their efforts and guiding ethics, at the very least, but there's a LOT I don't know as well.

... I'm not some tech bro, I don't see it as some cool future thing, and I fully believe in crediting and paying artists for their work. But if a path exists-an effort to fight against the vast exploitation of small artists-I want to shine a light on it, learn about it.

So, what are your thoughts?

... Outright support, with one friend saying that MythWeaver basically addressed every issue and concern they had with GenAI. But I want more insight before I take my own stance beyond just intrigue.

To be clear, I don't think any variation of GenAI could or should ever replace artists, ever (8/?)

But I also don't know everything. So I want to hear other's thoughts. My knee-jerk is typically "F*ck GenAI" because I have a lot of artist friends. But talking to (some of) them, they have all more or less agreed that this is a better, fairer method, one that they can accept, if not fully (7/?)

... To be a fair, mutual exchange. Similar to the process behind Hatsune Miku (which I also don't know much about) the process is done entirely with the concent of all parties. No one is being cheated, robbed, or used. It SEEMS like an ethical method which pays royalties to the artists it uses (6/?)

... Say on if their work is being used from the very beginning, and express ability to withdraw their consent at any point, and is credited as the artist whose work the GenAI referenced to generate the image.

Now I am not an artist, I'm a dumb stream Vtuber. However this approach SEEMS to me (5/?)

... Express intentention (and an entire branch of the company) being focused on ethical use and relations with the artists that GenAI REQUIRES in order to exist. The artist is paid to provide their original sample work, and paid again every time their work is referenced, with full control and (4/?)

... Which in turn continues to pay royalties to the original artist. All done with the concent of the artist and, again, ability to withdraw concent always available to the artist. The intended goal of the AI-Generated imagery is also aimed at non-commercial places, such as ttrpg spaces, with (3/?)

... A generative AI model, tuned specifically for that artist's style. The artist is given full permission to pull their model at any time, and most importantly, are paid royalties every time their source artwork is referenced by the AI, with encouragement to the community to test the system, (2/?)

That's some incredible irony. At least it wasn't Volkswagen!