LukeZaz's recent activity
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Comment on Cory Doctorow | AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage. in ~tech
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Comment on Cory Doctorow | AI companies will fail. We can salvage something from the wreckage. in ~tech
LukeZaz Link ParentDepends on what you mean by "get to grips with them." If you're asking how to get the most value out of them, I can't help you. But if you're asking how to figure out if they're worth using, I can...Depends on what you mean by "get to grips with them." If you're asking how to get the most value out of them, I can't help you. But if you're asking how to figure out if they're worth using, I can answer that one:
They're not.
I'm not going to argue that an LLM don't have any utility whatsoever. But when balanced against the many and multifaceted harms they cause, the many risks they pose directly to you, and the fact that they are so frequently and plainly bad at solving the problems given, I find it very safe to say that you do not actually need to learn how to use this tool at all.
At the very least, I recommend saving the test-run for if/when the tool becomes ethical.
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Comment on Curl will end its bug bounty program by the end of January due to excessive AI generated reports in ~comp
LukeZaz Link ParentGetting an invite for Tildes has no financial incentive behind it. This would. That alone would mean all the LLM use would still be present, except instead of reviewing a huge pile of bogus...Getting an invite for Tildes has no financial incentive behind it. This would. That alone would mean all the LLM use would still be present, except instead of reviewing a huge pile of bogus security reports, Curl would instead have to review a huge pile of bogus invite requests.
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Comment on Weekly US politics news and updates thread - week of January 12 in ~society
LukeZaz Link ParentThis still isn't a tactic I like. As far as I see it, unless this happens on a very large scale – as in, enough prosecutors quit that the system grinds to a halt – this feels like it's just paving...This still isn't a tactic I like. As far as I see it, unless this happens on a very large scale – as in, enough prosecutors quit that the system grinds to a halt – this feels like it's just paving the way for sycophants to take their place.
"I quit" is better than "Fine, I'll do it" by a long shot, don't get me wrong. I just wish people considered more options when faced with situations like these.
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Comment on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shoots and kills a woman during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown in ~society
LukeZaz Link ParentIt can only be a distraction if you concede that fault is even debatable. It's not. I think almost everybody in this thread understands that. Hell, I think most Americans understand that....It can only be a distraction if you concede that fault is even debatable. It's not. I think almost everybody in this thread understands that. Hell, I think most Americans understand that. Reactionary pundits and their ilk will try to play this down for sure, but they'll always do that if they feel they can even remotely get away with it, so it's not a good way to measure general attitude. Meanwhile, I've heard tell from conservative relatives that even they and their friends are horrified by the video. Which is anecdotal, but still.
I know this might seem niggling,
In the spirit of niggling, I feel I should mention that your point regarding a moving vehicle being a threat rather contradicts the rest of your post by participating in the debate you're speaking against. Renee Good being "a threat" is also not a debate, and shouldn't be treated as one by any stretch. Let's not legitimize the concept.
As a last note though, it seems like you're suggesting that the circumstances that lead to this were deliberate in order to engineer a death like this so as to create useless arguing, which I heavily disagree with. ICE agents are given carte blanche because that's what fascism does. They want power, and having an unaccountable secret police is a way to get that. Simple as.
Situations like this, however, do not help that. People are fucking pissed right now, and getting your population incredibly angry at you just massively increases the odds of you losing power. Someone died on video in so awful a way that justification is impossible and the lies are clear as clean glass. This isn't a distraction, both in the strategic sense, and in the sense that the wanton death of an innocent should never be considered "a distraction."
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Comment on US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shoots and kills a woman during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown in ~society
LukeZaz Link ParentSeems the Star Tribune has also identified the killer now as Jonathan Ross. https://www.startribune.com/ice-agent-who-fatally-shot-woman-in-minneapolis-is-identified/601560214 It seems this isn't...Seems the Star Tribune has also identified the killer now as Jonathan Ross. https://www.startribune.com/ice-agent-who-fatally-shot-woman-in-minneapolis-is-identified/601560214
DHS confirmed Thursday that the agent who killed Good was the same officer dragged by a suspect in Bloomington last June. Although Ross was not named in the 13-page indictment of the driver, he is identified in several court records in the case, including photo exhibits from the hospital. He is also listed by name as a witness and in the jury instructions.
A law enforcement source, who is not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that Ross is the shooter.
It seems this isn't the first time he has latched onto someone's vehicle unnecessarily:
On June 17, Ross was participating in an arrest of Roberto Carlos Munoz-Guatemala, a Mexican citizen, in Bloomington last year. [...] Munoz-Guatemala ignored the agents’ commands, including to fully roll down his car window, so Ross broke open his rear window and reached inside to unlock the door.
In that case, Ross ended up actually getting injured and used a tazer instead of a gun, but I find it hard to consider it anything but his own fault. Grabbing onto a car driven by someone in a highly stressful situation is insane, even without considering other factors. And now that power-crazed, reckless behavior has gotten someone killed.
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Comment on US strikes Venezuela and says its leader, Nicolas Maduro, has been captured and flown out of the country in ~society
LukeZaz Link ParentI'm sorry, but this entire post is reliant upon a rosy view of colonialism and oil that belies a lacking understanding of the history of both. Mark my words, if the United States actually starts...I'm sorry, but this entire post is reliant upon a rosy view of colonialism and oil that belies a lacking understanding of the history of both. Mark my words, if the United States actually starts "controlling" any meaningful part of Venezuela, none of the citizens there will benefit save the occasional political puppet.
They would not be employed, respected, or rebuilt. They would be looted.
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Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games
LukeZaz Link ParentNot necessarily. One revocation can be values-based, whereas the other can be on strict rules basis. I could also see it being both. The existence for the rule is likely to discourage AI use,...Not necessarily. One revocation can be values-based, whereas the other can be on strict rules basis.
I could also see it being both. The existence for the rule is likely to discourage AI use, which is values-based, for example. And of course, this isn't actually a dichotomy, and both factors could have played a part.
Not sure it matters in the end though, because...
all we can really do is divide ourselves into pro and anti-AI camps and shout the same arguments across the fence.
...this is still proving pretty accurate. Even if this was a wholly line-of-the-law decision, the rule itself still gets questioned, and exactly that has been happening here. So we still end up at largely the same place. Which can still be a valuable discussion, if perhaps a retreaded one.
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Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games
LukeZaz Link ParentWell now that just makes me wonder what perspective you're encountering that from! I don't want to drag you into this or anything, obviously. It's just that my experience has been that people tend...Well now that just makes me wonder what perspective you're encountering that from! I don't want to drag you into this or anything, obviously. It's just that my experience has been that people tend to dislike "AI," which includes both (with a nebulous border) whereas "generative AI" doesn't usually include LLMs, with the possible exception of things like dialogue or creative writing.
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Comment on The truth about AI (specifically LLM powered AI) in ~tech
LukeZaz LinkRandomized controlled trial on AI coding tools speed up (predicted v. observed) (METR, July 2025) The LLMentalist Effect: How chat-based Large Language Models replicate the mechanisms of a...Randomized controlled trial on AI coding tools speed up (predicted v. observed) (METR, July 2025)
The LLMentalist Effect: How chat-based Large Language Models replicate the mechanisms of a psychic’s con (Baldur Bjarnason, July 2023)
Color me skeptical.
Fundamentally, though, I've realized I don't actually care too much about whether coding AI works or not. Even if it is helpful, I still feel very strongly that the problems surrounding it precludes ethical use of it. I'd list out those problems, but I've been talking about AI use so much in the past 24 hours that I'm sounding like a broken record. And besides, you've heard it before.
Suffice to say that I'll use AI when it stops ruining lives.
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Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games
LukeZaz Link ParentWell, if you'd like to be technical: It didn't say anything about LLMs. Personally I'd want those out too, but detecting that's kinda hard, so here we are. As for the survey, you're going to get a...It only takes one dev, one line of code.
Well, if you'd like to be technical:
Games developed using generative AI are strictly ineligible for nomination.
It didn't say anything about LLMs. Personally I'd want those out too, but detecting that's kinda hard, so here we are.
As for the survey, you're going to get a very different group of people responding to a StackOverflow developer survey than if you'd polled a large group of indie game developers. So my point stands.
Really though, I don't find this unreasonable at all. The rule is clear-cut, and it was clearly broken. As for whether the rule itself is justifiable, that's easy to me: GenAI is very harmful to the world and the people in it, and this rule strongly discourages its use. Hell, even moreso now that a prominent IGA GOTY winner had this rule enforced against them. So if you ask me, this brouhaha has actually done a lot of good.
Where I'm curious now is which part of my stance you disagree with. I'm assuming it's the justification for the rule, since the breaking of it hasn't been questioned. Do you feel that GenAI is not harmful? Or do you think it's inevitable and that we'll have no choice but to live with that harm? Something else?
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Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games
LukeZaz Link Parent...What? This is a pretty wild claim to provide without any backing evidence. Motivated single individuals are already making games. We've had that since Cave Story released in 2004. I'm honestly...Almost all successful “Indie“ games are still multimillion dollar operations.
...What? This is a pretty wild claim to provide without any backing evidence.
AI tools have the potential to open the space to motivated single individuals.
Motivated single individuals are already making games. We've had that since Cave Story released in 2004. I'm honestly starting to question how much attention you actually pay to the indie scene, because single-person dev teams are so frequent as to almost be common knowledge.
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Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games
LukeZaz (edited )Link ParentFirst, I have seen a great many developers who've outright stated that they have zero interest in using AI. Some are outright hostile to the concept, and a lot of AI use is forced on people by...First, I have seen a great many developers who've outright stated that they have zero interest in using AI. Some are outright hostile to the concept, and a lot of AI use is forced on people by their employers. So I feel you may be taking Silicon Valley hype at face value a little too much. Which is understandable given the AI hype machine, but still.
More concretely, though:
This company actually admitted their mistake, stated clearly that it wasn't intended to be present in the released product, and corrected it almost immediately.
That doesn't really matter much here. Generative AI use in development is prohibited for the purposes of the IGA. It doesn't matter if it was supposed to be published or not; using it at all disqualifies them automatically, and that's on them.
If you still like Sandfall despite this, that's perfectly fine! I'm sure the IGA judges do too. The GenAI use here is meager and hardly worth throwing out the team over. It's a matter of fairness, not of "Expedition 33 sucks actually."
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Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games
LukeZaz Link ParentThat's because "AI" as a term tends to mean generative AI or large language models these days. In this specific case, it was the former. Those two tools have very concrete and severe negative...That's because "AI" as a term tends to mean generative AI or large language models these days. In this specific case, it was the former. Those two tools have very concrete and severe negative consequences for their use; the same can't be said for most any pre-2020 techniques.
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Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games
LukeZaz Link ParentIf it helps any, I've seen a great many artists who've outright stated that even very simple/badly made references can be immensely helpful on their own. It might take less than you think to...That should at least get my stuff presentable to artists who can iterate on my game to make it truly shine.
If it helps any, I've seen a great many artists who've outright stated that even very simple/badly made references can be immensely helpful on their own. It might take less than you think to communicate your idea to an artist, depending on what it is.
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Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games
LukeZaz Link ParentSo, two points to this. First, and less important, is that creativity often thrives under restriction. I don't know what you're imagining when you say "unable to create a drawing to save their...Consider someone with a physical defect unable to create a drawing to save their life but with oodles of vision that an AI can realise.
So, two points to this.
First, and less important, is that creativity often thrives under restriction. I don't know what you're imagining when you say "unable to create a drawing to save their life" (given that there are many kinds of drawing and many ways to make each kind), but if someone was truly incapable in this way, I would adore to see what other solutions could work for them that aren't AI slop.
Second and more importantly, this is a high-minded idea that – while commendable as a goal – doesn't really work so well in our current vulture-capitalist-turn-technofuedalist world. The reality is that modern GenAI/LLMs are plagiarist energy hogs that cause mental health crises and mass unemployment, and don't even make anything half-decent in the process. That's a lot of harm to weigh against.
I've said before that this tech could've been good if it'd been spearheaded by open-source communities on small scales (and hell, 15.ai was a thing, wasn't it?), but instead we've got tech bros and CEOs, and all they want is to fire people. In a world like this, the "it's for the disabled" argument that'd otherwise be simple well-meaning allyship will get twisted by money into "Anything we do is justified, because disabled people could theoretically use it."
In practice, the argument is better left on the table for now, saved for a post-AI-bubble world, if or when AI stops damaging so much of the planet. Modern AI, as it is, does not deserve the defense.
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Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games
LukeZaz Link ParentIndie games, taken as a category, already are competitive with major studios. The most fascinating artistic endeavors of the year almost all came from AA-or-smaller groups, with several being...Indie games, taken as a category, already are competitive with major studios. The most fascinating artistic endeavors of the year almost all came from AA-or-smaller groups, with several being debut indies. They do not need GenAI or LLMs to accomplish any of this.
All introducing AI to the mixture does is waste time, money, energy, water and people, all for the sake of dramatically increasing homogeneity. It's a tool designed to try and save time on art so artists can spend more time on work; or in other words, the opposite of what we should strive for.
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Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games
LukeZaz Link ParentI'm curious as to why you think this. To me, this reads as a perfectly reasonable disqualification regardless of other factors. Personally, I find both disqualifications that the IGA did this year...They have been looking for any reason to disqualify E33 for months now from the indie game awards
I'm curious as to why you think this. To me, this reads as a perfectly reasonable disqualification regardless of other factors. Personally, I find both disqualifications that the IGA did this year to be heartening, because the good reasoning behind them (and the presence of a GenAI ban to begin with) gives me cause to believe that they genuinely care about the games they judge.
(I'd say "genuinely care relative to The Game Awards," but that'd be damning with faint praise, because TGA is practically a marketing festival.)
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Comment on Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets] in ~games
LukeZaz LinkFrom The Indie Game Awards' FAQ page: (My edits to the question title are to keep focus on Expedition 33, since there was another award retracted this year due to the game in question – Chantey –...From The Indie Game Awards' FAQ page:
Why [was] Clair Obscur: Expedition 33['s award] retracted?
The Indie Game Awards have a hard stance on the use of gen AI throughout the nomination process and during the ceremony itself. When it was submitted for consideration, a representative of Sandfall Interactive agreed that no gen AI was used in the development of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. In light of Sandfall Interactive confirming the use of gen AI art in production on the day of the Indie Game Awards 2025 premiere, this does disqualify Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 from its nomination. While the assets in question were patched out and it is a wonderful game, it does go against the regulations we have in place. As a result, the IGAs nomination committee has agreed to officially retract both the Debut Game and Game of the Year awards.Each award will be going to the next highest-ranked game in its respective category:
Debut Game: Sorry We’re Closed
Game of the Year: Blue PrinceBoth à la mode games and Dogubomb have been notified and were invited to record acceptance speeches. Since the IGAs premiere took place just ahead of the holiday break, we expect both acceptance speeches to be recorded and published in early 2026.
(My edits to the question title are to keep focus on Expedition 33, since there was another award retracted this year due to the game in question – Chantey – being tied to ModRetro, which is in hot water due to ModRetro advertising that their consoles are made using the same metal that's used to manufacture attack drones.)
I added the bracketed text to the title of this post because I felt that the scope of the AI use was an important factor – don't want to spook anybody into thinking the game was ¼-AI or something – but if any title editors here feel it's unnecessary, I don't mind its removal.
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Indie Game Awards rescinds Clair Obscur's GOTY wins over use of generative AI [for now-removed background assets]
29 votes
I got a reply to this a few days ago asking me to elaborate on the risks I mentioned. I'm not sure why they deleted it – I did take a long time to respond, sorry – but either way given the vote counts they clearly weren't the only one wondering. I'm not going to go into excruciating detail here because if I tried to do that I'd just end up never posting, but here's a short bullet list: