Markiplier put on a lengthy livestream responding to the mass controversy surrounding his usage of AI, explaining that he’s vehemently against the way generative AI is being used.
In his long career on YouTube, Markiplier has rarely sparked controversy. He has a massive fanbase that’s generally respectful and just enjoys tuning in to his videos, livestreams, and other projects he works on.
However, between him using and talking about ChatGPT on his podcast, an AI-generated image getting used in one of his thumbnails, his mods banning the discussion of AI on his subreddit, and him directly supporting a foundation that’s researching AI, his community is up in arms.
Markiplier went on stream and explained his stance on the issue, saying that he’s vehemently against the way AI is generally used even if he finds the technology exciting.
Markiplier clears up AI controversy
Some podcast clips of Markiplier resurfaced of him using ChatGPT on a podcast, ones that have according to him been misconstrued. He wasn’t voicing his support for it. Rather, he was making jokes at the expense of its use and using it to highlight the downsides of dependance on AI.
As a result of immense backlash against him, Markiplier has responded and made his stance clear on AI.
“There are reasons to be critical of [AI] the way that it currently is. That doesn’t mean that it’s entirely, as a concept, a problem. But it does mean that the way that [AI] is being used with no safeguards and no guard rails in general, is absolutely a problem. It’s very difficult to imagine a scenario where that is stopped or halted in any way because of the amount of money that is being poured into it,” he explained.
The YouTuber explained that he’s been speaking out against the use of generative AI for years, warning of its dangers, and that clips of him talking about it were jokes rather than something people were meant to take seriously as him defending it.
“There isn’t this need to be so scared of [AI], but there is a need to be aware of what you’re afraid of,” he explained. “Any time that I do talk about it, it’s to talk about the dangers of it or how scary it is.”
He said that, in order to fight something, you have to understand what it is. Markiplier claimed that any recent mention of AI has been more to inform people of what it is and why he believes it’s dangerous rather than to promote it.
Markiplier also doesn’t use generative AI tools anymore even though he’s experimented with them in the past, with him being uncomfortable using them after what he’s learn.
As for the AI generated thumbnail he’s getting called out for, that was a stock image purchased without the editor realizing it wasn’t real.
“This is a common thing on stock photo sites now. They are barely useable anymore and intentionally bury the actual stock photos in favor of their generated slop,” he explained in a Reddit post.
Speaking of Reddit, Markiplier claims AI conversations on Reddit were banned not because he didn’t want to talk about it, but that the controversy has gotten so heated that both he and his moderators were receiving threats. This is why comments were removed, not the discussion of being against generative AI.
In fact, he has an entire section in his rules that bans any AI generated content from being posted on the Reddit.
Lastly, Markiplier does directly support a foundation called Real Good AI that’s pursuing the creation of AI tools that help humanity rather than generating images and videos that are scraped from databases.
He explained his full stance on it and why he supports a foundation that’s creating AI in the stream clip above, but Real Good AI’s goal is essentially to create a model that can operate independently and doesn’t have to steal data in order to function.
Markiplier concluded his stream by saying the following:
“I’m going to try and make sure that as many people as possible know that there’s still value in pursuing artistic endeavors. There always will be as long as we’re human.”
Content shared from www.dexerto.com.