Bitching about AI non-creative annoyance

[cashew]

I've been trying to get a satisfying result from AI and so far, it's been bleh. I mean, it's possible that I'm just expecting something that isn't possible with AI, or it's just that AI requires more programming to network together modules/agents/whatever the term is so that it can actually do what AI Dungeon is proposing it does.

Long story short, I'm trying to reproduce a TTRPG experience with AI, with AI running the story, world lore, NPC characters, party members, and me roleplaying an adventurer in a typical D&D setting. I'd thought leaning on D&D IP could maybe help the AI to be more creative about its responses, but I'm finding it difficult to generate meaningful progression.

For example, the context fed to the AI contains information that my character's spellbook (which is necessary for casting of spells) is inside a magical hand purse that is bigger on the inside than it looks on the outside. Yet, the AI insists on writing that the spellbook is retrieved from or put away into a satchel. Or in another example, a major bullet point in the context states that my character is an elf fostered and raised by humans, yet the AI insists on having characters in the story speak to my character as if she grew up in elven society. It's as if the concept of adoption by a different culture is completely foreign to the AI.

I often see people try to brush this off as "minor details" which is infuriating. I don't know if gamers are just terrible at understanding narrative or if AI has degraded people's understanding of how world building works. No, if a character is raised in a foreign culture that's a pretty fricking huge part of the characterization. I also can't figure out if "elf" is just has too much valence for the AI and anything else that come after is swamped out by all the training data on the "ethereal elf" trope that's all over fantasy or something. (Good luck trying to get the AI to associate elf with a Keebler elf, despite feeding it description after description. No, an elf must be graceful, WTF. Despite D&D wood elves being far more inspired by a brownie than a Tolkien-esque elf.)

And then there's the issue of AI not being able to create anything new. Tell AI to avoid A, B, C elements in the next section of the narrative and it will inevitably come up with nothing other than rephrasing and repeating A, B, and C elements. Tell it to pick an option between A or B and it will inevitably pick both.

At this point, I'm a bit annoyed at the company for releasing a product that over-promises and under-delivers. If I wanted to be in the driver's seat dictating the success and failure of every turn attempt and describing to the AI what is an in-character response and also managing the pacing of a scene while keeping track of world lore and overall plot progression, then I'll go write a story or play solo TTRPG.

Comments

[tanithryudo]

Haha, as a reader I see the same thing. It's so hard to find good fic on lofter because so much stuff is so obviously AI generated. It's easy to tell because you can see a whole bunch of samey fic written around the same central theme, and it's usually something obviously wrong (from canon material) and also contains title/content geared toward offending a popular fandom (the strategy of using anger to attract readers is...something). Oh, and of course these also tend to only show half the story while locking the rest under payment. *shakes head*

When human readers jump on a bandwagon, they usually either outright plagiarize, or at least end up putting some kind of spin on the original material (for good or for worse). AI is pretty much the same, just that they are incapable of adding much spin instead of unwilling.

[cashew]

AI is proof positive that you cannot produce Shakespearean drama by putting a million monkeys in front of a million typewriters. 🤣

The scourge of AI on Lofter is such a pain, especially in the slightly less popular ships where the few human written stuff gets buried under a deluge of AI slop. Ugh.