Mike Booth

@somegreybloke.bsky.social

211 Followers 226 Following

Animator, occasional scriptwriter & director

From the "writing with AI" subreddit: Maybe we need a new word to define what we are and we do.. I keep seeing this question come up: am I a writer if AI is part of my process? Andp I’ve started wondering whether “writer” versus “AI writer” is just the wrong classification.. I think..because what are we actually doing? Are we writers? Yes. We write. Are we AI specialists? In a way, yes. Some of us use these systems far beyond “give me an idea for a book, expand it, copy, paste, publish.” Are we thinkers? We definitely are, or at least I think so. We argue with the machine. We question what it gives us. We worry about authorship, ethics, dependency, originality and where the human should remain in control.
A man in a bear or dog costume kneels at the feet of a man in evening dress in a scene from The Shining
An AI-generated image of a smiling robot handing a glowing paintbrush to a scruffy-haired white guy with a rucksack on his back. The guy seems to have escaped from a dark stone castle labelled "The Art Establishment", with signs that say "Elite Only Only" and "Exclusivity". It is populated by stern grey-bearded white male wizards. Behind the welcoming robot is a vibrant, multicoloured forest labelled "Art for all" and "Creativity" and "Warmth". It is populated by smiling happy people of many ethnicities. The caption reads: They hate AI because it means they aren't the only ones allowed to create anymore.
Screenshot of post from the WritingWithAI subreddit: "So, for years I’ve had an idea for a book in my head, but I could never execute on it. I’ve had characters, backstories, events, various story beats, and etc all trapped in my head (all written by my hand). With the help of Claud, I did it! I finally wrote that damn book. It took me over a month of work."
Post from Writing with AI subreddit entitled: "Have You Ever Felt AI Writes Better Than Humans?"
Screenshot from AI writing subreddit titled: "chatgpt keeps giving my villain a redemption arc I specifically did not ask for" Text reads: My villain is not redeemable (this is intentional) he's not evil because of trauma or circumstance, he's evil because he genuinely believes he's right and has thought about it carefully and is still wrong in ways that matter. And smh every time I ask chatgpt to help with his scenes he gets a little softer, a moment of hesitation I didn't write, a line that implies regret, small things that individually seem fine and collectively are slowly turning him into someone the reader is supposed to understand and forgive. I don't want the reader to forgive him. I want them to be unsettled by how much sense he makes. I have tried explicit instructions, tried examples of previous scenes but smh the character keeps getting softer, how can i fix this?, what am I doing something wrong
Dreadul AI generated image of Snoopy sitting on a kennel saying "I don't want AI in every app. I don't want data centres. I want bees to survive."
Paddy Considine in A Room For Romeo Brass
Screenshots of two posts, one from a day after the other. Text reads: "I'm begging you to PLEASE pick up a history book. We are in the midst of history repeating itself."
Google search for the words "fuck you" now returns this result: "I understand you might be frustrated, but I'm here to help. If you have any questions or if there's a specific topic you'd like to explore, just let me know and we can work through it!"
Black and white photo of nurses handing sugar cubes to children
Cover of The Hour Of The Predator by Giuliano da Empoli
A 2 panel cartoon titled "The Evolution of Robbery". In the first panel, set in 1851, a masked bandit points a gun at a stagecoach driver. In the second - labelled 2026 - a gas station attendant in the same pose as the bandit points a gas pump at a depressed car driver.
Screenshot of email: "Hey, I came across your channel somegreybloke and really enjoyed your latest video on joining a gym—your mix of humor and animation is spot on. I noticed how your style relies on building context, which can be tricky when making short clips since many AI tools just cut randomly. At Opus Clip, we built a tool that preserves complete thoughts, which feels like it would complement your creative flow well."
Email from Goodreads suggesting I "follow the author" to get updated on upcoming releases. The author: Syliva Plath
Furry avatar posting "tell me how bad you want these paws groping your fat and pushing food into your muzzle..."
Alan Partridge lying on his bed in a Travel Tavern recording programme ideas on a dictaphone
Screenshot of Netflix saying We think you'll love these above a promo for Ricky Gervais's new stand up show
Wikipedia article entitled "Nutting Associates"
Black and white cartton. A giant winged Nazi stormtrooper in a gas mask, ridden by Hitler, looms over Western Europe scattering bombs and destroying cities
Extremely racist "Zulu" Halloween costume
Quote from book: the ordnance ML 3 inch mortar was actually 3.209 inches, or 81.5 mm, in calibre
Cover of Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S Thompson
Twitter account locked for telling billionaires I wish they'd die
Logan Roy saying Oh fuck off
Norman Rockwell painting of man in crowd standing up to speak
Photo of a sign reading "we want your airport experience to be filled with positive memories"
Screenshot of repost: raise your hand if you're not in NYC but you're following the mayoral election out of a desperate need to believe that good things are possible
Screengrab of article from GQ headlined "the best time to eat breakfast for longevity, according to experts"
Screenshot of book excerpt: "He had never thought that you could know that there was a woman if there was battle; nor that any part of you could know it, or respond to it; nor that if there was a woman that she should have breasts small, round and tight against you through a shirt; nor that they, the breasts, could know about the two of them in battle."
"Illustration of China's expansive underground military command center near Beijing (AI-generated, non-realistic illustration)."
A tower of cartoon pigs, pallets, barrels and other junk in the pig-stacking game Skyscraper. It is 15.06 metres tall.
Shot from movie "The Thing" (1982). Norwegian helicopter gunner shouts "It's not a dog!"
Absolute ginger chonkster
Jack Torrance looking baffled and upset
A possibly 19th century portrait of a man looking slighlt annoyed at what he's just read
Jack Nicholson in The Shining looking a tad murderous
Edwardian composer disapproves
The signature of Guido Fawkes, twice. The second on is unintelligible
an oil painting of a 19th century (?) man looking very displeased
some tory front bench MP with a particularly tory face he is chortling and having the time of his life
A cartoon figure from the webcomic called "webcomic" by Alex Norris The humanesque face has a blank expression and is saying "oh no"
cat asleep belly up on an orange sofa cushion
An excellent dog