A reversal of standing company policy and doctrine on generative Artificial Intelligence
Rathgrith027 Resident
For the past nearly 22 years, Second Life has been a bastion of creativity and and expression, providing un-paralleled experiences that even to this day, its' competitors cannot properly match.
However, it seems that Linden Lab, in the face of opportunity with the metaverse's* growth in recent years in the face of aggressive funding and pursuits by the tech industry, has failed to respect its' userbase.
Artificial Intelligence, at large, whilst providing a valuable resource in countless fields, also poses great risk to Second Life's future if left to be exploited without restraint.
Generative AI provides no intellectual property protections (Naruto v. Slater, No. 16-15469 (9th Cir. 2018)), is overwhelmingly trained on unauthorized data with clear and concise intent to replicate the works of those without consent or authorization (https://hbr.org/2023/04/generative-ai-has-an-intellectual-property-problem), causes great harm to the environment (https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/story/ai-has-environmental-problem-heres-what-world-can-do-about) , and of relevance to Second Life's continued viability as a platform - jeopardizes the place of human workers in an economy not fit to sustain them lest they lose their job as a result of supplantation by AI. And what is more, many experts have stated that the AI bubble is doomed to burst at some point in the next 2-3 years, which would undermine any investments by Linden Lab into AI technology, especially as AI has become a literal money sink. (https://gizmodo.com/github-copilot-ai-microsoft-openai-chatgpt-1850915549)
In the face of this, Linden Lab has refused to adopt protections for its' creators against artificial intelligence being used on their assets, has refused to adopt strategies to mitigate low-quality AI slop from being disseminated through the marketplace, which muddies results and makes searching difficult, and with technologies like ConvAI's bots, exacerbates the undying argument that Second Life is 'dead', when all people will likely come across, are poorly coded bots with little guardrails that can be exploited and in turn, leave the bot operator vulnerable, for little if any benefit to our residents.
And in the face of constant negative feedback from the residents who support our home, Linden Lab has decided to double down on AI by using it in promotional material, which once again, fails to reflect the reality of our platform to an audience that likely will have the retention rate of ground beef rotting away in the sun. All the while, many of our residents have been given no choice but to at worst, abandon SL, or at best, withdraw all financial support to the platform. Even I, have been contemplating the latter by selling my land, and ceasing my Premium Plus membership.
As such, I, [REDACTED 1], along with those who support this request, issue the following demands of Linden Research, d/b/a Linden Lab:
- Immediate sunsetting of the ConvAI bot system within 90 days of approval of this request.
- A permanent ban on the commercial use of generative artificial intelligence in Second Life in any capacity, with moderate warnings for infringers, or explicit bans for use of generative AI that directly undermines an creator on our platform.
- Assurances by Linden Lab Product Operations, Marketing and Development teams that under no circumstances will Linden Lab in the future, pursue the use of generative AI as part of the development, maintenance, promotion or support of the Second Life platform in any substantial capacity.
You as Lindens have an obligation to ensure the sustainability of your sole product that is now keeping your corporation afloat, and has reliably done so for the past 22 years, lest you decide to throw caution into the wind in the face of constant anger and frustration of your userbase, and cause many of the creators who you have championed and laid host for all of this time to abandon Agni for sunnier shores. These people are your lifeblood, the very reason why Second Life exists, and when they go, their customers will follow. And when their customers follow, the barons who already hemmorhage money paying for simulators will take flight from here, and all of Agni will implode in on itself.
And it all could be avoided. Even in the face of the age of AI, we can stand the test of time, as we have for nearly my entire physical life, at the halcyon age of [REDACTED 2].
Whether or not we do, is up to you and your abettors - to come to the table, accept humility, and ensure a future for our home that does not lean all in on the dystopia that others seem content with.
* The Metaverse, referring to the collective of virtual worlds (i.e. Activeworlds, Second Life, IMVU, There, VRChat, etc.)
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Leshrak Eyre
Signed,
A big dumb lime green content sergal who's been on SL for 15+ years.
Crush Cutie
Signed.
This doesn't go far enough.
Vixus Snowpaw
Hi, I'm the person who published the video of me testing out the newly introduced LLM integration and almost immediately getting extremely inappropriate responses, while simply asking it to come to me.
It certainly proved a deeply serious and important point about user safety.
With regards to 'you turned the filter off and accepted the risk' I would wish to reply in brief with the following:
- None of the things I asked or told the test bot warranted such an extreme response (the standard pre-prompt for the unrestricted model as made by LL was poorly implemented)
- In additional testing with the 'safety on' it was trivial to manipulate the bot to violate its set constraints. Since the owner is responsible for 100% of the outputs, prompt tampering by others can, as stated, very well result in unjustified platform bans as per the official usage agreement.
Generative slop is an undesirable feature that immediately, irreparably detracts from all which we derive from creating our works to share with the community. It will flood every nook and cranny and drive out this platforms incredible talents. And once that threshold is reached, and every place starts flooding with lazy generated garbage to the point where it's impossible to find high quality assets, it in turn WILL alienate and erode large swatches of the community.
In conclusion:
I understand that AI is the hot buzzword of the times, but the community as it exists was built both BY and FOR its users. With all of both the worst and the best being made by the platform users themselves. Second Life is a place for people. Not a place for plagiarism machines to spaff out content ad nauseum undermining the very dedicated user base and experiences which drew us into SL to begin with.
/signed
Fiona Nebula
No need for this nonsense in SL
Sylph Falconvale
Cosigning this in agreement, and sharing my thoughts
The first thing that comes to mind is as a consequence of the flooding of the marketplace with low quality, AI generated content, I've stopped going to the marketplace for textures and full perm meshes. Instead, I've started buying from outside of SL or simply going without. This actively takes money away from the SL economy.
Shopping events recently are a minefield of misleading AI generated ads, if not outright AI generated content. This isn't necessarily an altogether new phenomenon, but it has been intensified by the accessibility of quickly generated AI images.
As for the implementation of the ConvAI bot system, this is something that users (including myself) specifically said we did NOT want. There are already too many bots on the platform as it is, not to mention the inherent problems with this specific system, which have been shown in far greater detail than I could ever do here. I run a hangout sim and we are constantly visited by bots collecting data, so much so that the distribution of bots to real actual users is about 10:1, if not higher! We DO NOT WANT MORE BOTS. You are further driving down the amount of users you have by drowning them in a sea of bots instead of helping them to connect with other users via community spaces! Spaces that are constantly struggling to survive as it is.
If the Lab really wants to help SL grow it's user base, why don't you take some of the funding that seems to be allocated toward various AI ventures that no one asked for, and instead use them to incentivize community spaces on the platform. That's what people are looking for, and what's missing from SL, actual human interaction, not AI bot driven quests or mini games. I feel like the various communities that exist on SL have been asking for YEARS for the Lab to help alleviate the burden of sim costs to help us stay afloat, and little to nothing has been done, driving these communities off the grid to more affordable platforms.
I won't rant any further on that, but something has got to be done about the encroachment of generative AI in SL. It's threatening the lifeblood of the platform, which are our amazing creators. The demands put forth here are sensible and deserving of a response, so I'm putting my voice forward as a long time premium resident to demand the Lab take action. If something isn't done soon, I will likely be ending my subscription and taking my money, time and creativity elsewhere.
Zada Bury
I disagree with this petition.
This discussion becomes messy already ... and it is merging various themes.
Nail different points:
1) Complains about using AI (generated) content in products or "on the marketplace".
1a) Use AI to "display" product or advertise it "better". This is equal to the past about "Pictures taken in ultra-quality" or "on PBR-Viewer" or "Product is worn on Mesh-Body xyz" disclaimers or so. We all know the situation, it looks at home not that best, it was shown in the ad. If the seller overdrawing it, it will "pay back" in bad reviews - so it is in their own responsibility and the more honest products with "real" pictures and an inworld-shop, where the product can be seen and tested will probably win.
1b) Using AI creations in products itself. I see it as nearly equal, as using "Photoshop" or merging the thoughts and creations by others by a human creator. At the end it is our choice, if we accept some "AI-generated ad-textures at a bus-station" ... or choosing a creator, who painting such self (and "stealing" from the things they have seen in their life) ... or one who directly copies some stuff, that might be or be not a copyright violation - who be able to check it?
2) AI- (chat) Bots, as like the one provided by LL. These can be interesting and for a while an nice distraction as chat. Beside of that, they might become somewhat like assistants, as a lot people use in their mobile phones already. Maybe them aren't perfect. But it is on everyone itself to use them. Or refuse to chat with some.
3) Ads by LL. As like "1a" ... If you advertise with AI-generated (SL-) pictures, people might come in and be disappointed, as the look isn't what was promised in the ad. But maybe it is for artistic reasons. Anyway it is the decision of eg. the marketing-department.
4) Profile pictures and similar. Same as "1a". The result might be, you will not be recognized. If somebody enhances their look with some AI filters ... it's their thing. Surely in the "spotlights" or interviews and so on, also a real SL picture should be seen.
But 3 things I would wish for:
- For the Marketplace (and inworld-vendors, too): If someone uses AI in the product itself (e.g. textures), this should be get a notice somewhere.
- Responsibility for the chat-bots only that far, as the owner can really control it.
- Profile-sign for "scripted agent" with various classes, eg. "AI controlled chat-bot" and "scripted agent" (group-invites, just a display-model).
VanessaChristy Resident
Zada Bury
A few things,
1a) It is not "equal to the past about "Pictures taken in ultra-quality" or "on PBR-Viewer" or "Product is worn on Mesh-Body xyz" disclaimers or so." those disclaimers are possible to obtain. Using ai to "enhance" the product doesn't allow that, it is no longer obtainable in Second Life. You can't get that look, where as wearing the same mesh body, using PBR, or setting graphics to Ultra-Quality is.
1b) "I see it as nearly equal, as using "Photoshop" or merging the thoughts and creations by others by a human creator." The difference is being inspired by a thought or creation and then making that yourself by hand is completely different than generating that same thought or idea through a prompt which is guaranteed to just copy directly from other's work. It isn't inspired, it isn't putting it's own style into it, it's directly copying from work that wasn't consented to be used. That is one of the many issues with Generative AI.
2) AI chat bots in SL is guaranteed to have issues, I am glad it is the responsibility of the bot owner. For that exact reason you stated, you can't control. SL allows minors and someone quite literally speedran a blank chatbot to go straight to sexual content.
If it stays, i would like to both disable them from interacting with you and marking them off of maps and such. A populated sim full of bots is a dead sim .
3) LL instead of advertising Second Life as Second Life decided to just throw a prompt into an ai. There's are so so SO many videos, pictures, and sims to just simply go through and record for an ad. They could have shown the actual place of Second Life. You should be upset about this, everyone should. Because it's not showing what Second Life is.
marxman1313 Resident
Just as a head's up to anyone reading this, I am seeing both on Bluesky and from my friends that I have sent this to that they are unable to log in and/or are being re-directed. It is possible Linden Labs is trying to censor this just like they are comments on youtube right now.
Zandrae Nova
marxman1313 Resident When I first signed up for this site, it has some errors. I think I had to use my desktop due to some browser quirk on my phone or something so it actually might be a bug.
marxman1313 Resident
Zandrae Nova I'm used to coming here via email on my phone myself and it always works fine. A friend also said that using the in-viewer browser on Firestorm or Alchemy works
Almalexia Aurelia
As a reminder, the constant CONSTANT use of AI from dweebs who feel like they're entitled to the hard work of artists is literally just bug testing propaganda machines, this is already happening and its not even that good yet. it will not get better! Banning it from SL wont stop it but it sure as FUCK is going to slow it down considering the content slop thats pumped out onto the marketplace on a daily basis.
there is not nor will there ever be an ethical way to use AI
William Gide
Almalexia Aurelia My favorite name for genAI so far is "Grand Theft Autocomplete."
It's very hard for me to see using genAI as meaningfully different from receiving stolen goods.
CrimsonAcanthus Resident
I have been pushing for them to stop allowing AI, or at least moderating it, for a hot minute now but my voice has yet to be heard by LL. I also shared a different feedback here. https://feedback.secondlife.com/web-features/p/add-marketplace-policy-regarding-ai-generated-content
That has 175 upvotes. I have seen feedback requests with 20 upvotes put through the system, and yet, here we are. Being seen and not heard. I'm so tired of this.
nulshift Resident
CrimsonAcanthus Resident The fact that there was a merge, but no response. lmao.
Vincent Nacon
AI bots are here to stay because it was ment to fill in the gap for NPCs stuff. Which I will remind you, SL has NPCs, both static and active long before AI... which is debatable because no AI are the same as they all functions on many different levels. You may hate the company that provided LL ConvAI bots, but I can ensure you that someone will come up with even better ones and compete with them. Whoever they are, will end up here in SL.
And no, the "AI Bubble" isn't about to pop any time soon. It's nothing like any other products in the world and its development isn't slowing down at all, it's accelerating ever more so. Hardwares are still getting improvement along with AI, which will make AI even better down the tech advancement line. CPU companies are already using AI to design even better chips. You can fully expect to see AI powering robots and doing a lot of physical work for us. Robots will practically pay for itself and more.... but anyway, that's another big topic for the future. Going back to SL realm...
I saw the dumb promotional ad that LL put out this week and yes, it sucked and doesn't live up to SL's expectation. That's on LL's PR management. Someone used a poorly written prompt and decided it was good enough to post it. That's hardly AI fault, the video generation department is still in active development growth and it's foolish for that one person to decide to use it now and shipped it. He/she should've waited at least one or two more years. We can fully expect to see the quality to improve dramatically, we're just not there yet.
1: I can't see that happening any time soon... but why are you blaming ConvAI for the lame video ad? They got nothing to do with it.
2: Your request for LL to ban all AI contents and bots is completely absurd and downright impossible to enforce it.
3: This... this I can agree. Video generation isn't that good at the moment, it was absurd for them to use it now.
nulshift Resident
Vincent Nacon None of it is good at the moment and none of it will ever be. No amount of "good prompt" and "PR" can fix slop.
Lorelai Mistwallow
Vincent Nacon nulshift Resident
Let's also not forget these bots appear as "real" people on the map and at a glance. It's depressing enough going around SL to either find no one or AFK people everywhere. It's going to be even MORE depressing having a chat with someone only to realize they're a BOT. No one is going to stick around SecondLife if most of their interactions are with NPCs. At that point they'd go back to playing Skyrim or Cyberpunk. Better graphics, same experience.
My dark thought is these bots are lowkey meant to FALSELY inflate the concurrent active user data. In lamens terms, making SecondLife look more populated than it is, when in actuality 50% of the "active" userbase could be bots in under a year. Drawing in new users under the false pretense that SecondLife is more active than it is..
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