Art (in the broad sense) is communication. I don’t mean that in the sense of delivering a moral, though of course it can do that too. It hit me recently that that’s why I hate AI generated content, even if it’s indistinguishable from the real thing. There’s no other person at the other end of that communication, no intention to provoke a particular feeling, impart a lesson, or engage with a good story.

People call it parroting but I think that’s an insult to parrots. Sure a parrot isn’t inquiring about your day when he says “How ya doing?” But he is trying to socialize with you by calling out to you like he would another flock member.

Disclaimer: I only speak for myself. Blindness does not respect class, creed, or culture, so every blind person will have their own opinions and experiences. In my case AI hasn’t shown much tangible benefit beyond what clever algorithms are already doing, for optical character recognition etc.

Beyond blindness My knee-jerk reaction to AI is strongly negative simply because it’s another locus of concentrated societal power (Who else is there besides Open AI and Anthropic and maybe Groq? IIRC everyone else is just using one of those on the backend. So that’s what, three people, a few dozen if you include the other C-suite folks at each company, pulling a lot of very consequential levers) But that opinion is probably par for the course for your average Lemming.

When looking for videos to listen to in the background I always prioritize “low quality” stuff. They don’t have the perfect mic or studio setup, don’t meticulously edit out background noise, talk in a less polished manner, don’t have a background music track. Prior to the rise of AI it was because such videos were less overstimulating and felt more down to earth, now it’s because I know they’re humans.

Don’t have any recommendations you haven’t mentioned. As a blind person I listen to synthesized speech nearly all day long, so I’m pretty good at catching AI voices. I think the ones trained on IRL people have a “choppy” or “quavering” quality. I’m not an audiophile or computational linguist so I’m sure there’s a term for this I’m missing, but the overall audio has a particular tell to it.

It’s getting harder, though. Now I listen for things like odd prosidy, stuff like odd pauses or inflections or inconsistent pronunciations.

For example, the phrase “So I went to the store” could have a number of inflections that encode info about the ongoing conversation, whether I intend to continue speaking or whether I’m yielding the floor, whether I’m asking a question, indicating surprise, etc. AI is getting better at this but it’s not perfect.

Pronunciation of proper nouns or words that are spelled the same but pronounced differently in different contexts is a good indicator. Just the other day my mom was watching some AI-generated listicle and the voiceover mispronounced the name of a city after correctly pronouncing it every time before.

I just hated my old job (inbound call center agent) so hard that any anxiety about going back to school was overshadowed by relief at not having to talk nonstop 8 hours a day again.

Unfortunately I’m at a bit of a crossroads with my current job (IT) because both Pearson and Cisco make test-taking miserable if you have a disability. My current job isn’t under threat, but I let all my certs lapse because I’m just sick and tired of their nonsense.

Update 2: I was able to get the PTFE tube out of the side sensor but I tore the collet out as well and it went flying. Against all odds I was able to find it, but now I have to see if I can reinsert it.

update: It looks like I need to detach the tube from the front sensor and I can’t do that without removing the side panel which is riveted to the frame.

I’m going to Gamalon to aid him.

Pfft listen to this young’un with multiple cells over here.

Listen to this hairless bipedal whipper-snapper. Back in MY day we THREW poop at one another. 🐒

Update: I removed the PTFE tube and Bowden tube from the extruder. the Filament broke right before entering the extruder. I tried pushing more filament through the feeder end but I’m meeting resistance at the same depth I was before. Now I guess I have to work on disassembling the filament sensor.

This printer cost me $1600 dollars shipped and I haven’t even printed anything with it yet. It took me maybe half an hour between unboxing the A1 mini and printing my first benchy, and the a1 was I think $500 all in, and that’s including the AMS lite. Over all I haven’t had the best unboxing experience with the core one.

I haven’t even mentioned that Prusa decided to use 2 different types of screws to hold the top plastic cover on the chassis, meaning I need to keep track of them and their two different hex keys.

Thanks. Will take a look after I’ve had a full night’s sleep.

Can I do that without calibrating the filament sensors? Sorry if this is a stupid question.

Looks like one of those tornado tube things you could get at Natural Wonders back in the day. Half fill a bottle with water, screw on the tube, then screw an empty bottle onto the other end of the tube. Then turn the assembly upside down and shake it around to produce a vortex in the draining water.