EGuillermo Del Toro is still doing this.
SDoing what?
EAbsolutely torching AI art. He's been at it for days, apparently.
SAnd people are here for it. Ten thousand likes on Bluesky alone.
EHis latest one-liner: the punishment for AI slop is built in. You don't have to ban it. It punishes itself.
SI mean, he's not wrong. Nobody's showing off their AI-generated masterpiece at dinner parties.
EBut here's the part that gets me. Casey Pumpkins over on Bluesky made the sharpest point I've seen on this.
SWhat's the argument?
EIf AI was actually as good as the hype-bros claim, they'd be PROUD to say their game used it. They'd put it on the box.
SThat's a solid point. If it's a selling point, you sell it. If you hide it, you know it's a liability.
EExactly. And we've seen this play out with Sweeney over at Epic.
SHere we go.
ENo, hear me out. He's out there defending indie devs who want to use AI, saying he's protecting the little guy.
SCome on. Reports say his company laid off a thousand people this year before pivoting to AI. That's not defending indie devs.
EI'm not saying the layoffs don't stink. But two things can be true. A guy can be a capitalist AND be right that indie devs shouldn't be locked out of cheap tools.
SNo, no, wait—
EYou can't look at a big company using AI and say it's disgusting, then turn around and tell a solo dev in Idaho he can't use it to make his dream game.
SThat's exactly my point! Everyone gets the same tools, but only the big guys get to hide behind them. The indie dev doesn't have a PR team to launder the story.
ESo your solution is... nobody gets the tools? That's a terrible trade.
SMy solution is honesty. You used it? Say it. If it's so great, let the audience judge it as AI work. But they don't, because they know the audience wants human craft.
EBut that kills the market for small studios. They can't afford a hundred artists. AI lets a team of three build what used to take thirty.
SSo what? We just accept a flood of cheap slop because it helps the budget? That's the race to the bottom, and Del Toro's right—the punishment is built in. The market gets flooded with garbage and everyone stops caring about games.
EThe market decides that. And right now, the market is telling you a good game with AI art still beats a bad game with hand-drawn art.
SFor now. Until the cost of AI art is zero and the market is nothing but generated junk.
EYou sound like the people who said synthesizers would kill music.
SSynthesizers didn't put a thousand composers out of work in three months.
EFair. But they did change the whole industry. My take? The good ones will use the tools and the audience will never know, and that's the ugly truth.
SThat's the ugly truth I'm not ready to accept. Hand me the controller. Speaking of which, NBA is hyping a Texas showdown tonight.
ESpurs and Mavs, eight eastern. Stephon Castle is the Spurs' leading scorer at 19 and a half a game.
SSlight correction on the hype: his average is real, but he scored 15 in the last game. The 24-point opener is doing a lot of work for that average.
ESo he's human. Nineteen and a half as a rookie is still absurd.
SNo argument. And this is the kind of game people actually watch. Two Texas teams, a young star, and nobody's tanking yet.
EThe early season optimism is real. Everyone's got a playoff shot in their head.
SMeanwhile, college football is giving us a Black Mirror episode, apparently.
EWhat's the post?
SOne Tigers fan says BYU versus UCF and Tennessee versus South Carolina is literally Black Mirror right now.
EThat's the most college football sentence ever written. Two games, zero context, maximum dread.
SAnd that's the whole post. No explanation, just a statement of despair.
EI respect it. You don't earn a Saturday night rant by explaining yourself.
SEspecially not on the internet. That's the rule.