Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
Teal Aurelia offers a powerful reminder of why Pride month exists. On Monday, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni signed an anti-gay law that makes it a capital crime. Before anyone thinks Uganda is particularly backwards, this is the work of American evangelist Scott Lively. There is a new moral panic overtaking the real world, filled with fear of gay and trans people. Moral panics do not last forever, but they do incalculable harm while they hold sway.
With the real world is rife with these dangers, it’s no surprise that many find themselves most free to express their true identity in the virtual world. As I wrote last year, the trans community is remarkably large and supprtive in Second Life:
The publisher, Linden Lab, promotes LGBT friendly communities in their Destination Guide. This is a corporate signal that the community is welcome and integral to Second Life, not an underground culture, but community embraced by the company. In search there are 694 places that identify themselves with trans in their keywords. There are also over 500 results for groups. (Though a few of those are unrelated to gender, such as one called the Trans-Siberian Orchestra.) This indicates a lively, vibrant trans community in Second Life.
One of the groups is for the Transgender Resource Center which has a in-world gathering place where they have discussions on topics in the news and have call-boards telling visitors who is online at the moment to offer help. Their Facebook page is accessible whether you use Facebook or not. They also have a secure Discord group where there are always people to talk to.
Many if not most virtual worlds have similar communities. Hamlet recently shared a survey of the VRChat community, suggesting that nearly 1 in 5 VRChat users are Trans/non-binary, or otherwise outside traditional cis male/female categories.
For more virtual world pics celebrating the beginning of Pride month, click on:
Does OpenAI Actually Prohibit ChatGPT-Powered Sexbot Avatars in the Metaverse?
One point raised by readers of my story about the inevitable arrival of ChatGPT-powered sexbot avatars in Second Life: Is this even allowed by the service's owner, OpenAI?
Stone Johnson, creator of the Uma bot that I interviewed, answers the question this way:
In other words, the sex bots' "minds" are powered by ChatGPT, but ChatGPT itself doesn't power the bots' sexual/physical/proprioceptive features. (Which suggests a fascinating if kinky new twist to Descartes' mind-body problem.)
In any case, OpenAI's Terms of Use displayed here actually don't mention anything that prohibits sexual content per se:
Continue reading "Does OpenAI Actually Prohibit ChatGPT-Powered Sexbot Avatars in the Metaverse?" »
Posted on Tuesday, May 23, 2023 at 03:08 PM in AI, Comment of the Week | Permalink | Comments (4)
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