New World Notes

AI Is Either Something Second Life Can Learn to Live With -- Or Will Destroy the Virtual World Economy as We Know It (Comments of the Week)

The fact that these two reader comments on my post about Philip Rosedale's promised Town Hall on AI are right on top of each other is a good indication of how divisive the topic is.

First up, from Tami, making the case that gen AI is something we can live with in Second Life:

AI won't go away, as much as I'd wish it would, I know that it is here to stay. So, let's try and focus on AI as a complement, a supplement, or a tool that benefits SL. For example, instead of AI-generated clothing, let's have AI as a tool to help clothing designers realize their visions when they run into technical hurdles and issues.

Yes, I know that this idea can be abused, so the issue isn't "how to use AI" but on "how to prevent AI from usurping humans" in SL. In some ways, the past methods of creating content for years, learning over time to become better creators, are in danger. Can we stop AI from short-circuiting that process -- probably not. So, what can we do do to prevent AI from taking over the content creation market?

Perhaps, we can't stop AI, so maybe the answer is to make it easier to use. Instead of everyone buying things on the marketplace, anyone and everyone can create their own magical world filled with things they used AI to create. Instead of SL being driven by the economy, it can be driven by creativity using AI to make the dreams come true. SL doesn't have to be RL and moving away from economic models and wealth isn't necessarily a bad thing. It's change, and SL is well know for its resiliency with regard to change.

I don't want AI, but I will use it to make SL better if that is my only choice.

And now here's Riannah, making an opposite case:

Monday Metaverse Media Partner & Patreon Subscriber Thanks!

Monday shout-out to all the virtual world brands who help make New World Notes and my Patreon possible, Please consider checking out their offerings online or in-world:

The Virtual Worlds Museum, the largest online community and resource devoted to virtual worlds.

Dutchie, creator of fine Second Life home decor with custom animations for all rating levels and roleplay styles!

Dream Seeker Estates, offering SL living spaces with competitive rates, and 24/7 English, Spanish & Dutch support.

ADD, creator of sexy SL styles you want to wear -- direct teleport to their mainstore here.

Intellivision: How a Videogame System Battled Atari and Almost Bankrupted Barbie®, the latest book from Tom Boellstorff, author of "Coming of Age in Second Life".

Meow Meow, an SL flower shop for all occasions -- direct teleport to their mainstore here.

Virtual Museum Team -- click to visit its five museums in SL!

Rapture, offering original SL mesh fashion since 2014.

SECOND LIFE: The First, Best Metaverse in Words and Pictures.

Much metaverse mahalo to them all. And please consider subscribing at the Supporter level or above to joinb this proud list of backers!

Top 5 Posts Including: Why I Don't Want My Metaverse Book Fed Into an LLM, and Do SL Avatars Dream of Electric Sheep?

• This YouTube Creator Shoots Uniquely Beautiful Second Life Vibe Machinima -- and Has a Uniquely Powerful Reason for Doing So
• Will Second Life Users Need to Take a Voight-Kampff Test? Philip Rosedale Promises Town Hall on Controversial Uses of A.I. in Second Life
• Here's Why I Don't Want My Book About the Metaverse Fed Into an LLM
• New Flickr Group Showcases The Most Realistic Second Life Screenshots
• Metaverse Platforms Need to Appeal Beyond Their Core Player Community, or Face Slow Death

New on My Patreon: Second Life App Hits 300,000 Downloads, Partly for Hilarious Reasons

Just posted about a mini-milestone for the Second Life mobile app with a fairly hilarious twist -- join my Patreon for free to read that and much more!

And while you're there, please consider subscribing for special benefits, including New World Notes ads for virtual world brands.

This YouTube Creator Shoots Uniquely Beautiful Second Life Vibe Machinima -- and Has a Uniquely Powerful Reason for Doing So

The Second Life machinima of Garbage Princess are fairly lovely and unique -- beautifully shot, vibey, long-form videos set in gorgeous SL sims. They're the kind of thing you want to broadcast on your TV while cooking in the kitchen, or perhaps imbibing on your favorite chill out substance. (Here's the first one in the Sim Vibe series -- and click through for the SLurl to each featured location.)

Also unique is how they incorporate music and ambient sound, elements that usually go ignored in SL machinima.

"I do it in real life too when I enter a room," she explains. "I hear every sound. To me that was music. I had a blind friend in middle school. She showed me how to hear a room. Entering a place, tingles all five senses.  My brain just instantly puts music and sound to bring the rooms to life."

At first she shot videos of beautiful sims that were empty of users (her "Dead" series). "But every time I would go back the sim would be gone."

So she changed her focus to showcase these sims in perpetuity.

"I just use my random teleporter and sometimes land in some amazing spots.  Everybody and everything puts off a vibe."

Speaking of perpetuity, her reason for creating and uploading these videos is also unique:

Cajsa's Choices: This Amazing Artist Explores Second Life from a Cat's Point of View

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Faringdon is, I believe, a cat. Most of their Flickr images (and their Flickr profile pic) are of a Siamese pic in Second Life, exploring and photographing themselves in the virtual world. 

Everyone knows cats love books, even on a Kindle. Though, I confess my cat has a love/hate relationship with my Kindle. When I am reading, it is an impediment to receiving 100% of my attention and she often tries to insert herself between me and the Kindle. When it is laying down on the end table, though, she lovingly chews on its corners and lays on it, keeping it as hidden as she can make it. I love the titles of these books, so very to the point. 

For more from Faringdon, click here:

Will Second Life Users Need to Take a Voight-Kampff Test? Philip Rosedale Promises Town Hall on Controversial Uses of A.I. in Second Life

I love when a classic science fiction concept becomes a practical reference point in current technology, and that happened during the most recent Town Hall in Second Life, when a user challenged Linden Lab CTO Philip Rosedale over his excitement around A.I., most recently seen with the company's partnership launch of AI-powered NPCs in SL.

Asking: "Look, I understand that Philip loves his A.I. and thinks it's the future, but I don't understand the insane push and force it in Second Life. Will AI rally around a creator when their pet is sick? Will AI support people when their parent dies? What do you have to say to that?"

Here's Philip's answer in full, replete with that perfect Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep reference:

Here's Why I Don't Want My Book About the Metaverse Fed Into an LLM

Meta pirated millions of books to train its AI, the Atlantic recently reported, including mine. There's even a helpful look-up tool here to find if your favorite author is in Meta's training set, which is where I got the screenshot above.

I'm not sure how I'll protest, but it does bring up a related topic I've been thinking about lately:

Does it even make sense to feed my latest book into an LLM?

I’ve had friends / colleagues ask me something like that in recent years: “How about we upload your book into an LLM, so everyone can easily ask anything about it?”

For instance, as the head of an AI company put it to me, explaining how this can be done:

"I worked on a project where we hook near a petabyte of data to a LLM that just looped through doing research on authors of Gutenberg books. Then we turned the books into interactive books read by the authors own voice/style.” 

My immediate answer to the idea is on the order of: “Hmm, no that’s OK.” 

My more thoughtful, considerate answer is: “Fuck no I mean holy shit that’s not even how my book works. Jesus.”

In case you’re curious -- and the question keeps coming up, so I guess some people are  -- let me explain with more details and less cursing, specifically around Making a Metaverse That Matters:  

Cajsa's Choices: The Vivid, Virtual Nature Photographs of Miranda Siabonne

Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting

Miranda Siabonne recently posted “❤️” which is well-named because ❤️ describes how I felt when I saw it. I have a soft spot in my heart for clotheslines. Sure, you have to duck if you’re riding your bike on the lawn, but if you have ever taken in sheets from the line you know what fresh smells like. 

Slipping into clean sheets that have dried in the open air is an unforgettable feeling. Sure, the fabric is not as soft, but it more than makes up for it with the fresh scent. I noticed the hand-cranked clothes wringer. My sister had a new washer and dryer and still used the old fashioned one with open tubs and a wringer, though her wringer was not hand-cranked. It would have been safer if it has been.  My job was to take the clothes off the wringer while she fed them in. Feeding the wringer was no fun because you’re bound to get your fingers pinched a time or two. 

I also love the abundance of vines, bushes, and flowers and the uncut grass. This is a yard for butterflies and other insects to feed and proliferate. Restoring the world! 

For more virtual natural beauty from Miranda, click here:

Want to Play a Free Alpha Preview of "Stay: Forever Home", the Upcoming AI Pet Sim for Quest?

Unlike the Convai-powered human NPCs we were recently discussing, AI-powered animals are far more interesting, believable, and frankly, appealingly un-creepy. So if you're interested in the best and latest in AI-driven virtual creatures, here's a chance to get a free Alpha preview of Stay: Forever Home, an upcoming mixed reality game for Quest headsets where you go on adventures with Ember, a magical, multi-color dawg imbued with its own unique life. (Watch some gameplay footage above.)

Click here to request early Alpha access to Stay: Forever Home.

Lead developed by game industry veteran Bernie Yee, the game promises much more than caring for a simple virtual pet.

Ember comes, Bernie tells me, with "a personality axis, multiple quirks and preferences, biological state."

Ember's AI code, he explains, "was taken from Sims AI and LMNO, the secret Spielberg game which didn't ship." In that defunct project backed by Steven Spielberg, a player would have escorted an alien creature called Eve across the country. So Ember's soul, so to speak, is distinctly Spielbergian.

"You add the AI into the mix with a dynamic environment and other (dumber) critters, it's pretty magic," says Bernie. "There was a build I played, a month ago, pre-DICE. i choked up because she felt so alive. So much of this is ALSO procedural animation, so it doesn't look like she's replaying animation timelines robotically."

Exploring a virtual world with Ember leads to some interesting emergent gameplay: