AI being used in SL product ads-your thoughts?

[Modulated]

This has been going on for a bit but it is really starting to become more prevalent it seems. What do you think about it? Deceptive advertising or nah? And please remember, we cannot 'name and shame' creators, it's not allowed.

[Arielle Popstar]

2 minutes ago, Modulated said:

This has been going on for a bit but it is really starting to become more prevalent it seems. What do you think about it? Deceptive advertising or nah? And please remember, we cannot 'name and shame' creators, it's not allowed.

How about a name to promote? I'd honestly be interested in an ai skin if it mimics the look I see on some ai models.

[Istelathis]

It doesn't bother me if image manipulation is done by hand, environmental effects, lighting, or AI.  

This is definitely not what I get when I order one.  This is just how ads work, they put on the best image using the best means possible.  That lettuce, those pickles, the sauce, cheese, patties, and bun are all probably fake.  Even every sesame seed was probably put on the bun specifically for the display, and had a small team of people approving it (move that one seed a centimeter to the left!).

 

 

Of course, we all have ourselves to blame.  If people put up images of what they were selling without a little manipulation, then they would lose out on business because most of us will go for the better looking thing.  AI is the newest tool in the shed for the job, it doesn't bother me anymore than using a fake big mac in ads.  I do think the general distrust and dislike of AI will have people upset at it even more though, but to me, this is just more of the same.

 

Edit:
Even the shadow seems to be fake, lol.

Edited June 18 by Istelathis

[Ceka Cianci]

I've already talked about this a couple of weeks ago in the peeve thread..

If they don't have the confidence in their own work to show it in their ads, then why should I take the time to try it?

I just bypass them for the most part.

It's deceptive in my eyes really.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

22 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

How about a name to promote? I'd honestly be interested in an ai skin if it mimics the look I see on some ai models.

It might be possible to produce a skin using a much more sophisticated form of AI than most people are now using, but I suspect it would be pretty pointless.

Skins are fairly detailed and photo-realistic now -- at least within the bounds permitted by a 1024x1024 texture. The reason SL skins frequently look rather flat is that LL's graphics are not up to scratch. In particular we need more dynamic forms of lighting, such as subsurface scattering, to make them come more "alive." That can't be baked into the materials.

The problem with AI-enhanced pics of SL skins is that they are adding this kind of visual effect to the picture, and producing lighting effects that are currently not possible in SL.

[Love Zhaoying]

6 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

It doesn't bother me if image manipulation is done by hand, environmental effects, lighting, or AI.  

This is definitely not what I get when I order one.  This is just how ads work, they put on the best image using the best means possible.  That lettuce, those pickles, the sauce, cheese, patties, and bun are all probably fake.  Even every sesame seed was probably put on the bun specifically for the display, and had a small team of people approving it (move that one seed a centimeter to the left!).

 

 

Of course, we all have ourselves to blame.  If people put up images of what they were selling without a little manipulation, then they would lose out on business because most of us will go for the better looking thing.  AI is the newest tool in the shed for the job, it doesn't bother me anymore than using a fake big mac in ads.  I do think the general distrust and dislike of AI will have people upset at it even more though, but to me, this is just more of the same.

 

Edit:
Even the shadow seems to be fake, lol.

When I viewed this post (on my phone), Norton warned me about an "unsafe site" and wouldn't show me the first picture!

[Coffee Pancake]

1 minute ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

It might be possible to produce a skin using a much more sophisticated form of AI than most people are now using, but I suspect it would be pretty pointless.

Current image processing AI could be easily trained to generate SL skin texture sets from photos of people. It just needs a dataset, a little leg work and some spare compute.

Would be a good project for a student.

 

[Istelathis]

Just now, Love Zhaoying said:

When I viewed this post (on my phone), Norton warned me about an "unsafe site" and wouldn't show me the first picture!

It is hosted on mashed, I'm not really familiar with the site but it seems to be a site about food, it is strange that it would be considered unsafe.  I got the image from a brave search, looking for cheeseburgers.. this one popped up first.

[Codex Alpha]

It's because it works. Many ads, AI or not, and the products with 16 x 1024 textures on them, with only one LOD level, with millions of vertices, professionally rendered or altered in an image program to make them look the absolute best - gets sales.

I've always made my ads in the noonday worst lighting ever. I figure if it looks acceptable there in an average inworld situation, it will look good anywhere. But I'm wrong. ALL the top creators here have highly-polished, 3D rendered images, some are probably now enhanced in detail with AI algorithmns - they don't even have to have a series of pictures, and they are top sellers.

All advertising is deceptive, and their product put in the best light possible - and people buy it. So all of us should do the same.

But then, most of my items are not on par with the top creators, so I need to up my game, so it's not like I can compare ad techniques directly - but their ads certainly look good - whether it is representative of what their creations actually look like or not.

Edited June 18 by Codex Alpha

[Scylla Rhiadra]

2 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Current image processing AI could be easily trained to generate SL skin texture sets from photos of people. It just needs a dataset, a little leg work and some spare compute.

Would be a good project for a student.

 

Would it produce something that looked better in-world though?

Surely not. I can get all sort of wonderful effects into a photo in Photoshop, but I often can't reproduce them in-world using existing tools.

[Love Zhaoying]

4 minutes ago, Istelathis said:

It is hosted on mashed, I'm not really familiar with the site but it seems to be a site about food, it is strange that it would be considered unsafe.  I got the image from a brave search, looking for cheeseburgers.. this one popped up first.

I watch Mashed videos on YT..

Anyway, maybe the picture will show on my PC!

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Codex Alpha said:

It's because it works. Many ads, AI or not, and the products with 16 x 1024 textures on them, with only one LOD level, with millions of vertices, professionally rendered or altered in an image program to make them look the absolute best - gets sales.

I've always made my ads in the noonday worst lighting ever. I figure if it looks acceptable there in an average inworld situation, it will look good anywhere. But I'm wrong. ALL the top creators here have highly-polished, 3D rendered images, some are probably now enhanced in detail with AI algorithmns - they don't even have to have a series of pictures, and they are top sellers.

All advertising is deceptive, and their product put in the best light possible - and people buy it. So all of us should do the same.

I think there's a growing backlash against AI enhancement (and against AI-generated images generally). I'm certainly seeing it on Twitter, and in particular respect to a new photo/blogging platform for SL that asks users to flag AI-enhanced photos.

Done subtly, it might assist with sales, but there are definitely people who will dismiss something that was very obviously enhanced in AI out of hand. I know I'll be initially attracted, and then, a second or two later, recognize it as a con job.

[Codex Alpha]

2 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

I think there's a growing backlash against AI enhancement (and against AI-generated images generally). I'm certainly seeing it on Twitter, and in particular respect to a new photo/blogging platform for SL that asks users to flag AI-enhanced photos.

Done subtly, it might assist with sales, but there are definitely people who will dismiss something that was very obviously enhanced in AI out of hand. I know I'll be initially attracted, and then, a second or two later, recognize it as a con job.

That is true of many products where AI is being used. However the average user might not notice what an experienced artist, musician, illustrator, etc might notice - so those masses consume that product regardless. If one goes for an almost 'honest' approach, I don't really think they win in the long run.

[Love Zhaoying]

2 minutes ago, Codex Alpha said:

That is true of many products where AI is being used. However the average user might not notice what an experienced artist, musician, illustrator, etc might notice -

Might not notice extra fingers and legs?!?

[Modulated]

47 minutes ago, Arielle Popstar said:

How about a name to promote? I'd honestly be interested in an ai skin if it mimics the look I see on some ai models.

I understand what you mean, but even if you used ai to produce a skin within the limits of SL it is not going to look like those ai ads for SL products IMO.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Codex Alpha said:

That is true of many products where AI is being used. However the average user might not notice what an experienced artist, musician, illustrator, etc might notice - so those masses consume that product regardless. If one goes for an almost 'honest' approach, I don't really think they win in the long run.

In general I agree with you. And there is, again, no question that I am initially attracted to an AI-enhanced image. Possibly many consumers don't take the necessary second step of standing back, and asking themselves what is so attractive about the ad?

It would be interesting to get a sense of how often people end up disappointed by purchases (or even demos) as a result -- and whether that might make them less likely to continue to shop at a particular store.

There's also of course the ethical issue, but there's no way to police that. At least, not in SL.

[Coffee Pancake]

13 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Would it produce something that looked better in-world though?

Surely not. I can get all sort of wonderful effects into a photo in Photoshop, but I often can't reproduce them in-world using existing tools.

It would be as good as the data trained on.

The data would be all the best skin textures we have in SL right now.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

1 minute ago, Coffee Pancake said:

It would be as good as the data trained on.

The data would be all the best skin textures we have in SL right now.

Right. So not an actual improvement, then.

[Modulated]

This is the cropped advert, which has no identifying markings....if it's not allowed, please remove, Mods.

[Scylla Rhiadra]

Just now, Modulated said:

This is the cropped advert, which has no identifying markings....if it's not allowed, please remove, Mods.

Yeah, that's either the best skin (and hair) ever produced in SL -- or it's been enhanced beyond recognition.

Look at the neck and collar bone. And the shoulder under the hair.

[Codex Alpha]

6 minutes ago, Modulated said:

This is the cropped advert, which has no identifying markings....if it's not allowed, please remove, Mods.

I think it's fair to leave out store information and merchant names, I've posted images in the past when needed to demonstrate, and we did need examples so we know what you were posting about.

That could even be a simple "Sharpening" algorithm which is pretty good at bringing out the details (from training data). I've experimented with this and resizing old textures I made that may have been 256px in the past and see if they can be revitalized into higher and crisper resolutions.

Edited June 18 by Codex Alpha

[Ceka Cianci]

19 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

In general I agree with you. And there is, again, no question that I am initially attracted to an AI-enhanced image. Possibly many consumers don't take the necessary second step of standing back, and asking themselves what is so attractive about the ad?

It would be interesting to get a sense of how often people end up disappointed by purchases (or even demos) as a result -- and whether that might make them less likely to continue to shop at a particular store.

There's also of course the ethical issue, but there's no way to police that. At least, not in SL.

It used to attract me when they first started doing it.. But now if I even smell AI, I can't get my eyes off it fast enough.. hehehe

[Modulated]

7 minutes ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

Yeah, that's either the best skin (and hair) ever produced in SL -- or it's been enhanced beyond recognition.

Look at the neck and collar bone. And the shoulder under the hair.

If they just included a bit on the image that said enhanced by ai, at least someone wanting to buy this would have a little warning their desired look maybe will not end up like that...because I doubt it would even under the best of circumstances.

[Arielle Popstar]

11 minutes ago, Modulated said:

This is the cropped advert, which has no identifying markings....if it's not allowed, please remove, Mods.

Ok thanks, I remember seeing that advert and didn't realize it was ai though I did think it was really pretty look. I already have a hairstyle like it and would be interested in approximating her face ai or not.

[Ineffable Mote]

Fast food advertising is kind of the epitome of deception, so yeah, deceptive. Not necessarily the use of AI specifically that's the issue, the creators of said advertising can own their intent (not that they will, typically).

Edited June 18 by Ineffable Mote