Our politics are shaped in many ways. Loss of employment might shift your feelings on labor politics. Moving to a walkable city might make you a public transit radical. Or, in the case of indie developer Rakuel, you might start dating a girl who helps you realize your game's AI-generated art is a moral evil that should be destroyed for the good of society.
Laine explains that he used generative AI for Hardest's development "because in university there is so much brainwashing on students and all the tools are given for free."
"But I have realized the AI is not actually free, and it has a major effect on the economy and environment," Laine says. His game's mere existence, he says, could be used to help justify investment in AI companies—companies that he says "benefit no one, but rather suck resources from the economy and hard working [sic] people."
Laine says he coded the game himself, and can rerelease it at a later point using original assets. Until then, he says "the game existing in its current form is a disgrace to all game makers and players."
The ideological shift motivating his noble sacrifice, Laine explains, didn't occur on its own.
"The girl I've been dating for a month made me realize this," he says.
Whatever your AI persuasion, you can't fault her initiative.
That AI art didn't seem to do Hardest any favors; since its July release, it's only managed a Mixed review rating. But if—despite the admirable efforts of Laine's girlfriend—you're insistent on trying it while it's available, you've got two and a half weeks.
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