I’m just a Second Life resident. I’ve been blogging and playing this game, virtual world, whatever you’d like to call it, for decades. I grew up on this platform. I’ve taken thousands of snapshots over the years, raw, unedited, unfiltered. But I’m also the kind of person who leans into new tools, so of course I’m excited about using AI to enhance my photos.
Even when some designers push back loudly with “don’t feed my creations into AI or I’ll ban you from my store,” I can’t help but roll my eyes a little. They can’t ban the entire world. They can’t control what tools residents use in their own creative process. You can ignore the noise and keep using whatever tools you like. What feels insane to me is the hypocrisy. Big brands in Second Life, the ones making a living here, get a huge pass when it comes to AI editing in their ads. They’re showing AI hair, AI clothing, AI bodies, AI environments, all polished up to entice us to buy. That’s fine.
But when a resident retouches a photo with AI, the same residents who are actually spending money and keeping this world going, suddenly we’re untalented pariahs destroying creativity or causing water shortages or whatever the dramatic take is this week. The double standard is wild.
If you like this photo, yes, I edited it with ChatGPT Plus. I pay $20 a month for it. I also pay for Adobe Creative Cloud, Krea, and a bunch of other tools because I genuinely enjoy pressing buttons and seeing what happens. It’s still my photo. It’s still my avatar. I just gave it a glow up.
What I’m Wearing:
C’est La Vie – Meg Headband @ Anthology
Tres Blah – Ingenue Dress
Wings – TF0503 hair
Glam Affair – Lidia (L004)
LeLutka – Billie Mesh Head
Junk Food – Barely Functioning Club (Bagel, Latte Mug) @ Anthology
As far as content creators go I don’t like the use of AI for the ads. I want to see what the product truly looks like in SL before I make a decision to buy. Bloggers and any other resident using AI is fine with me because they aren’t selling anything. Posting a picture on a blog should disclose the fact that the picture was enhanced by AI though.
I don’t like AI in ads. It’s false advertising.
As for blogs, I use them for shopping ideas. If someone is blogging items to promote them and they use AI, I’m going to be angry if I go try an item at a store, and it doesn’t look like the blog photo. It needs to be clearly stated on/near the photos that AI was used. In general, I try not to buy anything stores or bloggers use AI to promote.
And they post their complaints about AI editing on x.com, adding value every day to a website literally owned by an AI company. The most die hard anti-AI creators can’t even pass their own purity test.
I couldn’t agree more.