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One of generative AIs earliest applications remains among its most controversial: AI art. Its proponents celebrate the chance to create the images in their head, no time or traditional skills necessary. Its critics argue that AI images lack the soul of human-made art, steal the work of other artists without permission, and take opportunities away from working artists. AI-generated art often draws ridicule across social media, whether its being used for advertising, like Guccis recent series of AI-generated posts, or in the fine art world, like the immersive AI-generated works of Refik Anadol, which caught flak on X last week after being featured on 60 Minutes. (This is not an artist. He makes screensavers, one user wrote.) But there are internet forums where AI art enthusiasts can celebrate their passion free of ridiculeor at least know that there will be people in their corner to back them up. On the sister subreddits r/DefendingAIArt and r/AIWars, AI art lovers are encouraged to post freely about their controversial hobby (and talk trash right back at their critics). Though the two subreddits espouse similar philosophies on AI art, r/AIWars encourages debate between the tech’s supporters (known as “pro’s”), and its critics (known as “anti’s”). Meanwhile, r/DefendingAIArt flat-out bans debate. One of the latter subreddit’s pinned posts is a compendium of court cases where AI copyright claims were dismissed. Another is an infographic arguing that AI art isnt copying the work of other artists: Training an AI off the work of another artist, it says, is like looking at someones finished work and learning. You look at other peoples work all day, and learn from them for free, the post continues. Theres nothing wrong with that. you've probably seen this image before but try spreading it around as much as you can, it may not change anyone's mind but it'll at least have a chance of take down the most danming accusation in people's minds byu/GlitteringTone6425 inDefendingAIArt r/DefendingAIArt isnt a space for AI artists to share their work, but a place to speak Pro-AI thoughts freely, per the subs rules. The most upvoted posts of all time include gotcha moments of tricking anti-AI folks into thinking human-made art is AI-generated; callouts of the other sides apparent hypocrisy; and, naturally, memes about not caring where a piece of art came from. Every comment section is entirely free of argument. For that, Redditors are redirected to r/AIWars, where debate reigns supreme. On r/AIWars, posts are designed to be picked apart and argued into oblivion. There are examples of AI clearly plagiarizing copyrighted works, like generating an image of Sonic when asked for a blue hedgehog videogame character. And there are real-world legal and moral dilemmas, like the ethics of a vendor being banned from a convention for selling AI-generated artwork. Some posts simply argue to let everyone make art however they please, without deriding it as AI slop or, as the subreddits users satirically call traditional art, pencilslop. While comment sections on some social media platforms have been dominated by AIs critics, r/AIWars user base seems to be closer to a 50/50 split. That might make sense: Reddit has always been a place for niche fandoms and communities to connect, and in the age of AI, that includes the folks who love to fight about it.
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E-Commerce
Hopefully you never find yourself left behind by a partner while hiking a mountain or abandoned in the woods. If you do, you might be a victim of an alpine divorce. The phrase has gained traction on social media in recent weeks following news of a climbers guilty verdict after he left his girlfriend behind on a hike, where she froze to death on Austrias highest mountain. The phrase is said to have originated from the 1893 short story An Alpine Divorce by Robert Barr, in which an unhappy husband plots to kill his wife by pushing her off a mountain during a trip to the Swiss Alps. Across platforms like TikTok and X, women have started sharing their own stories of times they were allegedly left behind to fend for themselves by partners during hikes. @lillystuffle #fyp #xyzbca original sound – WavingCandle461 One TikTok creator posted a short clip of herself walking along a mountain trail earlier this month. In the clip, she is audibly upset. POV: you go on a hike with him in the mountains but he leaves you alone by yourself and you realize he never liked you to begin with, she wrote in the videos text overlay. Her video has since gone viral, with over 19 million views. @everafteriya #venting levitation – Aaron Hibell & Felsmann + Tiley The comments section is filled with similar stories from other users. My boyfriend did this to me. I found another hiker to show me how to get back then I went home and blocked his number, one wrote. “This happened to me in Joshua tree on a day when it was 100+ degrees outside,” another wrote. “My ex husband left me and took the backpack with water and snacks. I thought hed come back but nope. Finally found my way back to the car and he was chilling in the front seat with the AC on. Needless to say were divorced.” While many of the stories are unverified personal accounts, the recent surge in attention has also served as a grim reminder of the real-life case that echoes the tropes dark origins. Thomas Plamberger, 37, was found guilty of gross negligent manslaughter over the death of his 33-year-old girlfriend, Kerstin Gurtner. He was given a suspended sentence of five months in prison and fined 9,600 euros (about $11,300). In January 2025, the two hiked up Grossglockner, Austrias highest mountain. After Gurtner became exhausted, Plamberger abandoned her roughly 50 meters from the summit in freezing, high-wind conditions and without an emergency blanket. She later died of hypothermia. During the course of the trial, an ex-girlfriend of Plambergers came forward and testified that he had also left her alone on a night hike on Grossglockner a few years earlier. “Once we descended the Glockner at night, and suddenly he was gone,” she reportedly said. “I felt dizzy, I screamed, and I was completely alone. From then on, we didnt go on any more hikes together.”
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E-Commerce
On Thursday, Block CEO Jack Dorsey announced that his fintech company, which owns Square and Cash App, would be laying off a whopping 40% of its workforce, slashing over 4,000 jobs. Despite a strong year in 2025, Dorseylike many of his tech executive peersbelieves AI will enable greater efficiency with far fewer workers. Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a company, he wrote in a letter to shareholders. We’re already seeing it internally. A significantly smaller team, using the tools we’re building, can do more and do it better. A number of business leaders have seemingly used AI as a smokescreen for layoffs, but Dorsey has explicitly attributed the job cuts at Block to intelligence, which he claims will be at the core of how the entire company works. Dorsey attempted to explain his decision in a memo to employees, which he shared publicly on X (also known as Twitter, the company Dorsey once cofounded). I had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now, he wrote. I chose the latter. Repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead. (Block has, in fact, been laying off employees in waves this month, according to multiple reports.) Dorsey insisted the company would not just disappear people from slack and email and pretend they were never here, and that he would host a live video session to thank employees for their work. I know doing it this way might feel awkward, he wrote. I’d rather it feel awkward and human than efficient and cold. Read Dorseys post in full below: today we’re making one of the hardest decisions in the history of our company: we’re reducing our organization by nearly half, from over 10,000 people to just under 6,000. that means over 4,000 of you are being asked to leave or entering into consultation. i’ll be straight about what’s happening, why, and what it means for everyone. first off, if you’re one of the people affected, you’ll receive your salary for 20 weeks + 1 week per year of tenure, equity vested through the end of may, 6 months of health care, your corporate devices, and $5,000 to put toward whatever you need to help you in this transition (if youre outside the U.S. youll receive similar support but exact details are going to vary based on local requirements). i want you to know that before anything else. everyone will be notified today, whether you’re being asked to leave, entering consultation, or asked to stay. we’re not making this decision because we’re in trouble. our business is strong. gross profit continues to grow, we continue to serve more and more customers, and profitability is improving. but something has changed. we’re already seeing that the intelligence tools were creating and using, paired with smaller and flatter teams, are enabling a new way of working which fundamentally changes what it means to build and run a company. and that’s accelerating rapidly. i had two options: cut gradually over months or years as this shift plays out, or be honest about where we are and act on it now. i chose the latter. repeated rounds of cuts are destructive to morale, to focus, and to the trust that customers and shareholders place in our ability to lead. i’d rather take a hard, clear action now and build from a position we believe in than manage a slow reduction of people toward the same outcome. a smaller company also gives us the space to grow our business the right way, on our own terms, instead of constantly reacting to market pressures. a decision at this scale carries risk. but so does standing still. we’ve done a full review to determine the roles and people we require to reliably grow the business from here, and we’ve pressure-tested those decisions from multiple angles. i accept that we may have gotten some of them wrong, and we’ve built in flexibility to account for that, and do the right thing for our customers. we’re not going to just disappear people from slack and email and pretend they were never here. communication channels will stay open through thursday evening (pacific) so everyone can say goodbye properly, and share whatever you wish. i’ll also be hosting a live video session to thank everyone at 3:35pm pacific. i know doing it this way might feel awkward. i’d rather it feel awkward and human than efficient and cold. to those of you leavingim grateful for you, and im sorry to put you through this. you built what this company is today. that’s a fact that i’ll honor forever. this decision is not a reflection of what you contributed. you will be a great contributor to any organization going forward. to those stayingi made this decision, and i’ll own it. what i’m asking of you is to build with me. we’re going to build this company with intelligence at the core of everything we do. how we work, how we create, how we serve our customers. our customers will feel this shift too, and we’re going to help them navigate it: towards a future where they can build their own features directly, composed of our capabilities and served through our interfaces. that’s what i’m focused on now. expect a note from me tomorrow. jack
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E-Commerce
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