i cannot believe that we were robbed of this book scene

This is no joke. These are direct lines from the book.

Tolkien is under appreciated for his comedic genius.

@hexadecimal00

Confirming that these are indeed lines from the book:

“The Hobbit” was a story for children and, like most sensible adult storytellers, Tolkien included some stuff to amuse parents who’d be reading it at bedtime. He had a definite sense of humour; it wasn’t ROFL by any means but he certainly didn’t write GrimDark either, because drama and comedy / humour / lightened mood aren’t mutually exclusive.

If you want to see Tolkien’s dry, scholarly wit at its best, check out “Farmer Giles of Ham”, a mock-heroic epic about a mock-epic hero and a distinctly non-heroic dragon. It’s also not ROFL, but the constant self-aware and tongue-in-cheek mockery of The Real Thing should prompt smiles all the way through.

At this point I’m sending a dubious virtual side-eye towards any number of books with “hilarious” and “I couldn’t stop laughing” in their blurbs. Maybe it’s my own sense of humour, which @dduane​ has described as “idiosyncratic” (a compliment, I think…) but very few of them have had that effect on me. Smiles, grins and chuckles, yes, but it takes a direct hit on Just That Button to provoke uncontrollable mirth, especially in public.

(It’s happened, of course, just not every time I’ve read something with a blurb that says I should react that way.)

A book that’s “amusing from beginning to end” is another matter, but something able to cause amusement for the duration of an entire novel doesn’t seem good enough; it has to be all or nothing, and a reader who expects All and doesn’t get it may feel cheated even when they get far more than Nothing.

YMMV…

And even before that, Sturgeon had been talking about this. From James Gunn:

Sturgeon's Law was first laid down at a session of the World Science Fiction Convention in Philadelphia, held over the Labor Day weekend of 1953.

"When people talk about the mystery novel," Ted said, as I remember, "they mention The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep. When they talk about the western, they say there's The Way West and Shane. But when they talk about science fiction, they call it 'that Buck Rogers stuff,' and they say 'ninety percent of science fiction is crud.'

"Well, they're right. Ninety percent of science fiction is crud. But then ninety percent of everything is crud, and it's the ten percent that isn't crud that is important. And the ten percent of science fiction that isn't crud is as good as or better than anything being written anywhere."

Wake up babe new unexplainable horrors dropped

What horrors? The JuMBOs are clearly friends.

Awesome worldbuilding opportunity for science fiction writers! Imagine what kind of life might evolve on such planets, or who might choose to colonize them, and how they'd build survivable habitats to live there (or in orbit around them).

A moon ring // Christian Bennich

Moon rings, or 22° halos, are formed when moonlight (or sunlight) refracts through millions of ice crystals in the atmosphere.

DUNGEON MASTER BRENNAN LEE MULLIGAN ANSWERS DnD QUESTIONS (TECH SUPPORT | WIRED)

this one. fuck this poem.

i wanted to share this not to come off as corrective but because i actually think it really adds to the text to know that not only is it not from a poem, but that there’s a fuller version of this quote that is just as good. and it’s actually really good advice on how to a write emotion without becoming sentimental. james hall, the interviewer, is himself a poet worth looking into if you’re unfamiliar.

James Hall: I love that you risk sentimentality in the poems. Can you talk about how you construct a poem’s emotion without letting that emotion subsume the poem? What tools are available to a poet to mitigate emotion successfully?

Richard Siken: I didn’t see it as risking anything, and I suppose the tool for mitigating emotion is undercutting, but I’ll try to answer the question sideways: Even if you don’t believe in God, you have to believe in narrative. Things happen, one after another, world without end. Just because you’re self-aware doesn’t mean you can change what’s happening. Eventually someone is going to break your heart. Eventually something you love is going to be taken away. And then you will fall to the floor crying. And then, however much later, it is finally happening to you: you’re falling to the floor crying thinking “I am falling to the floor crying” but there’s an element of the ridiculous to it—you knew it would happen and, even worse, while you’re on the floor crying you look at the place where the wall meets the floor and you realize you didn’t paint it very well and when you’re having sex with your next lover on this very floor they will also notice that you didn’t paint it very well and they will think less of you for it. And then you think “Is that sentence too long?” And then you have to hold the  contradictions of sobbing uncontrollably and wondering about grammar in your head at the same time. I think if you are true to the entire experience, not just the sad part, you don’t risk sentimentality because you’re not overloading the experience with fake, melodramatic feeling. I also hear that whispering helps.

here’s to everyone who looked for this in crush and was confused because it isn’t there. the original interview is kind of hard to source nowadays because of how often it’s misattributed: https://web.archive.org/web/20060501211545/http://www.gulfcoastmag.org/GCIssues/gc18.1%20folder/18.1%20Samples/18.1IntSiken(Hall).html

On January 7, 1610, the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei discovered three of Jupiter's moons: Callisto, Europa and Io.

Besides Earth's moon, these were the first natural satellites anyone had ever seen in the solar system.

Observing them over several nights, Galileo noticed they appeared to move in the wrong direction with regard to the background stars, and that they remained near Jupiter, and that also they changed positions relative to one another:

He later observed a fourth "star" near the planet that exhibited the same unusual behavior - Ganymede, which turned out to be the largest moon in our Solar System, bigger even than the planets Mercury and Pluto.

^ and here they are, as imaged by NASA

By January 15, Galileo concluded these objects were not stars but moons orbiting Jupiter, providing strong evidence for the Copernican theory that most celestial objects do not revolve around Earth.

2026 January 7

Simeis 147: The Spaghetti Nebula Supernova Remnant Image Credit & Copyright: Saverio Ferretti

Explanation: Its popular nickname is the Spaghetti Nebula. Officially cataloged as Simeis 147 and Sharpless 2-240, it is easy to get lost following the looping and twisting filaments of this intricate supernova remnant. Seen toward the boundary of the constellations of the Bull (Taurus) and the Charioteer (Auriga), the impressive gas structure covers nearly 3 degrees on the sky, equivalent to 6 full moons. That’s about 150 light-years at the stellar debris cloud’s estimated distance of 3,000 light-years. The supernova remnant has an estimated age of about 40,000 years, meaning light from this powerful stellar explosion first reached the Earth when woolly mammoths roamed free. Besides the expanding remnant, this cosmic catastrophe left behind a pulsar, a fast-spinning neutron star that is the remnant of the original star’s core. The featured image was captured last month from Forca Canapine, Italy.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260107.html

2026 January 2

NanoSail-D2 Image Credit & Copyright: Ralf Vandebergh

Explanation: In 2011, on January 20, NASA’s NanoSail-D2 unfurled a very thin and very reflective 10 square meter sail becoming the first solar sail spacecraft in low Earth orbit. Often considered the stuff of science fiction, sailing through space was suggested 400 years ago by astronomer Johannes Kepler, who had observed comet tails blown by the solar wind. But modern solar sail spacecraft designs, like NanoSail-D2, Japan’s interplanetary spacecraft IKAROS, or the Planetary Society’s Lightsail A, rely on the small but continuous pressure from sunlight itself for thrust. Glinting in the sunlight as it circled planet Earth, NanoSail-D2’s solar sail was periodically bright and visible to the eye. These remarkably detailed images were captured by manually tracking the orbiting solar sail spacecraft with a small telescope.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260102.html

2025 September 14

Planets of the Solar System: Tilts and Spins Video Credit: NASA, Animation: James O'Donoghue (U. Reading)

Explanation: How does your favorite planet spin? Does it spin rapidly around a nearly vertical axis, or horizontally, or backwards? The featured video animates NASA images of all eight planets in our Solar System to show them spinning side-by-side for an easy comparison. In the time-lapse video, a day on Earth – one Earth rotation – takes just a few seconds. Jupiter rotates the fastest, while Venus spins not only the slowest (can you see it?), but backwards. The inner rocky planets across the top underwent dramatic spin-altering collisions during the early days of the Solar System. Why planets spin and tilt as they do remains a topic of research with much insight gained from modern computer modeling and the recent discovery and analysis of hundreds of exoplanets: planets orbiting other stars.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250914.html

The superb sci-fi concept designs and sketches of Mark Zhang - https://www.this-is-cool.co.uk/the-superb-sci-fi-designs-and-sketches-of-mark-zhang/

The Robot Who Looked Like Me, from Cosmopolitan Magazine by Dick Ellescas (Nov. 1973)

A Cyborg Manifesto, Donna Haraway

Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto" is a fascinating bridge between mainstream academia and science fiction studies - recommended reading, especially for this moment in history.

Sci-fi short stories are so efficient; they take 15 minutes to read and then you think about them for the next 5 years

Hey guys, what if *puts the most horrifying mindblowing concept into your head with about 15 pages*

A team of astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope studied a starless, gas-rich, dark-matter cloud and found it to be a new type of astronomical object—a failed galaxy that never produced stars. Nicknamed Cloud-9, it is a fossil remnant from the early days of the universe.

Scientists have long sought evidence of such a phantom object. But only when they turned Hubble’s sharp vision toward Cloud-9 could they confirm its starless nature—a finding that furthers the understanding of galaxy formation, the early universe, and the nature of dark matter itself: https://news.stsci.edu/4bdj2Ov

More on the discovery:

(OP's link doesn't work for us.)

GenAI v. not GenAI round up.

So you can avoid them stealing things from you, the artist/writer, etc.

Note: The list has gotten so long that I had to reorganize. (Thanks for the suggestions.) I UXed it best I could. I'm updating the best I can as notes come in. As such, I'm adding an update date since Tumblr doesn't update the old blogs with the newer version.

Update: US time. January 3rd Change log: I moved down Paint Tool Sai to the I don't know section with additional notes. The questions about adding "It's Japanese UX, so it's clean" I linked a post for that. The other programs listed in hashtags I considered, but the list is long, they aren't that well populated, and some of the Anti-AI statements are purposefully murky which read like, "We want to do it anyway." I'm trying to prioritize the better/more well-known/good UX websites/programs. Murky Anti-AI stances don't make them anti-AI. Such as, We are anti-AI, but are integrating an AI tool.

Additional Note: GenAI, an algorithm and AI tools aren't the same.

GenAI requires vast servers to constantly run 24-7, kicking up harmful fumes which are killing people, absorbing hospital energy, vast amounts of water, and generally killing the planet using data stolen from real people. This is bad. (links at the bottom)

Algorithms I've gone into detail before what they are and how they work on my post about Why Spell Check is not GenAI. Click the link. Too long for here.

AI tools run on your computer and are programmed using your power, not external servers. It depends on your RAM. It's not taken with stolen data from other users. Things like Gaussian Blur, etc might borderline be considered AI to some people (though not really) and things like smart tools (smart lasso), but this is not equal to GenAI in an ethics violation. So environmental impact depends on where you live, but certainly isn't purposefully giving other people cancer because they want a picture of Miyazaki-style selfie of themselves while totally being ignorant of the meaning of Miyazaki's films making people want to bash them over the head with a clue stick. These tools CAN run on large servers, but most scientists aren't running say, how to find the next prime number on vast huge servers in poor communities. GenAI, which is being used for cancer cure stuff, etc is in poor communities. Chess AI is run locally on your computer, but doesn't have as huge ethics issues. Tools the save time, but don't kill people isn't an ethics problem.

As such this focuses on GenAI, itself and the servers it runs on being an ethical violation on so many fronts.

Pro AI counts as their user's data in and data out. All companies that are willing to sell their customer's data for AI falls here. Gross support of GenAI, saying GenAI is the future, screw the poor people, goes here. GenAI added to the program belongs here.

Neutral counts as No Data into GenAI or an easy opt out, but doesn't protect against AI content of any kind. Sliding scale for how much of each. I try to tell you by how much with links. Also some not sure or no clear Anti-statement. (Say Celtx who was threatening to go Pro-genAI, the strike happened and then they went silent on the issue... I'm wary of them.)

Anti AI counts as no data into AI no GenAI machine. If there is an anti-AI comment I can access then I'll link it.

Pro GenAI websites/Programs:

Social Media

Writing

Re: Grammar Programs

BTW, I'm firm on the idea that grammar programs are really racist. So asking about grammar programs to replace Grammarly, will always be met with, use your own brain. If you want a long linguistics reasoning for this, or my long rants about Google Docs being too Texas-based on its grammar corrections, I can give it, but you wouldn't give a shit anyway. I know English is a fucked up language—I struggled through learning the illogical of it. I've said as much, but you know what you can do to get around that? Ask another human. Rely on the community around you to teach the rules instead of a machine and you'll maybe make some friends along the way. If you think this is cruel to actually be asked to interact with the writing community, and other humans, I would think more about what stances you are taking that you are that afraid of other humans. You shouldn't be using crutches for life and the best of grammar programs are also wrong.

So it goes like this, originally Nanowrimo crashed out over GenAI because of ProWritingAid. Then Novlr SWORE they were anti-AI. Then they decided to backstab everyone and INTEGRATE ProWritingAid when got its data from GenAI. Not all grammar programs use AI as I've delineated before, but this one uses stolen data and their TOS is very murky. In case of total ignorance, I pointed this out to Novlr on Blue Sky (because what's the point of lecturing when you don't take action yourself?) They tried to back that it was integration only and would not correct either the claim that theirs was the first program to be made by a writer (As I said, I fact checked this and the creator of Scrivener was also writer first, a programmer second. And then Ywriter was on its heels soon after and blatantly said they were a writer when they created it).

Lifting open projects on grammar isn't that difficult since word processors are one of the first programs to be made. So making a grammar integration isn't that difficult, especially one without GenAI and LLMs attached. But they continue to blatantly support ProWritingAid. This makes them pro-GenAI.

They KNOW that ProWritingAid is pro GenAI and that Nannowrimo crashed out over it, 100% because I told them so. And then they doubled down. I would say this makes them shady at best and pro-GenAI. When they kick out ProWritingAid they can be anti again. In this case they are fat-faced lying their butts off on two counts and continuing to do so even after being notified. If a company lies while doing the thing they swear they aren't doing while making false claims, should you trust them? I say no.

Art

Sites

Art Programs (Raster, and Vector)+ Suites

After version 2, do not download or buy. It's likely to use GenAI and is giving Canva profit. Right now it's borderline because it's a moral panic of if you want to give Canva profit.

My review for Affinity Designer is here: https://www.tumblr.com/kimyoonmiauthor/776698728716337152/affinity-designer-2weaknesses-and-strengths

Online Art Programs

3D Modeling

Art Sharing Clouds, Website Creation, etc (Specialized, not part of a Suite.)

Pro GenAI Colleges and Universities

Ah, yes, we're at this stage of late stage capitalism. DO NOT submit to these places without a clear contract and writing that you do not consent on every piece of art to feed a GenAI machine. Or simply instruct all people to not submit. Please, please add to this list. You can send it to me anonymously. I am safe because I'm going to an anti-GenAI college with no plans to try to get a BA or a Masters. I will check your claim. They can be within the US or outside of the US.

Cal Arts is Pro GenAI. Students are protesting, but they are suppressing their free speech. This confirms Walt Disney is also Pro GenAI. It's risky to even apply here. Scraping is next step. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cbpu7IQEts

Otis College of Art and Design is pushing GenAI (according to the comment section of the previous video) and I confirmed it here:

They couldn't even bother to have pictures of real students at the college?

Neutral ground:

Social Media

Cannot find AI stances for:

Final Draft who refuses to make a stance either way.

Celtx threatened to go proAI/LLM during the screenwriter's strike of all times. I wrote them a really strongly worded letter (without swearing) which basically was a, "Are you serious when you know what this strike is about?" and then they went radio silent. I think they are hoping it blows over so they can be pro again.

By the way, I worked on two (free) templates for Scrivener to replace Final Draft and Celtx somewhat: UK version: https://www.tumblr.com/kimyoonmiauthor/791598143262392320/better-uk-screenwriting-scrivener-template?source=share US/AUS/NZ/CAN: https://www.tumblr.com/kimyoonmiauthor/791465354153082880/better-screenplay-scrivener-template-north?source=share Here are two extra language charts I also worked on.

No one else is making Scrivener templates on this website... so...

PaintTool Sai *only* works on Windows. Located in Japan. Updates are slow. It only does raster (Clip Studio Paint technically does both raster and vector). As it's shareware, it's not reliable to say if the creator is anti or pro. Unlike the defenders say, it's NOT open source, so no, that doesn't guarantee anything at all.

Search Engine Replacement

Remove GenAI from Firefox

Writing

Obsidian-It's a writing and organizational tool. Plugins may contain genAI company doesn't vet them according to borealtwilight in comments.

AO3 (Archive of Our Own)- Gets Data scraped. So they made an AI statement, but it's on Neutral ground. They are protecting lightly from scraping: https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/25888 But you still have to do the work yourself to block the bots and put yourself on private. They will allow GenAI words. They've been scraped twice already. https://www.reddit.com/r/AO3/comments/1k6a3t6/ao3_has_been_scraped_again_for_genai_purposes/ O.o; I've never seen a site cooperate this much with "researchers" that they are willing to get scraped and not block scraping. They are blocking the specific GenAI bots. Your choice in this case. Leaning more neutral neutral, in this case, given the statement.

If you would like to block scrapers (suggested by Benwvatt, see reblog), then try:

WARNING, though, that it will block text readers, so may block dyslexic, Low vision, blind, etc readers.

It randomly inserts words into the sentence at random intervals when the fic is downloaded.

Art

Sites

Cara is totally anti-AI in contrast. You would be too if someone profited from your artwork by simply reversing it and changing the color scheme a little.

BTW, It's BS to call Backgrounds not real art. Tips it more towards pro-AI.

Wacom?: This one confuses the hell out of me, but apparently Wacom is running contests, etc with GenAI. Apparently they did this a few times. Proof: https://x.com/meganroseruiz/status/1743759432268607843. Honestly makes me a bit reticent about Yuify... https://www.wacom.com/en-us/products/yuify Look, I love Wacom, I really do, and was a loyal customer long before screen tablets were a thing, but this seriously confuses the hell out of me. Why support the technology that will make your tech obsolete? The problem is Wacom has done this repeatedly. For contests, promos, etc, in Japanese and Japanese people have also called them out repeatedly. (They are now owned by a pro-AI company testing out users). I get you want more reliable source, so here: https://www.theverge.com/2024/1/9/24031468/wacom-wizards-of-the-coast-mtg-artists-against-generative-ai

This is seriously confusing where to put Wacom. It's split loyalties at this point.

Other tablet companies? Huion continues to "teach a course on AI" and XP Pen says they don't promote GenAI and got scammed by an artist, but have not used AI art in their promotions since. Reddit, but they link to the evidence in the thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/wacom/comments/190lubo/promoting_ai_art_and_forgoing_real_artists_just/

Suites:

ToonBoomHarmony- This is an animation suite, since it has a set of programs. No Anti-AI statement. There are AI tools (not the same as AI) which is heavily being questioned on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ToonBoomHarmony/comments/1j8s9yc/ai_tools_harmony_is_cooked/ with some implications they are stopping listening to customers since they took down their forums and are now switching to the next mode of enshittification Stage 3. People objected heavily, hating on the AI tools, the implementation was horrid, they didn't fix any of the base bugs before launching (which UX people would tell you not to do). When customers flooded in to complain about the AI tools being terrible, they shut down ALL of forums by DELETING THEM (which is enshittification step number 3). While not GenAI, it's implied that might be a next step to please the investors.

They are a hair way from putting in GenAI anyway, despite objections to the AI tools.

Enshittification

1. Good to their end users, but needs to find a way to lock those end users in.

2. Platforms abuse their users to tempt in business customers. Business customers become locked into the platform.

3. Claws back all the value from business customers and end users.

(Oh look, a cloud the company owns. Oh look, we own that cloud. You're OK with that, RRRRIIIGHHHTT). And then it's betraying the customer base for the stockholders and the program becomes hell and then the company shuts down when it loses it's customer face in a huge Pikachu move. I Didn'tKnowYouHadtoPleaseCustomersFirstToMakeMoney So they are at step 3 out of 3. Harmony essentials is USD 29.00 / month, Advanced is USD 73.00 / month, Premium is USD 133.00 / month. Storyboard Pro: USD 75.00 / month Producer "cannot access files unless they are uploaded" How much is your first born worth? Oh and UX people would have effing told you to fix your bugs with the release of new features... say like SIMS4, without adding new ones. SIMS4. I paid over 5,000 dollars for a game that functionally breaks because it's built on a house of cards of not fixing the base code and doing patches instead. (My Dad [a programmer] had an hour lecture on why this was a terrible idea too and told me this was why Microsoft Windows kept getting hacked).

Online Art Programs

Art Sharing Clouds, Website Creation, etc (Specialized, not part of a Suite.)

Strong positions against AI

Social Media

Pillowfort- This is a social media website. Somewhere between Tumblr and Deviant Art. They banned all AI images. They don't have a social media algorithm. (So you won't be on top of each other. You have to earn your own followers.)

Item 13 of the Banned images section of their terms of service: https://www.pillowfort.social/termsofservice

A bit of a jab to put the item between "No prohibited images of minors" and "revenge porn". (basically lack of consent)

Suggested by lindwurmkai

I read the other TOS too, and it seems pretty fair and in plain language.

Thunderbirdmail (not released yet)

Released to be competition to Google mail without the privacy glitches of Gmail and have NO AI. It's open source, yet private, and has a lot of the features of Gmail, no equivalent of Google Docs and no equivalent to online spreadsheet, but still free. But will have other appendages, like scheduler, etc.

Writing

Offline (mostly)

Scrivener (Creator vowed against adding GenAI during Nanowrimo scandal #2 on Twitter. Request for AI features has been denied.) Writing program. There is an active forum, and versions for Mac, Linux and PC. It is paid, but at ~60 USD, it's cheaper than most programs. There is usually a holiday sale around Christmas. It has a learning curve, but with an active forum with the programmer of it there to ask obscure questions it's not a dead zone. They often take suggestions and implement them over time. (Especially if you rank the importance, applications, etc) US company. Scrivener works with Mac, Windows and Linux (with some fussing): https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/tutorial-running-scrivener-3-1-5-1-under-linux-w-wine-64bit-with-activation/136046

Also has sharing and comparing versions capability as long as you have a cloud harddisk.

I have made a Better Script Template for US/CAN/AUS/NZ:

One for the UK: https://www.tumblr.com/kimyoonmiauthor/791598143262392320/better-uk-screenwriting-scrivener-template?source=share I have a Better Novel Template as well: https://www.tumblr.com/kimyoonmiauthor/750865969317052416/better-novel-scrivener-template?source=share I am in no way affiliated with Scrivener. If you have issues, with the program, please direct it to the forums. With any of the templates, be sure to read ALL instructions first BEFORE downloading, including the Read Me in order to get it to work. I never write any instructions that are unnecessary.

LibreOffice Open source and free Spreadsheet and Word processor program that can replace Microsoft Office (Word processor, spreadsheet, presentations, drawing, formula, database creator). Some people might have seen older versions where it was called Neo Office (now extinct) and Open Office. LibreOffice is still populated, plus the forums are super helpful if you get stuck. The UX is pretty intuitive if you've used Microsoft Word. Scrivener, BTW, supports exporting to odt (the native file) as well as .doc, and this can open both. The slight thing is that sometimes it doesn't export to .doc smoothly. And I DO wish more magazines, and agent (big clue here) supported .odt files since it is free. Part of the reason .odt isn't as supported is because Microsoft and Adobe have a deal with the devil with each other, so Adobe's Book formatting program InDesign doesn't support ODT. (BTW, if you have a good open source replacement for InDesign that supports ODT, let me know.)

yWriter is a free Writing program and like Scrivener, and has vowed against AI Last I looked it had some UX issues, but some people swear by it. The learning curve is higher than Scrivener because of the worse UX.

Dabble (as suggested by SF stories, see reblog) is a writing program. Similar to Scrivener. Has vowed against AI and to resist it. 108 dollars a year for Basic. It is almost twice the price of Scrivener who lets you update for fairly cheap. 29 dollars a month, v. 59 dollars for the whole program (Scrivener). Scrivener, for the 59 dollars a month has all of the same features of Dabble at Premium, making Dabble in total more than triple the price of Scrivener. You choose.

NovelWriter is an Open source writing program done offline. It has less capabilities than Scrivener or YWriter or Dabble. (Can't make templates, Can't save to cloud to compare) The GUI isn't as slick, but because of that it's super easy to use and lower entry in learning curve. (anonymous suggestion through inbox)

StudioBinder- is a script to video production software. Made an Anti-GenAI statement on their Youtube channel (see below).

This is not an official Anti-AI stance and might be tongue-in-cheek. But does look serious as something they are NOT interested in. Pricing is here: https://app.studiobinder.com/pricing

Phone/Online Writing

Ellipsus is an online writing program and vowed against AI [Link]. The main feature I like (which Scrivener doesn't have) is the ability to change spellcheck based on region/language. It is a requested feature of Scrivener, but lower priority. So if you have a Brit, you can get the spelling for the character. They are a German-based company in Berlin.

Writer P AKA Writer+ (app for when you're on the go) is a simple word processor app for your phone that doesn't use AI. (Find on the Android app store) The original programmer stopped updating, so Writer+ programmer took over and isn't out to make a profit since it's free in the spirit of the original app. It has subfolders you can use. Since it was programmed before GenAI it doesn't have AI. Intuitive, easy to use. Fairly easy to upload the files through three dots->share. The files can save to your card or phone with some settings fussing. Simple word processor.

Art

Sites

Cara.app (The creator of the website sued GenAI there is no chance they'll convert) is an artist website. Cara is trying to institute an auto Glaze/Nightshade into the website if given enough funds. People see it as a soft replacement for deviant art. (which went fully AI) If you believe in human art, please donate if you can. Zhang Jingna, the creator, is Chinese-Singporean. She lives in Singapore.

Artgram is an art posting website with a super strong Anti-AI statement It will delete all Ai art and has detection measures in place. And signatures added to the art so they can form you legal protection and make takedown requests. It is free to use.

Fur Affinity Hard ban on All AI use, not even backgrounds. Furry Art posting website. BTW, found this and Artgram on this website: https://brushwarriors.com/art-websites-that-ban-ai/ which does not show as any kind of result on Google, because Google is trying to block anti-AI content as of last week from the search results. (About the day after I posted the Grok gives poor people cancer). You can only find it using a searxng search.

Handmade vowed against AI (Selling any artwork with AI, and also drop shipping, etc) and promised to never sell itself for stock prices to prevent AI (as a replacement for Etsy.)

Art Programs (Raster, and Vector)+ Suites

Clip Studio Paint is a mostly raster, somewhat Vector program that does comics, illustration and animation. They added genAI, but saw the light and decided to protect artists instead because of protest and removed it. It can do 2D animation, and generally is a replacement for Corel Painter and can do manga/comics, etc. I'd still recommend paying for the offline version rather than monthly subscription just in case they change their minds back, at least you'll still have the program AI free without worry about them stealing directly as you're drawing. There are tutorials and a good forum if you get super stuck. Based in Japan, so the UI and UX is really clean [Explanation].

Tahoma2D is anti-AI and open source animation program. Takes a little getting used to, but is good for animations and doesn't crash as often as Animate. Programmers are in the forums and some bugs are fixed within hours. The forums are super responsive and helpful.

OpenToonz is an anti-AI open source animation program. It's almost identical to Tahoma 2D, but has less responsive forums (I tried both) and on a Mac, you can't customize which drive it saves to. Tahoma's forums responded within hours, Opentoonz, I gave a week and got no response. Tahoma, in these regards is ahead. Tahoma has their own forum, v. OpenToonz which is on github, so your response gets lost. (If anyone wants to fix it). (Suggested add by anonymous via inbox, opinions my own.)

Krita is a raster-only open source and free, no AI. I'd rank it secondary to Clip Studio Paint (which is paid) I haven't tried the forums, but it's pretty intuitive and can stand for a lower level replacement for Painter, and do a lot of the basics of Photoshop. It's usually ranked higher than the equally open source Gimp.

Rebelle- Honestly tipping towards Neutral with their Anti-AI statement found here: https://www.escapemotions.com/blog/escape-motions-stands-by-artists but just enough to make them anti. I'd keep an eye on them. Here are some of the neutral statements I'd red flag: "Rebelle's NanoPixel export, for example, allows you to scale your images up to 16x for larger export files, which would not be possible without machine-learning technology. Many artists agree that AI art is a powerful tool but believe it shouldn't be celebrated in the same way as human-created art." "We believe images created with AI can serve for inspiration but to just put a whole painting together through AI is not in alignment with our vision."

They are on Cara, though and their protections against scraping and attempts to prove copyright for their artists is heartening. Still, GenAi is terrible for the planet and doesn't serve as great inspiration.

Inkscape is a free vector program and no AI. It is harder to use than illustrator and has less features. But if you're doing smaller vectors for one-offs with less complexity, it'll do you after some learning curve. Best of the lot. I hate Affinity Designer which is the same thing, only paid. (Neither Affinity program was worth the money paid)

StudioBinder- is a script to video production software. But I put them also down here because it can also do Moodboards. Made an Anti-GenAI statement on their Youtube channel:

This is not an official Anti-AI stance and might be tongue-in-cheek. But does look serious as something they are NOT interested in. Pricing is here: https://app.studiobinder.com/pricing

GIMP- Open source 2D Image editing software. Works natively on Linux, can kinda port to Mac, and kinda works on Windows. It has less features than Krita and has generally fallen out of favor with the public for not being able to keep up as well. The UX isn't bad, but use Krita instead. You'll be happier. Krita is Mac and Windows stable and works on Linux. There isn't any extra fancy things you need to do with Krita to DL it and Krita is fairly intuitive if you know Photoshop.

Moho- is a 2D animation software. Anti AI Stance is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMFeLjLWFd4 . This was originally made by Mike Clifton at Lost Marble and then the name changed to Anime Studio under Smith Micro. Then it was changed back to Moho and then sold back to Lost Marble, LLC, who now has taken a strong stance against AI. There is a Pro version and a Debut version. The pro version is 399.99 USD (as of 2025) Debut is 59.99. There is a student discount too.

Online Art Programs

ProCreate: Anti AI Stance as noted by mortavaine (in comments). It's an art Studio and can be used on an iPhone. 12.99 (currently) for the Art Studio one, time dealie, not reoccurring. 19.99 (currently) for the animation software. Based in Australia.

3D Modeling

Blender is a 3D art program and does not use GenAI. It can do 2D animation, but Tahoma is easier to use in this regard. It's open source and free. Plus there are plenty of tutorials. The forums can be touch and go sometimes, but there are plenty of sub Blender communities that might be responsive. It can also do animation. After Version 7-8 the UX vastly improved and a ton of features were added.

Art Sharing Clouds, Website Creation, etc (Specialized, not part of a Suite.)

Swiss Transfer: The Swiss government is going to put strict restrictions on AI and have pretty strict privacy laws. So they can't steal your content.

It has a better deal than WeTransfer did after the buyout.

In the fallout from WeTransfer there is also this list (but I haven't vetted it).

Because you need to send files to clients without breaking NDAs.

Scribus is a replacement for InDesign and can layout magazines. It doesn't use GenAI, BUT be careful since there is a AI gen named after the program. (Because of course they would.) The learning curve is hard and it's not as advanced as Adobe for things, but it can layout magazines decently. So click the link instead.

Davinci Resolve Pro is a film editing software that's super good. Their CEO came hard against GenAI: https://forum.blackmagicdesign.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=205673 when it was brought up in the forums, as a request to add, there was a hard no from the CEO. There is a free version and a paid version. The forums are responsive. The programmers aren't always present. There is a healthy group of tutorials. Black Magic is an Aussie company, but the program's core was DaVinici Systems, a US company (Florida), where the program originated. DaVinci Systems was bought by Black Magic. Black Magic has offices in US (Bay area/Los Angeles), UK (Manchester), Netherlands (Amsterdam), Australia (Melbourne), Singapore, China (Beijing), Japan (Tokyo, Osaka), Korea (Seoul). Clean UX. It does take a little bit of time to remember the shortcuts. primary-blog-nothing-here asserted that they took data in order to create AI, but this turned out to be not a true claim. AI Tools are not the same as Gen AI. All of the tools claimed on Davinici Resolve 20 are AI tools that existed before GenAI existed. (Mostly about precutting up the timeline based on different shots). If you object to AI tools, stop using Gaussian Blur. Really they put AI in front to make it seem fancier. It's only a little more complex than the smart selection tool. They won't take your data. Cloud won't be used to train AI which they added after the whole Dropbox debacle. https://nofilmschool.com/blackmagic-ai-training-stance Note that AI tools is not the same as GenAI.

ANTI-AI Colleges and and Universities

But you need a professional website...

https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html

which will poison the algorithm and collapse the algorithm faster. I've seen Youtubers who are popular use it on their images they post to videos, and it made the AI bros irate. Some tried SOOO hard to argue how hopeless it was and how programmers would break the consent of artists. (Yeah, and they might wonder why they are single).

There are claims Nightshade, etc doesn't work, but the evidence it does is in this video.

I can go over the programming reasons it does as well. If it doesn't why are so many AI bros so upset every time someone uses it?

If you can't use Nightshade, use Glaze. You can't use Nightshade and Glaze at the same time, but some OS's and machines can't use Nightshade, so the secondary option is to use Glaze. This will blur your image enough in a particular way to make AI unable to read it.

Push companies towards anti-AI

Protest and Petition

Several sites gave in at least halfway or partially when people protested openly to the application. Crowd beats company every time. (Unless there are shareholders, in which case the next tip will help)

Don't buy monthly subscriptions when possible

This tip was on several Youtube videos (don't remember the creators' name, sorry, but I know one was a guy a long time ago). Newly made features every time you want to buy helps motivate the company to update, but also gives leverage to you, the consumer to actively protest the application and write a (Audrina) letter to the company.

Protest Monthly subscriptions. There was a really good video on the enshittification of Adobe, and it started around then, because that's when they became a Stock power. Don't give Stock Power to companies.

Look for Open Source Projects

They aren't rich enough to run servers, so won't add AI.

Convince Employers/Institutions that AI is not copyright protected and bad for branding.

Our biggest obstacle is here. As long as institutions get kickbacks from Adobe, etc and get donated funds, they are more than likely to use it as primary teaching material, which then undercuts their policies about no plagiarism. Point out that free programs are good or sometimes better than the paid ones AND it doesn't undercut their own message and they might convert.

Take Away

The thing is you think you doing it alone will do nothing, but the more AI feeds on itself, AI images, the worse they become, and the less detailed so, denying it the images, adding poison or not being able to read the human text is eventually going to lead to an AI collapse.

And why not help that along?

I don't want to give cancer to poor people [Link] or make the planet burn faster [Link]. So GenAI collapse is everything I dream of. GenAI apocalypse is not. BTW, the information about poor communities having cancer from GenAI servers I got from Reese Waters who pointed out it's usually poor Black elderly communities. But especially Grok. Timestamp is 16:28.

Solidarity.

(Note: OP regularly updates this post, so check the original if you see this later this year - companies keep adding AI.)