8 Comments

I'm not trying to be difficult about robot-generated graphics, but ... are the politicians are trying to unravel a pile of ropes? Or are the ropes supposed to be "strings attached?"

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Lol, yeah, I think it just kind of grabs on to what it thinks are keywords. Of the eight or so I kicked out, probably three were Strings related. What do you think of these? I'm squarely pro-robot because they're fun and engaging and versatile, but I'm curious what readers think. My only hesitation is what you brought up -- it's just robots replacing actual artists -- but we could never afford someone to do these by hand daily and we do pay artists/designers/freelancers well for all sorts of things. Survey time!

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I totally get what you are saying regarding cost and speed. The robot graphics have a vibe -- just like the robot text does -- since AI is looking at what is most popular -- not necessarily what is true or factual. When AI is not going rogue, the AI text reads like boring, corporate, grammatically correct public relations. On the other hand, the graphics have a video game/movie poster vibe. To do those shaded graphics with so many characters in PhotoShop would take hours or days -- depending upon your skill and your files of graphic pieces and parts. The hand airbrushing they are mimicking would take days and a lot of skill. I think the best one you have published is the ESA graphic. That is like a nicely done airbrush/Meta cartoon of the scene. Using robot graphics is a double edged sword because the visual and musical artists could have AI write their promos and websites. :-)

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Nov 16, 2023Liked by Hank Stephenson

I appreciate the work that you all do and the in depth information you provide every day. The reason that I subscribe to Arizona Agenda is to learn more about the politics of my state. That being said, I don't understand how Jeremy Duda's tweet about what's happened in Israel adds to that knowledge. We all get plenty of those tragic stories on major media sites all day long. Please keep the Agenda focused on AZ politics. Thanks.

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That's fair. I actually hesitated to include it but I've been pretty consciously ignoring All That Stuff and I felt bad about it. Have a quick Other News roundup of some of the actual political news on that front in tomorrow's edition.

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Good recap of all the weird contortions that Republican Legislators have made over the last few years in order to look like they're doing something about fully funding public education but not. I thought the catch with the Republican publicity on teacher pay was that it was *only* going to go to teacher pay. That means the schools will still be crumbling. No pay raises for other staff. Not enough counselors, bus drivers, nurses or librarians. Results-based funding and tax credits will continue to funnel money to rich schools. White flight will continue. GOP can say: Look at all the money we're spending!

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Nov 16, 2023Liked by Hank Stephenson

All true.

However we know (via the Vouchers for All legislation) that AZ Republicans are hostile to public schools and hostile to the will of the electorate. Any bill they propose to raise teacher pay is strictly performative.

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The shell game the Republicans play with education funding and selling off State Trust Land is disturbing. But then, most of AZ politics has people running for the Maalox. At the end of the day the $4K increase may be the best we can do until all of those shills are broomed out of office. Vote BLUE in 2024.

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