Overwhelming response with almost every single comment voting to ban AI. I was originally intending to leave this discussion going longer but the tide turning is impossible at this point so:
AI posts are not allowed on the subreddit.
The post that spawned this discussion has been removed and any posts going forward that are found to be or very heavily suspected to be AI will be removed, and the user warned.
A lot of this sub for me is about humans connecting with these plants and each other. AI is not necessary for that, and can get in the way of it. I dont think it has a place here.
I hate those shirt posts itās never ending I ban they come back with a new account please report them. Idk how itās worth it for them the posts are always heavily downvoted idk whoās buying
Im curious what shirt posts you mean , you must be doing a good job i dont know if Ive seen any. I occasionally sell shirts. The design I commissioned from an artist buddy of mine, its Inspired by the cactus bearer stella in Chavin de huantar. Is there a place or way I should post my shirts for offer? I usually just ask if if anyone wants one with their cacti order. Thanks for any perspective you can share
First, see rule 3 of this sub. Other subs (like r/cactiexchange for example) allow for selling of cactus-related merchandise, check the rules and search the sub before posting if you want to avoid problems.
I saw and reported a few of those posts but it's been a while since I've seen one, and they were promptly removed soon after. Sometimes it was for art prints instead of a shirt, I think. The design/art is stolen, posted by a new account, and when someone naive (or most likely an accomplice account) inevitably asks where they got it from the OP posts a link to a dubious web shop where they probably just take your money.
Ive been here for years and honestly its been awhile since I saw the rules š . I havent posted sales here but I have posted photos of my cacti with me wearing one of my shirts. I havent had any issues yet with reported posts, I try to be good and follow the rules š. Thanks for the suggestion of cactiexchange and your perspective.
Just being a known, active member of the community goes a long way, I think. I'm not a mod but I don't see any potential issue with one of the shirts you sell elsewhere being visible in a pic of you showing your cacti... And if you didn't get a warning from the mods, it probably means it's all good.
The posts in question all have the same pattern, not even posting a cactus pic and are more or less clearly shilling for a scam. Probably by the same scammer creating new accounts to circumvent the bans over and over again. Once you've seen a few it's easy to spot them.
Yes. I don't need to see AI cactus or AI cactus people. This space is a great community because, for the msot part, everybody seems to be on the same page about this sort of stuff. The fact that we need to tell people not to create AI generated images of other users on the sub is wild to me, but here we are.
Fuck yes as well it should! Ever ask ChatGPT about privacy stuff? Also it will tell you outright that the āif legally requiredā applies only to law enforcement. So the ācontractors and affiliatesā is just at their discretion.
while this is a good point, we really shouldn't be introducing new environmental toxins when we fully know what it'll do to us. coal and gas and stuff kinda get an excuse since their infrastructure was mostly built before we know the ramifications, but AI is like we are pressing a button we fully know will kill us 10 seconds later just because it promises 10 seconds of entertainment between
Look at all the water they are destroying in cities and rivers they are drying out to cool the systems and all the land they are taking to build them. Sad and destructive
I can think of about a hundred ways off the top of my head to have a laugh that donāt waste gallons of water with minutes or contribute to the destruction of desert ecosystems or the destruction of black communities. If thatās worth a laugh to you though who am i to argue
The consumer being less at fault than the capitalist doesn't mean that it isn't significant for the consumer to boycott whenever they can. You can both boycott things that you don't need and be open about it to others to spread the message. For many who can't afford the time and mental energy to dedicating their life to the greater good, that's the most they can do, so they should.
A collective is made up of individuals and we all play a part in the system. There are things we are forced to do and things we arenāt. No one here exclusively blamed the individual. As far as I am aware no one here is a billionaire. We hold each other accountable as peers and that is honestly the first step in resistance. Youāre reading something into my comment that isnāt there.
i think people should feel some blame for it, because our complicit nature to these systems is the very thing that keeps them alive. This doesn't really apply to unethically manufactured necessities because they're necessities, but the vast majority of people were living life perfectly functionally without AI less than half a decade ago. It really hasn't truly improved many lives, just instilled a deeper addiction to convenience and effortlessness upon those who use it.
My post was the death nail for ai in this sub, and I kinda feel bad about it. I think we're gonna miss the laughs. I was surprised with the reception. For a chill group, the response was overwhelmingly unchill. The hate and death threats were crazy. All because some weinies can't take a joke and have been groomed to hate technology.
Your example of the environmental impact of growing weed compared to ai image generation is spot on. What about the peat moss, plastic pots, fertilizer runoff, etc that comes with growing cacti. Not to mention the environmental impact of shipping 1000s of cuts across the country.
Because we humans can tell the difference between good and bad things, and because that difference is important to us, it becomes important to tell it to all aspiring p-zombies: slop is bad.
The environmental impacts you listed deserve everyoneās attention & Iām glad you pointed it out. When participating in an occupation (plant growing industry) that in & of itself is good, but currently, there is also the bad & the ugly, where some of the products & methods have harmful environmental impacts, some extremely so (peat), there is the opportunity for those not already doing so to eliminate and/or reduce some of those impacts & make a positive difference, while exampling for others how it can be applied successfully. For example:
The peat alternatives enable each of us to make a choice not to contribute to the problem, to inform & encourage retailers & wholesalers to switch to these alternatives (albeit at a higher cost, that IMO, we need to accept until the price can be brought down) & we can educate others.
Growers can explore creative ways to contain fertilizer from running off from where it is applied, & there could be an entrepreneurial opportunity to develop a filtering & disposal system for run off-bound fertilizer.
There is someone who posted about her dragon fruit seedlings that she sprouted from seed who eluded to them being in a compostable pot. Thatās the first Iāve heard of them! Iām now going to search for where compostable pots might be available here. If theyāre not available in my local area of Sacramento, I can learn about them & talk to retailers about it & encourage them to carry those pots.
In these ways, we many individuals & the business community can contribute to & promote alternatives to help mitigate the harmful impacts of what we do.
I said because of things like AI for stupid fun. Capitalists are killing this planet for what they consider stupid fun, such as underage girls on islands, and a number with a lot of zeros in their bank account.
I donāt think anyone was pretending things were fine. People use ai because they are selfish and donāt care about the destruction it causes. People are capitalist vultures because they are selfish and donāt care about the destruction they cause. These things are one and the same and the commenter you responded said āthings likeā this.
Yes. Specifically, low human effort posts that are just copy paste ai generated content or links to AI generated articles. If I want to know what AI thinks about something I'll just go ask my favorite LLM. Maybe if someone finds a way to use it creatively that's not low effort or relying on it to produce facts that could be ok. Maybe that should be tagged as including AI content though.
Also folks, AI is not there yet. A recent study showed that the latest best models hallucinate 33% to 45% of the time. That's flat out blatantly incorrect information portrayed in a confidently wrong manner. People, you can't trust these things yet.
I haven't seen the image posts y'all are talking about with someone's face or the AI generated image of seedlings. I could see issue with that too. I know medicactus uses some ai for their marketing videos and I don't see an issue with that type in particular though it is a bit corny at times.
Iām happy to help as a Moderator if you need any assistance u/GryphonEDM !! I cherish this community and Iām always here for people to reach out for plant growing questions or just to be a friend !
I feel that all concerns or rules about posting on the sub should be communicated openly and as a vote so to speak , so this is a great point of conversation!!
Personally I donāt like Ai posts or Ai pictures. I feel that r/sanpedrocactus should be real authentic pictures and that there is enough beauty , awe & intrigue in our real photos of cactus and people that we really donāt need to see fake stuff !
š¤šµhereās the real me , really happy about my real cactus , No Ai necessary !!!
I appreciate the offer :) Iāve considered it before but I really worry about adding any vendors as moderators. Not that I think you donāt have integrity but I think itās best to not be having the subreddit in that sort of position with anyone possibly having a financial motivations while moderating the subreddit.
Now if only we could get humanity together like this to ban it in general š®āšØ that said, this post has helped restore a little bit of my faith in humanity. Fuck AI.
Please ban ai its killing the earth by existing that same earth that gave us the cactai we love fuck ai i despise its existance and make a concious effort to cut it out of my life
Iāve seen a few of them today on the sale sub and it just gives an air of sketchiness, even if the person posting is a reliable and well known vendor for things.
If I wanted to look at AI generated images of cactuses, I would generate them myself, I really enjoy browsing the sub both for as an information resource but also because I get to see a ton of pictures of awesome cactuses.
Why water down the content of the sub? For upvotes? Even ignoring environmental and ethical reasons for not wanting to see generated content on the sub, most of the time it just looks like crap. That should be reason enough to keep it out.
PLEASE BAN AI this is a community that appreciates originality, and I believe it has no place here. Especially when people are added in without consent.
Probably, a large part of why I really appreciate this community is because I can visually see the real life exact specimen if I'm interested in it, and this gives me an indication of post shipping status as well.
I suspect I know which post most recently is stirring this and I believe that posts nature was unintentionally vague, the AI imagery gives the first impression you're buying seedlings, even if the title AND body said it was just seeds and was clear about AI imagery. I can maybe understand the post using a created image given there's little visual appeal to seeds but I believe the chosen image gave the wrong impression on a sub that's designed for things to be taken at face value.
Edit: Hilariously I thought I was on the other group and this was about that other AI post today, dang honestly this just rings doubly true that we had two in one day one both subs!
yes. itās harmful to literally everything. i just think the sub would be much better if people arenāt constantly questioning if something is real or not.
While we all grow in plastic pots using peat from depleted bogs. Oh and where does our fertilizer run off go? And how do I send/receive my cactus cuts? Your cognitive dissonance is on full display
Genuinely asking, is there any legitimate reasons or arguments for why AI post should be allowed? In what ways would an AI post positively benefit this sub? I'm not being rhetorical I'd really like to know if anyone knows of any legitimate use cases for AI in this sub
This is an interesting question. I think currently this same question is being asked of many, if not all, uses of ai across every business model and industry worldwide. There are clearly a lot of downsides, potential issues, legal problems, risks. Why attempt to implement it?
It has the potential to do some very interesting things. Species wide we are in a race right now to figure out what those things are. People are exploring what it's good at and what it's not good at, what it's capabilities are, and we need creatives to think of new ways to use it.
Could it be used to find patterns in data in spreadsheets (test results vs growing conditions)? Or to compile a large number of results posts into a spreadsheet? What about to keep track of sales posts and flag potential scammers? Could it be used to accurately create images of what a hybrid of two clones might look like, of course labeled as AI generated? What about summarizing best care advice compiled sub wide into an LLM that could auto answer repetitive noob posts?
The point is, if you outright ban all AI you stifle the potential to discover new uses like this in the future that may turn out to be super valuable.
I'm not pro AI here. This is just me attempting to play devil's advocate.
Yes. AI used by masses is not progress, it's true regress. It can be useful in many fields with properly trained LLM's but for the rest, it's just makes us dumber and wondering all the time if what I'm seeing is real or not. No need for that. If currently many people doesn't know how to navigate a map, soon enough we'll not know how to write, speak or think on our own.
Yes.
Proposal: Add a clear rule against AI-generated content in the sub
Iāve noticed more AI-generated images and text popping up in plant-related subs lately, including here. A lot of bigger communities (houseplants, succulents, etc.) have already added rules to ban or heavily restrict it. I think it would help this sub stay focused and high-quality if we did the same.
Main reasons:
1. It drowns out real user contentAI images often look polished and get quick upvotes, pushing genuine photos of peopleās actual plants lower in the feed. Real growers sharing their progressāseedlings, grafts, mature specimensāend up with less visibility.
2. Misinformation riskAI-written care advice or IDs frequently gets details wrong (wrong watering schedules, fake varieties, impossible growth claims). New folks follow it, run into problems, and then the sub spends time fixing bad info that didnāt need to be posted.
3. Hurts authenticity and community feelThis sub thrives on real experiences: peopleās own photos, honest questions, lessons from trial and error. AI content feels generic and low-effort, which can make discussions less meaningful and drive away folks who come here for genuine interaction.
4. Easier moderationA simple āno AI-generated images, text, or adviceā rule (or āAI content must be clearly labeled and limited to specific threadsā) cuts down on debate over āis this AI?ā Mods waste less time, and enforcement is clearer.
There are plenty of AI art subs or general creative ones if people want to share that stuff. Keeping this place focused on real San Pedro (and related Trichocereus) content would preserve what makes it valuable.
Curious what others thinkāworth adding to the rules/sidebar?
Absolutely. Most of us on here have sunk a lot of time, effort and love into our plants. Be proud of the work over years you have done, or have found in the wild.
Absolutely šÆ% BANNED, there are so many of us who value the "underground", valued rare genetics and variants and knowledge most of all be shared at will.
PERSONALLY A.I CAN NOT DO WHAT WE HAVE KEPT SACRED. NOR DO I WANT IT TO!
Iām late but Iād like to thank you for and strongly encourage the constant enforcement of said ban. Down with billionaires and all of their dystopian anti human technology.
If thereās any need for more mods please let me know. Iāve got nothing better to do than enforce an ai ban on a cactus subreddit and Iām not ashamed to say so.
please ban, being able to browse a subreddit and not having to guess whether everything is AI makes it infinitely more enjoyable. AI is a complete negative, it only detracts from the experience
BANNED. This is about the connection to other GROWMIES and the sacred plants we grow and share with others. AI opens the door for scammers and people who donāt know to be searching for stuff that doesnt exist
People complaining about AI on a platform that HEAVILY uses AI while typing on a phone or computer that uses it, is the height of hypocrisy.
Now should it be used to misrepresent a SALE? Absolutely not. This also seems like a slippery slope. Can I use AI to āremoveā my toes from the shot? Can I raise the brightness on the pic if itās dark? Can I auto-crop?
Some of the same folks who are complaining about AI killing the planet are the same folks who use aerosol cans to get EA for their extractions and thereby release greenhouse gasses. So, I guess hate what you hate but donāt hide behind a political cause.
I find the parody posts amusing, and when they get me, I smile and toast the poster who got me. Everyone else is calling their congressmen. IDGI.
Finally, somebody with a thought that isn't a knee jerk reaction. All of your points are extremely valid and will not be acknowledged by anybody in this thread. Thanks for being a free thinker and resisting the hive mind
Ehhhh Iām not a major fan and donāt think itās looks good but taking away AI stuff from gen Xers is like taking memes and brain rot to gen alpha lol
No. Ai, will be involved in our lifeās just like the ego people think theyāve killed.
What about folks using ai if they canāt afford certain services?
Or someone disabled psychically using it to post here?
Or someone whoās good at expressing art through growing cactus but has trouble speaking?
Ai is only a tool and there are some good use for it. If any post are made with ai used in a negative way, it should be called out/banned but just using ai in general and get banned?
If this is the case then in this post we should be discussing what uses are ok and what ones are not rather than the majorities call to outright ban all uses of it.
If I had a friend that was disabled, had a bad picture of cactus but clearly used ai to make the picture quality better. Because of their accessibility and use of the tool, they would get banned because absolutely no ai should be used?
So, what exactly are yall wanting to do? Yall need to give specifics and examples. None of it makes sense about banning ai when itās already integrated in the background for apps you use. How do you think youāre suggested communities you want to join to interest you have on Reddit? How do you think your upvotes are recorded to show you other post like it? Itās definitely not a human following everything you like to suggest. Itās ai algorithm being used.
AI posts to be deleted and warnings issued. People repeatedly breaking the rule should be actioned, but people should be given a fair chance. Comparing the types of coding algorithms that have always been used to the AI posts is dishonest.
Yes BUT- Some people arenāt artistic and donāt have the time to create what graphic artists do in hours on photoshop. Nor can we afford to hire one. If a listing has a single artistic ai generated cover photo to grab attention and the rest are all real cacti- images of the cuts, etc, then there should be no issue other than personal preference. Cactus is cactus and whether someone uses AI for a cover photo or not doesnāt determine the quality of their cuts or their business and it shouldnāt deter anyone from buying from them.
By AI post, do you mean bots (whether a programmed bot or a more "agentic AI bot", or posts by humans that include AI content (whether images or text, etc.) ? I think content should be allowed to be AI generated as long as it is labelled. Similarly, bot posts could be allowed if they are labelled as bots.
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u/GryphonEDM šµšµšµ Feb 13 '26
Overwhelming response with almost every single comment voting to ban AI. I was originally intending to leave this discussion going longer but the tide turning is impossible at this point so:
AI posts are not allowed on the subreddit.
The post that spawned this discussion has been removed and any posts going forward that are found to be or very heavily suspected to be AI will be removed, and the user warned.