I am a staff member at Meramec, and I have been a long time reader and avid fan of the newspaper until recently. The increasing use of AI generated graphics is supremely disappointing, and a little bit frustrating. In a previous issue, the graphics were labeled as “generated” by whatever staff member made them. In the most recent issue, there seem to be AI generated images simply labeled as “by” the staff member who had them generated. From what I can tell there are 4 images that seem to be AI-generated: a report card with a big “C- Grade” along with some AI slop gibberish, a Palestine and American flag next to each other (the American flag seems to have the wrong number of stars), Jordan Peterson holding a weird little cross (I had to look closely to be sure, but I’m confident it is AI), and Trump and Netanyahu standing together (their skin looks like it’s made out of velvet). The frustration I have comes from the fact that 1. So many similar images like these could be found online or made very easily with a photo editing program, and 2. It comes off as lazy when there is an abundance of talented visual artists and designers right here on campus. Even aside from the aesthetic, the ethical implications of normalizing AI usage is worrisome. AI is being favored over real people. The environmental impact of AI is devastating. The power of AI to make realistic (yet fake) images could contribute to misinformation. I could go on. I really hope The Montage stops taking the easy way with these graphics, otherwise I will most likely not continue to support the paper.
— Hans Mohr
Stop using AI images, it’s making the montage look bad and lazy. Specifically looking at the report card image. Those aren’t even words. Not even if it looked good would make it okay because there are many negative effects to society and the environment. I know for a fact that there are students here that can make something 1000000x better than the garbage that was on the paper. PLEASE DO BETTER.
— John Linnell
