Not the parent poster, but I've been getting really tired of 3d printed crap and Ai generated slop models have just made it worse.

For background I've been into 3d printing since 2013, my first printer was an acrylic i3 clone with a RAMPS controller running Marlin. I've built 3 printers over the years and use my current one pretty regularly. I've been a 3d printing evangelist for years.

That said, going to any sort of craft fair or places like Etsy, and low effort 3d printed garbage is really getting annoying. I was at my small, local renfaire earlier this summer and 1/4 of the booths were just selling 3d printed and laser cut stuff, most of which were designs that are easily found online. I've seen this kind of stuff taking over at other similar spaces, and have seen people complaining about it for a year or so. It would maybe not be so much of a problem if people were making their own designs, but when it's just a model off of printables with at best some minor tweaks made by an AI tool, I have trouble getting excited.

For reference, of the 10 vendors I actually talked to who were selling these kinds of things, none had made any models themselves or were even familiar with blender, tinkercad, or any other modeling tools. There were 3d printed 'ale steins' that had had text embossed onto them, or plywood tchotkes with AI art lasered onto them. Annoying, since anyone who has done even a basic Google search should be well aware that 3d printing, especially FDM, is a terrible process for something like a drinking glass, that will be bacteria heaven and impossible to properly clean without very specific post-processing.

So while I can't say this is why the parent poster was annoyed, this is one of the reasons someone would be annoyed with 3d printing. If I'm browsing at a renfaire, I'm looking for a handmade thing to add to my costume or home decor. The last thing I want to see in that type of environment is a Ai-generated image of a dragon burned onto a cheap set of bamboo coasters bought off of alibaba. I've seen videos and posts onli3of people expressing similar annoyances, but the have been crafting, sewing, and similar creators so probably outside the general HN zeitgeist.

Yes that's exactly where I'm coming from. I love 3D printing as a concept (funny how people will make up a whole life story for you online) but it has one very strong parallel with generative AI.

I see zero reason in the slightest to ever put a product of it in front of someone else. If I want a 3D printed dragon I can get the exact dragon I want printed for me. If I want an AI stock image I can have the exact image I want generated for me.

One of my concerns lately is the mountain of absolute crap that grows exponentially by the day. Any initiative to add yet more crap to the pile is something I'm against. There's already 1000+ crappy versions of every possible invention. Are we really in such dire need of more that there should be AIs shitting them out like machine guns?

You're not going to be able to find ANYTHING on amazon.

Damn, that sounds pretty bad