iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Aden Ng @adenng.com · 28/09/2026

So if you ever "need" generative AI for art, you either have severe creative skill issues, or am just a control freak to the point of apathy. Seriously, just pick up a pencil. Draw stickmen. Use photos. Effing MS Paint. I've NEVER found a need to use generative art for over 20 years doing this.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 28/09/2026

There are also those who says they only use generative AI for concept art because they are not artists. Get real. Bish, I am not an artist either. These are concept art I've made by photomashing and vector tracing as old as 15 years ago. One of them contains assets generated in bloody Minecraft.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 28/09/2026

Almost single asset I use on my all my other creative endeavours are either affordable stock images, creative commons licenses, or public domain licenses. Throughout my entire creative career, I've only commissioned artists for stuff 4 times. Here are some things I've made for free or less than $5.

Cover for 139: In Evening with a photo of some cheap props at the light from a flashlight.

Cover for 139 Trilogy made with stock images.

Latest book cover of an unreleased book with stock images.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 28/09/2026

And this is FARSWIPE, the current game I'm working on. I use stock images from the amazing Tithi Luadthong (tithiluadthong.com) which I licensed over 150 of for just $1.50 each, and some custom art for $400. Could have done without the customs, but just wanted it. Tithi's stock cost less than $250.

Cover for FARSWIPE made with stock images.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 28/09/2026

This is my game, Box Dungeon, which I made a few years ago. Custom art, all around. I paid the talented Lois Chng (www.instagram.com/thecheepchee...) about 2k for it which was about 80 illustrations and box design, then did everything else myself. Was it expensive? Yes. Was it worth it? Also yes.

Promotional image of the boardgame Box Dungeon.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 28/09/2026

You know, my Reddit feed is starting to flood with game designers and creators (for both digital and tabletop games) using AI images and saying things along the line of "I don't have money to hire artists so I use AI". That's a lie. Art isn't expensive, never was. Commissioned art is expensive.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 17/09/2026

As an aside to all the sad posting about people being unkind, I do want to show people why I continue to speak up about kindness. I got to talk with someone who worked on a beloved show, who did not always see their fandom's love, and tell them they are loved. That meant a lot. #OnceARanger

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 17/09/2026

I am genuinely so, so confused by people like this. They understand that doing nice things are optional, but it would be nice if people do it, but they won't do it, because they don't have to. Isn't that just openly telling admitting they aren't nice people because they are selfish?

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 15/09/2026

Sadly, art can't save everyone. Also, they know I can see them going into my profile and downvoting everything they see like a weird online loser, right?

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 15/09/2026

Sometimes I forget I'm a legit writer and artist. And other times, I reply to internet apathy with literature.

A anonymous Redditor says degradingly: If somebody not getting special gloves is heartbreaking to you, you’ve never had your heart broken.

A reply from OP: My heart can break for many things, for all suffering exists. To assume my heart so shallow that it can only break for a few, is an insult to empathy.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 08/09/2026

My script analysing Hank Green's AI usage is going fine. There might be too much screaming though.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 08/09/2026

Finally, to end this. This single line. Because it's the one fundamental disagreement bordering on hate I have for that blog post. Everyone who knows open source and has worked to promote this space, should slap Max across the face until his teeth is only on one side of it. (Screaming in alt text)

NO! That is not what open source is about, Max! It's in the name! It's "open" and "sourced". It's not about efficiency, or use case, or output, or marketability, or jobs or any of that! It's about transparency of code! It's about providing foundation for the future of development as an entire industry! And you cannot have transparency of code, IF YOU CANNOT READ THE FUCKING CODE! And we cannot read the codes of LLMs, because IT'S NOT MADE TO BE READ BY HUMAN! LLMs being antithetical to the open source movement, is an entire ongoing criticism and debate to the point that sects are starting split off from it. OPENWASHING IS A BLOODY TERM, MAX! YOU'RE DOING THE OPENWASHING! YOU ARE THE BADDIES!

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 08/09/2026

Overall, the same moral issue persists. The issue's still not IF LLMs work, it's HOW they work. As a pro writer, I CAN edit and review LLM generated texts to be more professional and functional in perhaps a shorter time than normal. I can also use asbestos for fire proofing and eat slave chocolate.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 08/09/2026

The whole segment about AI codes being faster is flawed. He's generating codes in Rust, a language that is faster than Python. He then says AI can reliably generate faster code than what exists. Max also notes he is not proficient in Rust, and can't translate from Python to Rust. See the issue here?

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 08/09/2026

Here's every case in the blog post I found, of the AI having a flaw that a human could learn to not make, evidenced by the human (Max), choosing and forbidding Opus to not make them, followed by the author going "but it's not you, it's me" in defence of the AI. See alt text for detailed fallacy.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 08/09/2026

Not a "literal genie", says the man, about the tech, that is being marketed with billions of dollars as a literal genie to everyday people. Who then proceeds to use 16 years of expertise to manually review and correct a software marketed to non-coders, before saying "it works!"

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 08/09/2026

AGENTS.mds. Spicy version of "right clicking and 'add to dictionary' then hoping the autocomplete remembers you added it to dictionary".

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 06/09/2026

So I wrote a long thread about the unreliableness of using LLM generative AI for coding, in reply to a post talking about BlueSky using Claude to code. As if Apollo threw a dodgeball, BlueSky's AI coded moderation wrongfully suspended my account for spam. I can't even... beyond satire.

An email from BlueSky auto moderation flagging my account for "spam behaviors".

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 06/09/2026

To really drive the similarities home, forgive me but I'm going to play a pretty dirty card and pull a 1:1 UNO reversal. A screenshot of all your points made for AI in code, but every coding terminology is replaced with its exact equivalent in the art field. 1️⃣3️⃣

A screenshot of the same arguments for AI in code but every coding term is replaced with it's equivalent in art.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 04/09/2026

Dear @duckduckgo.com, If you're using an externally trained LLM, you have my data. You might want to change your tagline to "Privacy focussed only for non-artists".

Screenshot of DuckDuckGo's AI assistant.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 23/08/2026

I am so... SO freaking tired of AI boosters talking about art and the industry as if they know anything about it!? It takes so much effort to freaking debunk them. Their brain has genuinely rotted and are dumb as a rock.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 20/08/2026

I hate them so much. They make my work so difficult. I can't debunk something I cannot find. (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 20/08/2026

That's a lie. Screw you.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 20/08/2026

WHAT ARE ALL THESE THINGS?!?! YOU CAN'T PUT THEM HERE WITHOUT CONTEXT!?! THAT'S NOT HOW EVIDENCE WORKS!!!

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 20/08/2026

You can't just date one thing and not the others! Just because it links to articles, doesn't make it mean anything! F*** YOU ALTNPS! WHY ARE YOU LIKE THIS?!?!

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 20/08/2026

They quote themselves as a source. You can't do that?!?!

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 20/08/2026

Source for what? What are these for?! Where are their references? What am I supposed to check?

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 20/08/2026

All their news attributions have no dates or article.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 19/08/2026

On r/Ai_art_is_not_art, there is a whole redemption arc going with Zoe and her artist, who used to make AI art, but picked up an actual pencil and has now started drawing. And they are improving, and it's so cute, and I'm so happy I'm crying. It's a community doing deradicalization in real time.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 17/08/2026

What the fudge do you mean her age has an "or"????!!!!

Wikipedia screenshot of Natalie Harp's page with her birthday being listed as 1990 or 1991.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 11/08/2026

Smart casual hobbit at a Harry Potter themed wedding. Because screw you Rowling!

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 08/08/2026

If I ever get the chance to teach a class on visual novel game designs, I will force all my students to play through Digimon: Survive, and have them analyse the mad design of this game. It's like eating a sandwich of 2 stale white bread, okay cheese, and a 3 Michelin star wagyu patty in the middle.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 01/08/2026

He said he used it for research and seemingly scripting because he got called out for a line that is a common reply ChatGPT would give when asked for correction. Whether or not he used it for the entire scripting process or not though, is already irrelevant if he used it for research.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 31/07/2026

I've been thinking of redoing the names and thumbnails of all my investigative deep dive videos. I made a preliminary list, and I can only say the running gag of my channel seems to be: "That escalated quickly"

They built a train station > Pangolin genocide
What happened to Carly Fleishmann? > Pseudoscience stealing audistic voices
How addictive is coffee? > Morality and history of Singapore's death penalty
Pong > Lost history of the first video games
A random self-help guru > 5 part video series about a multi-million dollar Singapore cult
A random internet software > Theft of $12 trillion worth of free softwares
A random social media account > Historical erasure of freedom fighters to sell t-shirts
A random audiobook publisher > Multi-billion dollar international publishing mafia

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 31/07/2026

Lois gets 2 series of her own comics in mainstream continuity. MJ is relegated to multiverse shenanigans or gets her series cancelled mid way. MJ is at her best as Peter's partner, romantic or not. Best friends that cover each other. Read the New Ultimate Spider-man to see what it's like. (6160) 5️⃣

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 31/07/2026

Just watched Spider-man: Brand New Day. Good movie, 8/10, nice actions, good acting, cool visuals, blah blah BLAH! I want to talk about PeterxMJ. I am a staunch hater of comic PeterxMJ. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Because when you're writing romance, it usually boils down to this chart. 🧵

A chart with "Is it fair?" and "Is it equal?" written on the x and y axis, with the option of YES and NO overlapping.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 30/07/2026

My first murderboard. Proof that my deep dive videos are getting increasingly out of hand.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 29/07/2026

Reading the new comics right now and I finally get why they cast RDJ as Doctor Doom. Because Doom was my favourite Iron-Man.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 26/07/2026

After watching the Avatar Aang movie, I'm really happy to know that Pavi will be next Avatar in the series. I remember when Korra ended, there were online discourse about what the next Avatar would be like. And I remember wanting someone not as physically abled as the ones we've gotten. 1/

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 25/07/2026

These stories are the same genre. #WitchHatAtelier #Saiyuki

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 25/07/2026

The whole magic to heal body thing? I'm reading that and thinking, "Yeah, we should legalise and regulate weed instead of banning it." Or old witches and their archaic rules preventing magic and medicine from mixing? "Yeah, religion in science is a bish, ain't it?" Also gun/magic control is good.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 25/07/2026

What do you mean Riot Games have a weird Russia based branch called Raiot Geims? This is shady af?

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 24/07/2026

OMG Argott, stop being a little shithead!

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 24/07/2026

I've not straight up hated a character in a very long time as much as I hated this 10 year old kid. The fact that one of her first acts in the story is attempted manslaughter of a child is really messed up. #WitchHatAtelier

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 24/07/2026

OHHHH AltNPS, you lying little weasel. AutoMonitor was reported as early as June and some of us (non federal workers even) have known about it as early as May, because we actually keep an eye on these things! It is definitely not "this is just an update" bull. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 18/07/2026

If anyone wonders about all my weird typos, it's because this is my keyboard.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 18/07/2026

From what I can dig up, he buys dev companies for cheap, spend some time trying to convert them to crypto, fails, then completely destroys them to save money because of what a failure chode of a man he is. Forte labs may sound like a tech company, but it's a self-help scammer. They sell NOTHING! 5️⃣

Pictured, chode's man chode website, which looks like a techbro self-help page.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 18/07/2026

Forte Labs is run by Tiago Forte, an absolute chode of a man. If you've watched any of my videos, he is the caricature of the villain in about half of them. Life coaching? Check. Poverty tourism? Check. Ai bro? Check. SaaS? Check. Guy is the villain in a cyberpunk story. 4️⃣

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 08/07/2026

Hey @aiden-ng.bsky.social, I got an email for you. Literally. You might want to send them a reply, since I think you might have a book deal chance here. Just DM me if you want their email.

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Aden Ng @adenng.com · 29/06/2026

My entire life in one screenshot now.

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