AI — You In Or Out? (Re:Building Together EP 305)

Host: CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG) with co-host Baked · Thu, 27 Aug 2026 · ~53 min across two parts · 6 speakers

TL;DR

• The first room barely got off the ground — CEELOS was mid-move out of his warehouse, killed the Wi-Fi, and the Space crashed. Take Two picked up the actual conversation.
• The theme: AI in Web3 art and content — are you in or out? Nearly everyone who grabbed a mic landed on "in."
• CEELOS made the long-form case for AI as a tool: he uses it openly, credits it, and shares how he does it — including generating the labels for his coffee bags.
• Slick Ric and DarkViRuS carried the analogies: typewriters, emails, cavemen, and a "WALL-E effect" of humans getting lazier while the tools get better.
• chazzgold.eth, an Adobe Firefly ambassador who's been making AI art since the GAN days, offered the veteran's take: nothing's going anywhere, just decide if you're using it.
• Dingus pulled up to show love for the regens and framed the whole room as the "0.1%" who don't think NFTs are a scam.

Highlights

The rocky open [P1 0:52] — CEELOS explains he started late because his 5G won't work in the warehouse neighborhood ("I don't know if it's the heat"), so he had to fire up the Wi-Fi he was about to unplug and hope for the best. It didn't hold; the room dropped and reopened as Take Two.

CEELOS's core case for AI [P2 8:12] — "It's no different than you telling me grab a rock and bang that nail in" when a hammer or a drill gets the job done. He frames himself as a creative with ideas who uses AI as a tool, insists the concept is still human, and says being "out" on AI in Web3 is doing yourself a disservice.

"Fade now cope later" [P2 13:16] — Slick Ric pulls up between a haircut run and co-host duty with his mindset intact: using AI is like refusing to use crypto — you can hold out now, but you'll come around. Roll with the flow.

The evolution analogies [P2 14:41] — Slick Ric: "I'm mad at the guy who sent the email because I had to send it through the mail." He acknowledges the real worry — impersonators faking the grind — but bets the innovators will outnumber them.

The creator's counterpoint [P2 14:13] — DarkViRuS voices the sympathetic version of the frustration: a real creator films and edits and pours in time, while someone punches in a few words and gets monetized. He keeps it warm, though — be true to what you're doing and don't let it drag you down.

The WALL-E effect [P2 22:14] — DarkViRuS traces the line from cave drawings to newspapers to typewriters to AI, noting each generation calls the next one lazy (the tractor over the cow and plow). Humans get lazier, sure, but "you still have to put in your input — it don't come out of thin air. Well, not yet."

chazzgold's long view [P2 26:33] — The AI vet in the room: he took heat for "garbage"-looking AI art back in 2020–21, and now early GAN pieces are worth fortunes. His timeless-argument reference — 1800s portrait photographers said photography would kill art, and nothing ever actually died. "There's plenty of room for every art form in the whole entire world. If you don't want to use AI to make art, then don't fucking use it." He mentions being an Adobe Firefly ambassador and teases a builder-bots session the next day.

The coffee-label hypocrisy [P2 21:03] — CEELOS, a coffee roaster of 23 years, makes his bag labels with AI and owns it openly. The product inside is what he crafts. His mild irony: the same folks who object to AI art have no problem copying his AI designs onto t-shirts to sell.

Dingus and the 0.1% [P2 41:46] — After showing love for the regens and recapping a Gary V/Jed Space on collecting, Dingus lands the framing of the night: "99.9% of society thinks that NFTs are a scam. So anybody still here chatting about this, you're like the 0.1%."

All the way in [P2 45:35] — CEELOS closes on being early and staying curious: AI keeps him informed, teaches him new skills, and keeps him on his toes. "I'm all the way in… until I reach a certain level that I'm comfortable that I know what the hell I'm doing" — which, given how fast it moves, he doesn't expect anytime soon.

Topic timeline

Notable quotes

• "Fade now cope later is my mindset." — Slick Ric [P2 13:16]
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  0:38
• "I'm mad at the guy who sent the email because I had to send it through the mail." — Slick Ric [P2 14:41]
  ▶

  0:38
• "There's plenty of room for every art form in the whole entire world. If you don't want to use AI to make art, then don't fucking use it." — chazzgold.eth [P2 26:33]
  ▶

  0:38
• "Humans do get lazier and lazier, but you still have to put in [the input]… I call it the WALL-E effect." — DarkViRuS [P2 22:14]
  ▶

  0:38
• "99.9% of society thinks that NFTs are a scam. So anybody still here chatting about this, you're like the 0.1%." — Dingus [P2 41:46]
  ▶

  0:38
• "I'm all the way in… until I reach a certain level that I'm comfortable that I know what the hell I'm doing. I don't know what the hell I'm doing." — CEELOS [P2 45:35]
  ▶

  0:38

Who said what

• CEELOS (@CEELOSFIGG, host) — Drove the theme; pro-AI throughout, framing it as a tool he uses openly and shares. Coffee roaster who makes his own bag art with AI and credits it every time.
• Baked (@Bakedmetax, co-host) — Held down the rocky Part 1 opening while both hosts were trying to leave work.
• Slick Ric (@richj530) — "Fade now cope later"; typewriter and email analogies, acknowledging the impersonator worry but betting on innovators.
• DarkViRuS (@DarkViRuS) — Gave voice to the real creator's frustration, then broadened it into the caveman-to-WALL-E arc; landed on staying true to your work.
• chazzgold.eth (@chazz_gold) — The room's AI veteran and Adobe Firefly ambassador; six years in, GAN-art history, "just decide if you want to use it."
• Dingus (@DingusUSA) — Old-school regen fan; recapped a Gary V Space and delivered the 0.1% framing; plugged his Thursday 5pm ET Dabin Network Space.

Worth a full listen

• [P2 13:16]–[P2 16:33] — The Slick Ric / DarkViRuS riff on typewriters, emails and impersonators is the conversational heart of the episode, and the analogies build on each other in real time.
• [P2 25:35]–[P2 28:40] — chazzgold's firsthand history of AI art since 2020, the GAN-art value story, and the photography-killed-art parallel — the most grounded stretch of the room.
• [P2 40:03]–[P2 45:35] — CEELOS and DarkViRuS on being early, why the $500 PFP is really a self-portrait, and community as "something bigger that's not even here yet" — the summary can't carry the warmth.