For many artists, we're not scared of new tools and tech. The dilemma here is that billions of our images have been added to datasets to train these word-prompt AI image (#WPAII) platforms without our knowledge or consent.
Artists' labour has been put to use unethically.
Artists' labour has been put to use unethically.
https://twitter.com/washingtonpost/status/1575424425045942273
Would I enjoy loading up my portfolio into an exclusive dataset to create some images based off my own work? Sounds fun.
But what DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, etc have done --wherever the legality lands-- is rob artists of agency and hand it to commercial interests.
But what DALL-E, Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, etc have done --wherever the legality lands-- is rob artists of agency and hand it to commercial interests.
And so now that the AI rollercoaster is loaded up with riders, artists are left begging for someone to take us seriously and put guardrails on the thing.
Artists should have been in the room at its creation. Ethicists should have been in the room.
Artists should have been in the room at its creation. Ethicists should have been in the room.
The internet has taken advantage of artists with virtually every platform that has launched since it began: we need to build better tech, not just keep repeating mistakes of the past.
Artwork is continually treated as a resource to stripmine.
Artwork is continually treated as a resource to stripmine.
People who've followed me a long while know I've been talking about respect for artists and effective image use for years, including for @sciam, and in #scicomm conference talks.
symbiartic.com/home/scicomm-w…
symbiartic.com/home/scicomm-w…
I'm also someone who, from the other end, often suggests artists be more free to share their back-portfolio more readily. I like Creative Commons.
I was once asked to be devil's advocate at a conference, and argue for doing free work.
blogs.scientificamerican.com/symbiartic/att…
I was once asked to be devil's advocate at a conference, and argue for doing free work.
blogs.scientificamerican.com/symbiartic/att…
It's about having choice & recognition over our own labour.
And before anyone says "artists learn from each other too, what's the difference?"
https://twitter.com/FlyingTrilobite/status/1566545822132703232
The difference is scale.
The difference is artist watermarks and signatures appearing in the word-prompt AI images.
The difference is, no one asked me if my Darwin Took Steps painting could be added to their AI experiments which are now becoming services.
The difference is artist watermarks and signatures appearing in the word-prompt AI images.
The difference is, no one asked me if my Darwin Took Steps painting could be added to their AI experiments which are now becoming services.
In 2021 and continuing to now, we've had to battle NFTs scraping our work.
It's 2022 and nothing has changed from a decade ago, or two decades ago except now unconsented artistic use is automated on mass-scale.
It's 2022 and nothing has changed from a decade ago, or two decades ago except now unconsented artistic use is automated on mass-scale.
If you've read this far, and want to see if your images are in AI datasets, here are two tools. Try different keywords to find your work, it can take a few tries.
1. haveibeentrained.com by @hollyherndon et al
2. laion-aesthetic.datasette.io/laion-aestheti… by @waxpancake & @simonw
1. haveibeentrained.com by @hollyherndon et al
2. laion-aesthetic.datasette.io/laion-aestheti… by @waxpancake & @simonw
Addendum for artists and art editors:
Complaining about the quality of word-prompt AI images (WPAII) or bragging about spotting them a mile away is only useful at this moment in time. Don't rely on that as an argument against this stuff, it'll keep changing fast.
Complaining about the quality of word-prompt AI images (WPAII) or bragging about spotting them a mile away is only useful at this moment in time. Don't rely on that as an argument against this stuff, it'll keep changing fast.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
