A.I. Art Again!
The Battle Against the Robots Continues to Grow
Since my last post, this A.I. art situation has blown up as artists and developers gear up arguments for what will likely be a long series of legal showdowns. I have listened to podcasts, watched videos, read articles, and even sat in on some discussions with working professionals in the comics industry about the controversy.
While there are arguments to be made on both sides, from what I have heard, it is hard not to side with the artists on the ethical problems of this new technology. I definitely agree the A.I. art is here to stay and that it is also an incredible achievement by our developers and scientists. However, the prime argument against A.I.—aside from the threat to the livelihood of working artists— is the irresponsible use of existing art and data for profit without consent.
The arguments I hear coming from the tech side of the issue remind me a lot of the Pirate Bay situation about a decade ago. There were so many people who loved being able to torrent so much music and movies for free that they would bend over backwards to justify why it was okay. The Pirate Bay creators even made a documentary trying to paint themselves as counter culture heroes even though the name of their product literally references people who steal things.
As with any new technology, people can’t be trusted to do the right thing all the time, especially when the shelter of corporate interests are used to protect guilty parties. Legislation will need to be put in place to protect human rights and property that will allow for some accountability.
What form that legislation will take remains to be seen, but it is important that people keep discussing the issue. Some of the guys in the Proko video below were pointing out that this issue is only starting with artists, but soon the ethical issues surrounding A.I. will be affecting all jobs and industries. So listen up, folks: the robots are coming!
Sam Does Arts Perspective
This video by @samdoesarts comes from the perspective of an artist who has been at the center of the controversy in the last couple months. After his art was used without consent to produce an A.I. engine that would create art using his style, he took to his millions of followers to fight against the people responsible. It turned into a battle that ended up causing more a-holes to create A.I. generators using his art out of spite, but it helped drive the online movement by artists to argue against the technology. This is a good short video arguing mainly against the tech if you need to catch up on what is going on.
Proko Discussion
The video by Proko is a much more in depth discussion about the legal and ethical issues. Stan brings in the perspective of a developer on the A.I. side to balance the argument, but his guests are quick to point out the flaws in many of the presented arguments. Toward the end, they dig deeper into the discussion about the long term situation which they approach from a realistic but not entirely cynical perspective.
If you are interested in the discussion Proko has with the A.I. developer, you can watch it here. I watched some of it today.
The kid’s desire to defend his colleagues’ work is honorable, but there comes a point where he is saying he thinks the A.I. can be trained to do styles without having to use artists’ images. Stan looks dubious and asks if he thinks the computer can be trained the nuances of an art style with words.
You can see the developer’s words get a little ahead of his thoughts has he suggests there are ways to do this, and Stan stops short of asking the obvious question, “So if not with words then… with pictures?” Instead, Stan takes a more polite stance and says something like, “Oh, you mean work with artists to train the A.I. in styles.”
Sure, Stan. That’s what he meant. But wouldn’t it be so much easier if he could just take a bunch of artist’s pictures in the style he wants to train it instead?
Sterling Martin is an artist and designer living in Chicago, IL. His background includes drawing, writing, theatre, teaching, improv & sketch comedy, and whatever else he can get his hands on to be creative. You can find him on the internet at:
Instagram: @sterfest.art
Website: sterlingmartin.design
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