this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2024
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Setting aside the usual arguments on the anti- and pro-AI art debate and the nature of creativity itself, perhaps the negative reaction that the Redditor encountered is part of a sea change in opinion among many people that think corporate AI platforms are exploitive and extractive in nature because their datasets rely on copyrighted material without the original artists' permission. And that's without getting into AI's negative drag on the environment.

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[–] Daft_ish 82 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (33 children)

Typically, I don't find anything offensive about the images ai creates. What I do take issue with is the outlandish claims of artistic ownership because they strung some words together.

[–] drislands 25 points 8 months ago (13 children)

Agreed. Consider this absolutely batshit take from the reddit post linked in the article.

Your art looks pretty good, so most people wouldn't be able to tell it's AI unless you told them it's AI.

Generally it's always best to just lie and tell everyone you made it yourself, just to avoid all the toxic people that hate AI, because not having to read hateful comments from people like that is reason enough to lie. Don't need to provide any evidence or go into details, just tell everyone you made it yourself and ignore anyone that question it.

"Your art". I'm sure clicking the "regenerate" button on mid journey for 5 hours took lots of work. It's hard not to feel real hate for these people.

[–] MB420GFY 0 points 8 months ago (1 children)

you're all hung up on ownership. IP is completely a result of capitalism. no one would care who used their images if we weren't all struggling to survive in a post scarcity world. the problem isn't AI, it's the people that own this shit and insist that the world cling to these outdated ideas of ownership. I use AI in my art all the time. I'm an artist with 40 years of experience. I have no problem with it.

Quit bitching about AI and start dismantling capitalism (by any means necessary).

[–] Womble 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

One of the saddest things I've seen on Lemmy is that while people here generally have sensible left wing opinions on things (the tankies aside), as soon as AI is brought up in any context most of the users seem to transform in to pearl clutching petite bourgeoisie.

[–] Theharpyeagle 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What is bourgeoisie about being against AI art?

[–] Womble 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The bit where people all of a sudden become obsessed with owning intellectual property and generating passive income from it (royalties) and value people being able to monetise cultural artefacts rather than allow them to contribute to the common good.

[–] Theharpyeagle 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

The people "obsessed" with it are, by and large, independent and industry artists who are already struggling financially and most are definitely not making any money from royalties. They very often post their art in public spaces where they are free to view, or in Pateron for a few bucks a month. Certainly the outcry is against all of those public (but still copyrighted) works that were used to train models.

[–] Womble 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The people “obsessed” with it are, by and large, independent and industry artists

I'm not sure that's true unless Lemmy has an incredibly strange community of whom a significant proportion are tech focused professional artists. But regardless the point I'm making is more about the mindset where people become vociferous defenders of an unjust system that benefits large corporations because they are fighting for the few scraps that they get out of it, rather than considering alternatives.

[–] Theharpyeagle 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I get my impressions from outside Lemmy as well, mostly sites with a large concentration of artists (ArtStation, Tumblr, DeviantArt) and personal friends who work in the industry. I also moonlight as an artist, though not yet good enough to worry about losing income from it.

Also, what is the unjust system you're referencing? People aren't advocating for Disney level copyright protection, but these are living artists with brand new works being collected for training with no say in the matter. Most certainly they are not on the same side as corporations, which are embracing AI art wholeheartedly despite the disputed status of copyright laws surrounding it.

[–] Womble 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

People aren’t advocating for Disney level copyright protection

No they aren't, they are arguing for making copyright even stronger than the system created by Disney, where not even distributing copies of a work lands you falling foul of the rights of property holders.

Generally the position that I've seen being advocated is taking copyrighted works, distilling that information (the plagiarism machine etc) and then using that to create new works would be violating the property rights of people who made the original works, despite a copy of them never being distributed. That is a massive expansion of IP rights that you not only have rights to the original work but also to derivative works.

Most certainly they are not on the same side as corporations, which are embracing AI art wholeheartedly despite the disputed status of copyright laws surrounding it.

"Corporations" are not a monolith on this, what Disney or a publishing house wants is not aligned with what an upstart AI company wants. Which means that change from the property holder centric system is possible for the first time in a century or more as there are powerful interests lining up both for and against it rather than being puerly on the side of the status quo.

[–] Theharpyeagle 0 points 8 months ago

No they aren't, they are arguing for making copyright even stronger than the system created by Disney, where not even distributing copies of a work lands you falling foul of the rights of property holders.

Charging for those copies in a competing market is definitely against current copyright law, and many the owners of the models are charging for access while some users are selling the results. Obviously this is new territory legally, but an argument can be made that these do not fall under fair use.

"Corporations" are not a monolith on this, what Disney or a publishing house wants is not aligned with what an upstart AI company wants.

Where do their desires differ?

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