A friend of mine shares images dall-e creates using other peoples artwork. I recommended he try to add a layer of customization on top of the artwork or get prepared for inevitable litigation. I also created, artwork based on his creation, now it’s my creation. Right or wrong?
If I pretend, I can say I’m right. Similar to Dall-e’s protection they offer their end users.
My buddy suggested they offer a layer of protection for usage, however isn’t that just a person typing stuff. Does it really protect you?
I told him “that’s just people making stuff up, and I doubt it will survive in courtrooms.” Sorry to say it, and I realize I won’t be the first or last to say Ethics in AI assisted artwork is about as deep as an html, css, and javascript page that suggests you’re safe, however that means they are writing ethics laws without artists weighing in on the debate..
If people can make a website and say something, it does not mean you are protected from litigation..
It just means a person made a website.
Websites are easy to create.
Websites are simple.
Html, css, javascript.
Simple enough.
My suggestion; “at the very least do a layer of artwork over this artwork, vector tracing overlay could be a start” and I made it obvious he can also trace over the artwork without computer assisted automation, also I left the tracing and edits for him to see/understand. That’s a great way to create art, but still it’s a hack, a workaround from having to do the work myself. Also, you should make it your artwork, right?
If you trace it, it’s now yours because you’re tracing and tracing is a big part of art creation.
The ethics of assisted ai artwork comes into question if this person is a big deal somewhere, someone will question your ethics about this artwork. A lot of people will notice, especially if dall-e copied someone famous, and my friend will inevitably get busted.
It’s not like music. I go to music because music is what I know. It’s not like music where I can repeat your loops, verbatim, and then submit it to Netflix for music on a show. If the artist you’re ripping off is small enough, you will never get in trouble, and even if they notice, they will only shout in the wind. Okay, that happens and we are now aware.
Dall-e is automating that process completely, and adding a disclamier that you own the rights to the artwork it creates. This maybe concerning for anyone who is creating art and releasing it in a public area. Why wouldn’t they aim these training tools at public facing, indexed, labeled, and pre-classified searches, like harvesting content from google searches. This means you’re not safe if you’ve put anything online, and even further from good if you clearly and correctly labeled the image. That makes it easier for a robot to classify.
A world full of robots, art is now automated.
How about assisted art ethics, does anyone care about the artists behind the crosshair?
AI being fed food, helps the AI learn, the diet of this algorithm is your artwork. If your food is your creation, will you be upset that others can automatically create artwork based on your work?
Now, frank, the bot, it creates art, and it doesn’t have feelings or ethics.
Do the artists have visibility of their character creations being used? Not until someone tells them or they recognize it first. Maybe their sunglasses, this style of coloring, this style of clouds, where does it come from, no way to reverse engineer today, but tomorrow is a different story.
As we know, you challenge any nerd long enough, they will find a solution…
Maybe no one can reverse engineer a dall-e image today, but image searches are getting better, so maybe not today, but tomorrow yes. Yes tomorrow.
Tomorrow, this thought resonates, and the content exists, time stamped, meta stamps. What’s the future going to be like? Will it consume my artwork on this blog and re-use it for another artist around the world? Should we care? Should we let it go? Is this the end of art creation or the beginning for something amazing and net new.
Whatever it is, I hope to be apart of talking about the solution in the micro and macro.
Thanks for the time. FEEL FREE TO CONTACT ME ON Tyler Garrett’s TWITTER IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS.
Tyler Garrett
SENIOR CONSULTANT
DEV3LOPCOM, LLC
AUSTIN, TEXAS
