Does everyone know what AI art is,
what AI art programs are at this point?
Can I just assume you've all see the arguments
about it? Forbes magazine delved into it so I'd
ASSUME it's on everyone's radar.
Maybe not? Here's
what you'll wanna know/why artists are pissed.
There's
"Artificial intelligence" art programs that
some people have "created" where you can simply type in some prompts/words and the program spits
out an image based on those prompts. And
depending on which program or how much time you
wanna piss away, you can have it modify or redo
parts or try again with different parameters.
The program obviously isn't able to draw
or paint anything, what it is doing is making an
art slurry- culling and
merging and cobbling together an image from it's
database of art that it has culled (stolen) from all
across the internet into a database. It's does
not see, it does not create, it is an
algorithm.
AN AXE TO
GRIND?
The issue here is not that there's some new
digital art tool. Artists have been at the
forefront of using the power of computers in
their work since the 90s and Coral Draw. I
personally don't fear some new art tool...the
less people work traditionally, the more
valuable I keep becoming. Pretentious
nostalgia isn't anyone's problem with this that
I know of. The issue here, presently, is THEFT.
IT EXISTS
VIA THEFT
The data
base the program uses is full of pictures that NO ONE gave the
programmers any rights to use. It's an algorithm
that stole art from far and wide across the
internet, to shove through it's AI image
meat grinder...at the request of people who want
to "make art". I'll repeat that important
part, the program has downloaded into itself
millions of images that NO ONE gave it the right
to use. Without that stolen art, the
program would be useless. It would be a car with
no engine.
It's data base, which allows it to perform, is
made of art it stole...copied down to the last
pixel...every last zero and one... and added to
it's coding.
This is nothing less than the
largest art heist in human history.
Let's take a step back and show you the nuts and
bolts of this thing. Here's how one makes some
AIart. You go to the program, type in "prompts"
(words describing the image or scene you want).
You can type three words, you can type a
paragraph, whatever, then hit "enter" and it
slurries out a picture, cobbled together from
elements of images in it's (stolen) data base of
art.
That pic of Cthulhu facing off against
batman...the grand total of input that the
person who "made" it had was to type in nine
words. The rest was a program meat grinder-ing
other art pieces together.
Let me illuminate how this works, thanks to some
asshole who had the balls to come right out and
insert the name of an artist ( Frank Frazetta)
in his prompts
The program gave four choices/versions...let's
take a look at that Owl in the upper right.
It gave me a big case of deja vu. It gets tricky
for me now to explain this, because some of you
have a good understanding of art composition,
implied lines, ect...and some of you may not.
But this example is pretty stark so I trust
you'll be able to get your head around the
point.
Below on the right is Frank Frazetta art, on the
left the "AIart"
See what I mean by "taking elements"? It
took the color pallet AND it took the
composition...
A color pallet would be the specific
combinations of tones, hues, ect. Color theory
and creating a pallet that works is a very
complex. It can be no less complex and specific
than designing the wiring for an alternator.
As far as composition, that also is a skill that
takes years to master...using swaths of color,
implied lines, forms, to unify a piece and/or
make it visually interesting. You can't just
have details and visuals thrown onto a canvas or
it'll be a visual mess no matter how well it's
rendered. The composition is like a framework or
skeleton that you plot the visuals on top of.
Scroll back up and give them both a look.
That's what this program does...it takes forms,
structure, color pallet, composition ect. from
art pieces it stole and mapped out and then
slurries them together with the same from other
art, to meet the "prompts" given.
It's a complex bit of coding, no small feet of
programing, but a Mercedes is just a garage
ornament if it does not have an engine. And
that's what these programmers had, a pretty car
with no engine...so they stole an engine.
Without the art they STOLE, and added to
their coding, their program would not be able to
do what it does.
...I'll explain it like this, you know what a
kaleidoscope is? The child's toy, a tube with
plastic shards in it, you shake it and look
thought it and see the pattern the shards made,
shake it again and see a new pattern.
This program without the stolen art is just the
tube.
Stop romanticizing every time you hear something
declared "AI". This is not a sci-fi movie, it is
not conscious. It is lines of computer code that
performs a task. It takes in data and
modifies what response it gives based on other
data. If you give it more complex and different
the data, it will give you a more complex and
different response...I hate to break your heart
but so does a calculator.
If you type prompts, don't like the picture and
then add or remove prompts and get a better
picture, that is not the program learning
anything. Much like with a kaleidoscope, if you
only want a bright pattern so you remove all the
blue and purple shards and add more red and
yellow...that tube didn't "learn" anything, you
adjusted what you were going to see before you
looked through it.
Everyone please grow the fuck up. An "AI"
program is not a character in a Pixar movie, it
is not the robot broad from Ex Machina. It is
lines of code...in this case, lines of code made
up of stolen art.
If you haven't seen the arguments where the
users of this thing declare themselves "artists"
and hold steadfast to the idea that it is
"learns" and "operates like a human brain does".
Go find some, it'll blow your mind. These are
the children of the people who though they were
being healthy by drinking diet coke. They
honestly think it's "learning" when in fact they
are helping code some millionaire's program, for
free.
If these people were characters in the Wizard of
Oz...after the guy pretending to be the wizard
got on his balloon and left, they'd still keep
going back to the room hoping the giant head
would appear and tell them what to do next.
anyways...back to the theft,
Excerpt here from an interview with one of
the "men" behind this garbage
A big "scrape"...that's an interesting term
for theft.
I have seen many wet ends try to rationalize
this as not theft, because the pictures that
come out are not copies, but "interpretations"
much like "human learns to do". That
is patently absurd and missing the point. The
theft and copyright violation is not the picture
it crapped out, it is the code in database it
uses to crap it out.
(bold now for effect...ehem...)
This is a computer program, made of
lines of code. And in those lines of code are
pieces of artwork it copied ( down to the last
zero and one)...without paying the artists,
asking for permission or giving them a choice
(STOLE). and without that stolen artwork, it
could not do what it does. It's code is made up
of stolen works. IT ONLY FUNCTIONS BECAUSE OF
THE STOLEN WORK IN IT'S CODE.
The fucking gall here is amazing. If you can't
"automatically" figure out who something belongs
to, you can just take it? Is that how it works?
So ,I can just go out and start taking things,
because I can't instantly know who they belong
to? No...of Couse not. I could not just take
your laptop and charge other people money to use
it. If that art exists, someone made it, and the
rights to it belongs to them.
The "rules" (LAWS) are pretty clear, actually.
The "challenge" of figuring out who something
belongs to IS STEP ONE, BEFORE YOU TAKE IT.
Am I repeating myself here?...If the artwork
exists it is because someone created it and
unless it is some 100 year old image in "public
domain" than someone owns the rights to it.
No way to "opt out" "right now"...but they're
gonna get right on that. And let's just absorb
that notion of "being able to opt out". Do you
have to "opt out" of me stealing your laptop?
Can I just take your laptop unless you email me
that you are "opting out" of my theft? Give me a
fucking break.
That is not how the law works, if someone owns
something, it does not become yours unless they
willingly give it to you. That goes for your
laptop, a patent, or copyrighted work.
I'm going to make sure we are all crystal clear
on something here...because I have seen many
mopes who ( I shit you not) who have declared
themselves "artists" after using this ( I am not
making that up...people after typing words into
this program and getting a picture, have
declared to the world that they are artists) and
they say "what's the difference between
what it is doing and someone using pictures for
reference to learn art?".
Well, first off it is not human...much like
their fleshlights are not human. Something that
is not alive, is not alive, no matter how much
they want to believe it is. but we'll get past
that.
1-it is not learning anything,
If you type prompts, don't like the picture and
add or remove prompts and get a better picture,
that is not the program learning anything. That
is you helping code it...for free.
2-When someone uses a picture of say...a
truck...for reference it is being interpreted by
their wonderful yet flawed brain. And their best
picture of it is still an interpretation.
This program copies, exactly, down to the last
pixel, last 0 and 1 of code, and uses it to
function. Copies as in duplicates...function as
in performs it's task via that code for numerous
individuals (publishes, distributes, profits).
It does not matter what it spits out after the
prompts someone types, it has still copied the
art in order to function.
You
musicians, comedians, actors and actresses,
ect...it's in your best
interest to help push back on this. Artists are
usually not wired, don't have the skillset, to
verbalize a defense that will connect with
people...not the way you can. Help now, because
YOU are next.
A program will come along (if it's not being
completed already) that will capture your
rhythm, timing, tone, style of writing...copy
your expressions and paste a cgi skin on them.
Break down the unique fluctuations of your voice
and when and why you do so and map it into a wav
file tool box that a different voice can ride on
top of... just like that, your style is at the
disposal of anyone who has not learned one
single thing about the craft that you have
worked to master. Maybe on a commercial, a voice
over, a video game...and you won't get a single
dime.
There's other nefarious uses for these programs,
that are being developed thanks in large part to
dopes who want to "make art" but are actually,
en mass, providing millions of dollars of free
R&D, but I'll get into that some other
time...the theft in and of itself is enough to
address for now.
In case you're wondering, I haven't checked to
see how much of my work is such data bases. I'll
get to that after a class action lawsuit is
filed . #PROTIP that'd be an effective way to
stop this, because an art thief raking in
millions of dollars probably isn't going to gaf
if we call him a p.o.s. online (we should all
still be calling them P.O.S.s though).
People don't usually stop doing something that
is making them rich, until it stops making them
rich.
anyways...that's what that's all about.
