Anti Ai Art Resources
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Anti AI Generative Art Resources
This post is a repository of all the links, videos, and articles pertinent to the fight against AI generative art.
I believe there is room for some form of AI (trained ethically, and heavily regulated) to exist without becoming a threat to creative (and non creative) livelihoods, but the current iteration of it is beyond dangerous. The situation is escalating daily and I wanted a place where I could collate all relevant info on the AI crisis. This is that place, and as such, this is a developing article which I plan to update periodically.
The above video details my 2 decades long career and how I’ve seen AI and automation wreak havoc on creatives and non creatives alike. I give a summary of where we are at, and what we can still do with regards to government policies, AI regulation, lawsuits against AI, including class action lawsuits, as well as social stigma and pressure.
How you can contribute to the fight against unethical AI
- Concept Art Association GoFundMe
The Concept Art Association has hired a lobbyist to push for regulation of AI in government policy in the US. Silicone Valley in California is one of the major hubs for AI in the world, so supporting this cause benefits all of us, even if you are not a US citizen. This is their Go Fund Me link if you want to contribute towards their expenses:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/protecting-artists-from-ai-technologies - EGAIR Manifesto
The European Guild for Artificial Intelligence Regulation has a manifesto for AI companies regulation in Europe. You can sign the manifesto here, and also donate if you wish:
https://www.egair.eu/#manifesto - Distributed AI Research Institute
DAIR is a space for independent, community-rooted AI research, free from Big Tech’s pervasive influence. It is headed by Timnit Gebru (former Co-lead of Ethical AI research for Google). Their website has a donation option if you wish to support her efforts.
https://www.dair-institute.org/ - Montreal AI Ethics Institute
MAIEI is a non profit organization that aims build public competence in AI Ethics and publish innovative, applicable policy research. It is headed by Abhishek Gupta, who is also a machine learning engineer at Microsoft. Their website has a donation option if you wish to support their efforts.
https://montrealethics.ai/ - Art Impact AI Coalition
Canadian policy and regulatory innovation with regards to AI
https://www.change.org/p/join-the-art-impact-ai-coalition-support-artists-voices-on-the-future-of-ai
Lawsuits Pertaining to AI and Legal Precedents
- Getty vs Stability AI
Getty sues Stability AI for copying 12M photos and imitating famous watermark
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/02/getty-sues-stability-ai-for-copying-12m-photos-and-imitating-famous-watermark/ - Class Action against StabilityAI, DeviantArt and MidJourney
A group of artists — Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz — have filed a class-action lawsuit against Midjourney and Stability AI, companies behind AI art tools Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, and DeviantArt, which recently launched its own artificial intelligence art generator, DreamUp.
https://www.polygon.com/23558946/ai-art-lawsuit-stability-stable-diffusion-deviantart-midjourney - GitHub Copilot Litigation
Microsoft, its subsidiary GitHub, and its business partner OpenAI have been targeted in a proposed class action lawsuit alleging that the companies’ creation of AI-powered coding assistant GitHub Copilot relies on “software piracy on an unprecedented scale.”
https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/8/23446821/microsoft-openai-github-copilot-class-action-lawsuit-ai-copyright-violation-training-data
Case Updates:
https://githubcopilotlitigation.com/case-updates.html - ‘Artist’ receives US copyright for a comic she generated via AI, then loses it
Artist receives first known US copyright registration for latent diffusion AI art, and then gets it revoked after office learns how AI works
https://kotaku.com/ai-comic-art-copyright-midjourney-revoked-1850150702 - China bans AI-generated media without watermarks
China’s Cyberspace Administration recently issued regulations prohibiting the creation of AI-generated media without clear labels, such as watermarks. The new rules aim to spur growth and ban deception in the generative AI field.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/12/china-bans-ai-generated-media-without-watermarks/ - EU Law to Force AI Imagers to Disclose Copyrighted Photos in Dataset
Midjourney and DALL-E do not publically disclose their data sources. But, the former has admitted to using “hundreds of millions” of images without consent.
https://petapixel.com/2023/05/01/eu-law-to-force-ai-imagers-to-disclose-copyrighted-photos-in-dataset/
Artist resources in the fight against AI generative art
- Glaze
A free downloadable tool that you can feed artwork into, and it adds a protective layer to foil attempts of AI scrapers.
https://glaze.cs.uchicago.edu/ - Artgram
A free artists’ portfolio platform. Their mission statement says it does not support AI-generated work and never will.
https://www.artgram.co/ - Newgrounds
A free artists’ portfolio platform that does not allow AI generated art.
https://www.newgrounds.com/ - ArtFol
A free artists’ portfolio app (and web platform in beta) that also does not allow AI content.
https://www.artfol.co/ - Have I Been Trained?
Search 5.8 billion images used to train popular AI art models to see if your art was used to train AI
https://haveibeentrained.com/ - Clip Front, Laoin5b database searcher
Input the prompt to find the images that were likely used to generate the ai art
https://rom1504.github.io/clip-retrieval/?back=https%3A%2F%2Fknn.laion.ai&index=laion5B-H-14&useMclip=false
Important conversations around AI
- Disturbing interview with AGI zealot
Stan Prokopenko (proko.com) interviews Evan Conrad (who facilitates grants for AI companies) and talks to him about the imminent job losses creatives will face, and his AGI (artifical general intelligence) utopia, where no one has jobs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_Bqq09Kaxk - Concept Art Association AI Town Hall
A virtual townhall concerning AI and our creative industries, hosted by Karla Ortiz, and featuring many creative industry leaders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYO9sii1eKA - 2023 AI Media Advocacy Summit
A series of talks around AI generative art, legalities, and ethics, that were livestreamed. The website contains links to the recorded sessions.
https://www.aimlmediaadvocacy.com/schedule
Creative companies/organizations aligning with artists
- Paizo
Paizo has banned AI art and content in its RPGs, including community-created work. The Pathfinder and Starfinder company commits to work by ‘human professionals’
https://www.polygon.com/tabletop-games/23621216/paizo-bans-ai-art-pathfinder-starfinder - Concept Art Association
An advocacy organization for artists working in entertainment. Their board member, Karla Ortiz, has been one of the leaders in our industry fighting back against the unethical practices happening in the AI text-to-image space.
https://www.conceptartassociation.com/advocacy - Getty Images
Getty Images has banned the upload and sale of illustrations generated using AI art tools like DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion.
https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/21/23364696/getty-images-ai-ban-generated-artwork-illustration-copyright - PurplePort
PurplePort, a modelling and photographer portal, has banned machine-generated images, and wishes to remain an inspiring source of human-generated and human-focused art.
https://purpleport.com/blog/2022/09/14/post-artmageddon-the-rise-of-the-machines-and-banning-machine-generated-images/154 - r/Art SubReddit
The r/art has stated in its rules that no AI Art is allowed on the subreddit. They are perhaps a bit overzealous with their moderating as some real artsists may get caught in the crossfire.
https://www.pcgamer.com/artist-banned-from-art-subreddit-because-their-work-looked-ai-generated/ - INPRINT
InPrnt’s code of conduct states that you may not use the Platform to upload, download, use, share, buy, sell or distribute any artworks generated via an automated software process that utilizes artificial intelligence and/or machine learning.
https://www.inprnt.com/info/terms/
Creative companies/organizations aligning with AI
- Epic Games & Artstation
Artstation (owned by Epic Games) refuses to ban AI art, and actively hides protest art
https://www.theverge.com/2022/12/23/23523864/artstation-removing-anti-ai-protest-artwork-censorship - Wix & DeviantArt
DeviantArt, owned by Wix (who have already put many designers out of business via automation) have started DreamUp, an AI generator.
https://time.news/thats-how-wix-got-involved-in-a-class-action-lawsuit-against-ai-based-image-generators/ - Adobe & Behance
Behance have nothing in their terms of service regarding AI, but given that they are owned by Adobe, who have their own generative art tool (Firefly), it is assumed your work will not be safe on that platform. Adobe have stated in their FireFly FAQ that they have used work submitted to Adobe stock to train FireFly and that there is no way for contributors to opt out.
https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/21/23648315/adobe-firefly-ai-image-generator-announced - Shutterstock
Shutterstock has announced an extended partnership with OpenAI, which will see the AI lab’s text-to-image model DALL-E 2 directly integrated into Shutterstock
https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/25/23422359/shutterstock-ai-generated-art-openai-dall-e-partnership-contributors-fund-reimbursement - Blizzard
A new Blizzard patent has detailed a system to use AI to generate artwork based on a specific style by emulating it.
https://gamerant.com/blizzard-ai-artwork-game-worlds-patent
Creative jobs lost to / negatively affected by AI & Automation
- Digital Art: This artist is dominating AI-generated art. And he’s not happy about it.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2022/09/16/1059598/this-artist-is-dominating-ai-generated-art-and-hes-not-happy-about-it/ - Concept Art: Blizzard implements machine learning to help generate concept art, and AI will also be used for voice cloning, and game coding.
https://kotaku.com/blizzard-ai-art-stable-diffusion-concept-activision-1850463809 - Art Contest: Image generated by MidJouney entered into the Colorado State Fair fine arts competition, where it won first place, beating real artists.
https://www.pcgamer.com/human-uses-ai-to-win-art-competition-other-humans-angry/ - Art Contest: An AI generated piece won 1 of 5 spots in the Hague museum for a Vermeer contest.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230310-girl-with-ai-earrings-sparks-dutch-art-controversy - Photography: Viral Instagram Photographer confesses his photos are AI generated
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/02/viral-instagram-photographer-has-a-confession-his-photos-are-ai-generated/ - Photography: Photographer refuses 1st prize in competition for his AI image
https://petapixel.com/2023/04/14/artist-refuses-prize-after-his-ai-image-wins-at-top-photo-contest/ - Game Art: High on Life computer game using generated AI art in game.
https://www.thegamer.com/high-on-life-ai-generated-art/ - Promotional Art: San Francisco Ballet uses AI to generate promo graphic design for the Nutcracker.
https://news.artnet.com/art-world/san-francisco-ballet-catches-heat-for-promoting-its-nutcracker-performances-with-a-i-generated-art-2236291 - Journalists/Content Creators: Buzzfeed replaced 12% of its workforce with AI
https://mpost.io/buzzfeed-cut-12-of-its-staff-and-replaced-employees-with-ai/ - News Editors: Meta replaced news editors with AI algorithms
https://mpost.io/meta-to-replace-facebook-news-editors-with-ai-algorithms/ - Journalists: Microsoft has replaced some of their journalists with AI
https://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2020/06/07/microsoft-is-replacing-employees-with-aiand-other-small-business-tech-news/ - Creative Writing: Clarkesworld closes scifi story submissions due to influx of AI submissions
http://neil-clarke.com/a-concerning-trend/ - Newsletter Content: Viral article on Substack busted as AI-written
https://futurism.com/ai-written-article-plagiarized - Journalists: Layoffs at CNET due to AI pivot
https://futurism.com/cnet-layoffs-ai - Comic Book Art: Comics with AI art: what’s out there, what’s to come
https://www.comicsbeat.com/all-about-ai-comics/ - Children’s Book Art: Guy uses AI to publish a children’s book in a weekend.
https://time.com/6240569/ai-childrens-book-alice-and-sparkle-artists-unhappy/ - Photobashing: Photographer faithfully recreates his work using text to image generator
https://www.diyphotography.net/photographer-faithfully-recreates-his-work-using-text-to-image-generator/ - Comic Book Art: AI Drew This Gorgeous Comics Series. You’d Never Know It
https://www.cnet.com/culture/ai-drew-this-gorgeous-comics-series-youd-never-know-it/ - Anime Girly Art: PicSo is an AI-powered digital art generator that creates images especially anime and realistic girl images from input text.
https://www.producthunt.com/products/picso#picso - Logo Design: Adobe Express Logo Maker lets you generate logos by filling in a form
https://express.adobe.com/express-apps/logo-maker/ - Game Assets & VoiceOvers: New AI tools have like ChatGPT and Midjourney will change game development forever. But for better or worse?
https://exputer.com/exputer/generative-ai-changing-gaming/ - Content Creators: Your favorite Youtuber will soon be replaced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60of_Cu8nJQ - Voice Actors: Voice actors remain sceptical about the use of AI in gaming
https://www.eurogamer.net/voice-actors-remain-sceptical-about-the-use-of-ai-in-gaming - Graphic Designers & Copywriters: One of China’s largest media and public relations companies, Bluefocus Intelligent Communications Group Co. is planning on replacing its external copywriters and graphic designers with generative AI models, and more of the country’s industry giants could follow suit.
https://www.techspot.com/news/98314-company-replace-creative-workers-chatgpt-like-generative-ai.html - Non fiction authors and content creators: Amazon being flooded with AI generated books and fake reviews, as well as news outlets cranking out AI generated articles.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/05/05/ai-spam-websites-books-chatgpt/
Non creative jobs lost to / negatively affected by AI & Automation
- Entry Level Coders: OpenAI has been making major moves to hire an “army” of outside contractors to better train a model how to code — an operation that could ultimately render entry-level coding jobs extinct.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/openai-replace-entry-level-coders-ai - Game Coders: watch a Blizzard game director code a game using nothing but ChatGpt
https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/watch-a-blizzard-game-director-code-a-game-using-nothing-but-chatgpt - Cashiers: The Real Minimum Wage Is Zero’: McDonald’s Restaurant Uses Automation For Pickups And Orders.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-real-minimum-wage-is-zero-mcdonalds-restaurant-uses-automation-for-pickups-and-orders - Robotics: Researchers are building robots that can build themselves.
https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/22/researchers-are-building-robots-that-can-build-themselves/ - Fry Cooks: CEO brags that dry cook robot will replace obsolete human grunts.
https://futurism.com/the-byte/ceo-brags-that-fry-cook-robot-will-replace-obsolete-human-grunts - Product Developers: Dropbox is laying off 500 people and pivoting to AI
https://www.theverge.com/2023/4/27/23700629/dropbox-laying-off-500-people-pivoting-ai