Why Artists HATE AI Art! (And Why It’s NEVER Ethical) || SPEEDPAINT + COMMENTARY

The video discusses the ethical concerns surrounding AI-generated art, focusing on the use of unauthorized artwork in training AI models like Lion 5B. The host, Celestia, argues that the current AI art industry is inherently unethical due to its exploitation of artists' work without consent or compensation. She highlights ongoing legal battles over copyright infringement and the potential impact of AI art on the job market for human artists. Celestia also refutes the comparison of AI art to digital art tools, stressing that AI art's ability to replicate and scale artwork poses a unique threat to the value of human creativity. She concludes by advocating for a more ethical approach to AI art, including the use of legally sourced data and supporting artists' rights.

Takeaways

• 🎨 The ethical concerns regarding AI art center around its creation using a dataset of over 170 million images scraped without artist consent, known as lion 5B.
• 🚫 AI art generators are criticized for their potential to infringe on artists' copyrights by replicating styles from the training data.
• 💰 Profits from AI art go to the companies creating the models, not the artists whose work is used as a reference, raising questions about fairness.
• 🤖 AI's use of references differs from human artists as AI lacks creativity and reinterpretation, instead directly recreating aspects of the subject matter.
• ⚖️ Legal challenges are emerging with copyright violations from AI art generation, such as lawsuits against Stability AI and GitHub.
• 🎼 In contrast, AI music generation like Harmony is considered more ethical as it uses copyright-free and voluntarily provided music samples.
• 🧐 There's a debate on whether AI art could be ethical if it didn't use the lion dataset, but the damage from training on stolen art is irreversible.
• 👥 The impact of AI art on the job market for human artists is a significant concern, with fears that AI could replace human roles in art creation.
• 🌐 The rapid improvement of AI art and its adoption by companies to replace rather than assist human artists is a growing issue.
• 🖌️ Digital art tools like Photoshop are different from AI art generators because they require human skill and effort to create art.
• 🤔 The comparison between AI art and traditional art tools is flawed as AI can replicate art at a scale and speed unachievable by humans.
• 📈 While AI art is here to stay, the focus should be on making it more ethical, such as through legislation and the use of ethically sourced datasets.

Q & A

What is the primary concern of artists regarding AI art?

The primary concern of artists regarding AI art is the ethical and legal implications of its creation, particularly the use of unauthorized and stolen artwork as training data for AI models, leading to potential copyright infringements and the undermining of artists' rights.

What is the role of Squarespace in the video?

Squarespace is the sponsor of the video. It is a website building and hosting platform that the host, Celestia, has been using for a long time. The platform is praised for its versatility and ease of use, as demonstrated by Celestia's creation of a website for her cat, Cheddar.

How does Celestia describe the process of creating AI art?

Celestia describes the process of creating AI art as one where an algorithm generates an image based on a text prompt. The most popular form of AI art generation is through stable diffusion models, which use a wide variety of reference images to create new images.

What is the significance of the lion 5B dataset in AI art generation?

The lion 5B dataset is significant because it is a collection of over 170 million images scraped from the internet without the consent of the creators. Most stable diffusion models were trained on this dataset, which means they are effectively using the work of artists who did not consent to that use.

Why is the use of AI art in the art community considered problematic?

The use of AI art in the art community is considered problematic because it can replicate the style of any individual artist whose work was included in the training data. This raises ethical concerns about consent, copyright, and the potential displacement of human artists in the industry.

What is the current legal situation regarding AI art and copyright?

The current legal situation regarding AI art and copyright is fraught with challenges. There are ongoing lawsuits, such as Getty Images suing Stability AI, and a class action lawsuit against Microsoft GitHub and OpenAI, due to the illegal scraping and use of copyrighted content in AI art generation.

How does Celestia differentiate between human artists using references and AI using references?

Celestia differentiates by explaining that human artists use references and filter them through their perception and artistic skill, reinterpreting and reimagining them in their work. In contrast, AI does not reinterpret but directly recreates aspects of the subject matter with a high degree of accuracy, using a vast number of references at a rate and scale unattainable by humans.

What is the ethical dilemma with AI art if the training data was ethically sourced?

If the training data was ethically sourced, with artists voluntarily providing their work for AI training, AI art generation could be considered completely ethical for some. However, concerns would remain about how AI art is used, particularly its potential to replace human artists and the impact on job opportunities and the value of human creativity.

How does Celestia view the future of AI art?

Celestia acknowledges that AI art is here to stay and that resisting it is not productive. Instead, she advocates for making AI art more ethical by fighting for ethically sourced datasets, using it as a tool to assist artists, and pushing for legislation that protects human artists' involvement in creative projects.

What is the potential harm in viewing AI art as a democratization of art creation?

The potential harm lies in the devaluation of the artist and the art creation process. It suggests that anyone can become an artist without the need for years of study and practice, which is offensive to artists and potentially harmful to the future of art by discouraging people from learning to create art.

What actions can be taken to make AI art more ethical?

Actions to make AI art more ethical include advocating for ethically sourced data sets, refusing to support models trained on unauthorized data, using AI art as a tool rather than a replacement for human creativity, and fighting for legislation that ensures a minimum number of human artists are involved in creative projects.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 The Ethics of AI Art and Squarespace Sponsorship

The video, sponsored by Squarespace, delves into the ethical considerations surrounding AI-generated art. Celestia, the host, discusses the debate on whether AI art can be considered real art and if it poses a threat to artists. The video also highlights how Squarespace has been instrumental in hosting the host's art studio and personal portfolio, showcasing its versatility and ease of use for artists. The host humorously introduces 'Cheddar The Experience,' a website dedicated to their cat, as an example of Squarespace's capabilities.

05:01

🚫 AI Art and Copyright Infringement

The video addresses the legal and ethical issues related to AI art generation, particularly focusing on the use of the lion 5B dataset, which contains over 170 million images scraped from the internet without consent. This has led to numerous lawsuits, as AI models trained on this data can replicate artists' styles, infringing on their copyrights. The host also contrasts this unethical approach with that of 'Harmony,' an AI music generation tool that uses copyright-free and voluntarily provided samples, highlighting the disparity in ethical considerations between different AI art forms.

10:02

🤖 The Human Element in AI Art Creation

The host explores the human side of AI art generation, emphasizing concerns about the potential loss of jobs for human artists due to the increasing use of AI art in the industry. They discuss how AI art is being used to replace, rather than assist, human artists, which is seen as unethical. The video also touches on the debate of whether AI art is simply a tool or a threat to the art community, comparing the rise of digital art to the current AI art debate and arguing that AI art is being misused as a substitute rather than an aid in the creative process.

15:02

🌐 The Inevitability of AI Art and the Call for Ethical Reform

The video concludes with the host acknowledging the inevitability of AI art and the futility of resisting its existence. Instead of opposing AI art outright, they advocate for making it more ethical by using legally sourced datasets, supporting models that respect artists' rights, and pushing for legislation that protects human artists. The host calls for a future where AI art can be a tool for artists rather than a replacement, encouraging viewers to speak up for change and support ethical practices in the field.

Keywords

💡AI Art

AI Art refers to artwork generated by an artificial intelligence algorithm based on a text prompt. In the video, it is discussed as a controversial topic due to ethical concerns regarding its creation and use. The video emphasizes that AI art is often created using datasets like lion 5B, which contains over 170 million images scraped from the internet without consent, leading to copyright infringement issues.

💡Ethics

Ethics in the context of the video pertains to the moral principles that govern the creation and use of AI art. The discussion revolves around whether the use of AI to generate art is morally right, especially when it involves the unauthorized use of artists' work. The video argues that the current practices in AI art generation are unethical because they exploit artists' creations without consent or compensation.

💡Stable Diffusion

Stable Diffusion is a specific type of AI art generation model that the video focuses on. It is mentioned as the most popular form of AI art creation, which has been trained on a vast dataset of images, including those without the artists' consent. The video argues that this method of training AI on unauthorized artwork contributes to the unethical nature of AI art.

💡Copyright Infringement

Copyright Infringement is the unauthorized use of copyrighted material. The video discusses how AI art generation often involves the use of copyrighted images to train the AI models, which is a violation of the original artists' rights. This infringement is a central ethical dilemma presented in the video, with ongoing lawsuits and legal challenges as a result.

💡Overfitting

Overfitting in AI refers to when an AI model creates something nearly identical to an image from its training data. The video mentions that AI art generators are prone to overfitting, which can lead to the creation of artwork that is strikingly similar to copyrighted works, further complicating the ethical and legal issues surrounding AI art.

💡Artist Exploitation

Artist Exploitation is the concern that AI art generation could lead to the exploitation of artists by using their work without permission or compensation. The video argues that the profits from AI art go to the companies creating the models and those selling the AI art, rather than to the artists whose work is foundational to the AI's output.

💡Capitalism

Capitalism is the economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. The video discusses how artists are concerned that AI art could replace human artists in the market, leading to job losses and a devaluation of human-made art due to the capitalist drive for efficiency and profit.

💡Democratization of Art

Democratization of Art refers to the idea that AI art could make the creation of art accessible to everyone, not just trained artists. The video challenges this notion by arguing that while AI art may seem to democratize the art creation process, it actually undermines the value of human artistic skill and effort, and could discourage people from learning to create art themselves.

💡Legal Action

Legal Action is the process of taking a case to court to resolve a dispute. The video mentions ongoing legal actions, such as lawsuits against companies like Stability AI and Getty Images, for using copyrighted material in AI art generation. These actions are part of the effort to hold companies accountable for ethical and legal breaches in AI art creation.

💡Artistic Skill

Artistic Skill is the talent and ability to create art. The video emphasizes that AI art does not possess the same level of creativity and reinterpretation as a human artist. Instead, AI relies on a vast database of references to recreate aspects of subject matter with high accuracy, which is fundamentally different from the human artistic process.

💡Photographic Memory

Photographic Memory, in the context of AI, refers to the AI's ability to remember and accurately reproduce every reference it has been exposed to without any loss in quality or detail. The video contrasts this with human memory, which is subject to interpretation and degradation over time, highlighting a key difference between human and AI art creation.

Highlights

The ethics of AI art are being questioned, with concerns around the use of AI-generated art and its impact on artists.

AI art is created by algorithms based on text prompts, with the most popular form being stable diffusion.

Stable diffusion models are trained on a dataset called lion 5B, which contains over 170 million images scraped from the internet without consent.

Artists are concerned about AI art generators' ability to replicate any individual artist's style if their work is included in the training data.

AI art generation is profitable, but none of the profits go to the artists whose work is used to create it.

There are ongoing legal battles over copyright violations resulting from AI art generation.

Stable diffusion programs do not store stolen images but use them to teach the AI how things are supposed to look.

AI art generators are prone to overfitting, creating something nearly identical to an image from its training data.

The debate centers around whether AI art creation is ethical if the dataset composed of stolen art was not used.

AI art is not capable of creativity or creative reinterpretation; it directly recreates aspects of the subject matter.

Artists fear that AI art will eliminate the need for human artists, erasing job opportunities.

The use of AI art to replace human artists in the creation process is seen as unethical, even if the AI art itself wasn't.

AI art is often compared to digital art, with some arguing it's a step towards the future that artists should embrace.

The popularization of AI art is seen as devaluing artists and their work, suggesting that anyone can be an artist without the necessary study and practice.

While AI art is here to stay, the focus should be on making it more ethical and artist-friendly.

The video calls for fighting for ethical AI art practices, including the use of legally sourced datasets and supporting artists' rights.

It's important to speak up and fight for changes in the AI art industry to prevent further harm to artists and the art community.