Why Artists are Fed Up with AI Art.

Summary

The video script addresses the ethical concerns surrounding AI-generated art, highlighting the unauthorized use of artists' works to train AI models. It criticizes companies like Stability AI for profiting from copyrighted images without consent, describing the practice as 'data laundering.' The speaker calls for awareness and action against this industrial-scale violation of artists' rights, emphasizing the need for an ethical and fair future in the art industry.

Takeaways

• 🤖 AI-generated art is created by training AI on datasets, which often include copyrighted images without consent.
• 🔍 AI companies like Stability AI profit from high-quality media, which relies on training AI with specific datasets.
• 🚫 The use of copyrighted images in AI training datasets is an industrial-scale violation of artists' rights.
• 🎨 Artists' personal works, once shared online, are often included in these datasets without their knowledge or permission.
• 🔗 The video recommends Steven Zapata's video for an in-depth look at the issue of AI and copyright infringement.
• 📚 AI models are prone to memorization and overfitting, which can lead to legal issues when trained on copyrighted data.
• 📈 Stability AI has been involved in the creation of large datasets like LAION-5B, which contains copyrighted and private data.
• 💰 Commercial products like Dream Studio and Stable Diffusion are profiting from AI-generated content, raising ethical concerns.
• 🚨 The practice of using copyrighted data without consent in AI is described as 'data laundering', bypassing legal regulations.
• 👤 AI-generated images can cause reputation damage, forgery, fraud, and identity theft for the original artists.
• 🔒 Once AI models are trained on copyrighted images, they cannot 'forget' this data, leading to ongoing copyright issues.

Q & A

What is the main concern regarding AI-generated art as discussed in the script?

The main concern is that AI-generated art often uses copyrighted images and artworks without the consent of the intellectual property owners, leading to potential legal issues and ethical concerns.

How does AI create a piece of art?

AI creates art by training on a specific dataset, which consists of visual data with statistical correlations that are assembled to produce a final result that looks acceptable.

What is the role of data mining in AI art generation?

Data mining is a practice used by companies to accumulate vast amounts of data from the internet, including copyrighted images, which are then used to train AI models for art generation.

What is the issue with the use of copyrighted content in AI models?

The issue is that AI models are trained on copyrighted content without the permission of the copyright owners, which can lead to legal problems and is considered unethical.

What is the term used to describe the practice of using copyrighted data in commercial products without consent?

The term used is 'data laundering'.

What is the name of the largest dataset funded by Stability AI, which contains copyrighted and private data?

The dataset is called LAION-5B.

What are the potential legal implications of releasing AI models trained on copyrighted data?

Releasing AI models trained on copyrighted data could potentially result in legal issues such as copyright infringement and overfitting, which is acknowledged by companies like Stability AI.

Why is there a double standard between the treatment of music artists and visual artists in the context of AI generation?

The double standard exists because while AI in the music industry is based on copyright-free data and ethical systems, visual artists' work is often used without permission, leading to infringement on their rights.

What is the main argument against the claim that AI takes inspiration like artists do?

The main argument is that AI directly takes data from the dataset to create perfect replicas, unlike human artists who process inspiration through their unique experiences and creative processes.

What is the speaker's stance on AI technology in the art industry?

The speaker is not against AI technology itself but is against the unethical practices of using artists' work without consent and commercializing it.

What action does the speaker suggest for artists and supporters to make a difference?

The speaker suggests that artists and supporters should educate others about the issue, make their voices heard, and push back against the unethical use of their work in AI systems.

Outlines

00:00

🤖 AI Art Controversy: Ethical and Legal Concerns

The first paragraph delves into the debate surrounding AI-generated art, highlighting the process by which AI creates art using datasets that may include copyrighted images without consent. It emphasizes the potential for legal issues due to the use of copyrighted content and the lack of protection for artists' rights. The speaker shares personal experiences of their artwork being used in AI models and calls for awareness about the industrial-scale violation of intellectual property rights.

05:00

🔍 The Double Standard in AI Art and Music Industries

In the second paragraph, the speaker contrasts the treatment of visual artists with that of musicians in the context of AI-generated content. They argue that while the music industry is careful to respect copyright laws, visual artists face a double standard, with their work being exploited without compensation or consent. The paragraph discusses the emotional and financial impact on artists and refutes common counterarguments, such as the idea that AI is simply taking inspiration like a human artist would.

10:00

📢 Standing Up for Artistic Integrity and Ethical AI Use

The final paragraph is a call to action for artists and supporters to educate others about the unethical practices in AI art generation. The speaker shares personal anecdotes of facing backlash and harassment for speaking out against these practices. They emphasize the importance of collective action to ensure a future where AI technology is used ethically and fairly, advocating for an opt-in system rather than the current exploitative approach.

Keywords

💡AI-generated art

AI-generated art refers to artworks created with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In the video, it's a central topic because the script discusses the ethical and legal issues surrounding AI's use of copyrighted images to generate new art pieces without the consent of the original artists.

💡Data set

A data set is a collection of data used for analysis or to train machine learning models. The script emphasizes that AI art creation relies on data sets, which often include copyrighted images, raising concerns about intellectual property rights and consent.

💡Copyrighted images

Copyrighted images are works protected by copyright law, meaning their use requires permission from the copyright holder. The video script highlights that AI training often involves copyrighted images collected from the internet without consent, leading to potential legal and ethical issues.

💡Machine learning

Machine learning is a subset of AI that enables computers to learn from and make decisions based on data. The script explains that AI art is created through machine learning, where AI systems are trained on data sets to generate new content.

💡Stability AI

Stability AI is mentioned in the script as a company that generates profits from high-quality media creation, which relies on AI trained on specific data sets. The company is criticized for its potential legal issues and the use of copyrighted content in its models.

💡Data Mining

Data mining is the process of extracting information from large sets of data. The script describes how companies use data mining to accumulate vast amounts of data from the internet, including copyrighted images, for AI training purposes.

💡LION 5B

LION 5B is a large data set mentioned in the script, which contains 5.8 billion points of image and text data. It is criticized for including copyrighted and private data, used without consent for commercial AI products.

💡Dream Studio

Dream Studio is one of the commercial products mentioned in the script, owned by Stability AI. It is an example of how companies are profiting from AI-generated content, which may involve the use of copyrighted material without permission.

💡Data laundering

Data laundering in the context of the script refers to the practice of using copyrighted data in commercial products without consent, often by exploiting legal loopholes. This term is used to describe the unethical handling of data in AI art generation.

💡Forgery

Forgery in the script is related to the potential for AI to create images that are identical to copyrighted counterparts, which could damage an artist's reputation and lead to legal issues such as fraud or identity theft.

💡Opt-in and Opt-out

The terms 'opt-in' and 'opt-out' refer to the systems where individuals can choose to participate or not in a process. The script argues for an opt-in system for AI art generation, where artists would have to explicitly consent to their work being used, instead of the current opt-out system.

Highlights

AI-generated art has sparked controversy due to its reliance on datasets that include copyrighted images without consent.

AI systems like those of Stability AI generate art by training on specific datasets, which can include copyrighted content.

The creation process of AI art involves assembling visual data with statistical correlations to produce an acceptable final result.

Artists' works shared online are often included in AI training datasets without their knowledge or consent, leading to potential legal issues.

Stability AI's admission of potential legal issues due to their models' memorization of copyrighted content.

AI-generated images can look identical to their copyrighted counterparts, raising concerns about forgery and fraud.

Data mining practices allow companies to accumulate vast amounts of data, including copyrighted and private content.

The creation of the 'lion 5B' dataset, funded by Stability AI, contains 5.8 billion points of image and text data, including copyrighted material.

Commercialization of AI, such as the Dream Studio and Stable Diffusion apps, has led to profit-making from potentially illegal use of copyrighted data.

The term 'data laundering' is used to describe the process of using copyrighted data in commercial AI products without permission.

Artists like Greg Rutkowski have had their names and styles used extensively in AI-generated content without their consent.

AI models trained on copyrighted images are unable to forget, leading to ongoing issues with tainted data in their generations.

The music industry contrasts with the visual art industry, where AI is used with copyright-free data and ethical systems.

Artists are not seeking to erase AI technology but are fighting against the unethical practices of using their work without consent.

Artists are calling for an opt-in system rather than the current opt-out system for the use of their work in AI datasets.

The video shares personal anecdotes of artists whose work has been used without consent, leading to legal and ethical concerns.

The speaker calls for artists and supporters to educate others and make their voices heard against the unethical use of AI in art.

DeviantART's decision to opt all RPS into their AI system was reversed after artists pushed back, showing the power of collective action.

The video concludes with a call to action for artists to stand up for their rights and educate others about the ethical implications of AI in art.

Transcripts

all right guys it's time we talked about

this so if you've been on social media

recently you've probably seen a lot of

talk about AI generated art in order to

understand the severity of the issues

surrounding AI art we have to understand

how AI works when an AI creates a piece

of art it doesn't generate that content

out of thin air instead there needs to

be an input in order for there to be an

output in the big picture machine

learning companies such as stability AI

generate profits from high quality media

and the creation of this media depends

entirely on training their AI on a

specific data set these images are made

by assembling visual data that have

statistical correlations to each other

to produce a final result that looks

acceptable that's a very simplified

explanation but that's the gist of how

AI systems work all you got to know is

in order for that image to be generated

there has to be a data set and that is

where the problem comes in in these data

sets there exists billions of

copyrighted images of artworks of

photographs of people all of which was

collected it from the internet without

the consent of the intellectual property

owner my personal artwork that I share

on my Instagram page has been used to

train AI models and chances are if

you've shared your work online or even

images of yourself your house your

environment you might have been included

in these data sets and if you guys want

a really great in-depth look on this

topic I recommend Steven Zapata's video

which I'm going to link in the

description below the problem here is

your artwork and my artwork the moment

we share them online they are opted in

to the system if you work so much as

exists online it will be found and it

will be used in a piece of AI art and we

as artists are not being protected this

is genuinely an industrial scale

violation of each and every one of our

rights stability AI has claimed quote

because the fusion models are prone to

memorization and overfitting releasing a

model trained on copyrighted data could

potentially result in legal issues

basically admitting to the fact that

their models Direct quickly use

copyrighted content and many of these

generated images tend to look identical

to their original copyrighted

counterparts images and text

descriptions are taken from the internet

through a practice called Data Mining

which allows these companies to

accumulate an incomprehensible amount of

data and these corporations have

intentionally targeted legal loopholes

to allow them to do this stability AI

itself funded the creation of the

largest data set being used which is

called lion 5B this data set contains

5.8 billion points of image and Text

data including copyrighted data and

private data this non-consensual

practice of using copyrighted data in

commercial products is illegal but here

is where it gets really really messy now

this database lion 5B which is most

widely used for AI generation was

created with the pretext of research but

the corporations behind the funding of

This research quickly turned it into a

commercialized product which now

includes dream Studio and stable

diffusion both owned by stability Ai and

now the app lenser AI has been charging

money for specific Avatar packs and as a

result which these companies are now

making massive amounts of profit this

loophole allows these companies to weave

their way through legal regulations

which are put in place to protect the

copyrighted work of artists and

creatives and this process has been

fittingly described as data laundering

and a lot of users even go as far as to

use directly the names of certain

artists to create their generated

content for example concept artist Greg

Rutkowski you've probably heard of him

he has had his name used 250

000 times between stability Ai and

mid-journey's AI platforms not only is

the collection of copyrighted content of

legal concern but so is this when AI

Generations are made to look like an

artist's work this has the potential for

reputation damage for forgery for fraud

for identity theft and what's most

concerning is that when these models are

trained on image of your artwork they

are unable to forget so almost all of

these models are now working with

tainted data their Generations now all

involve copyrighted content which has

been gathered without the knowledge or

permission of the copyright owner it is

directly hurting artists who have put

their passion and their soul into

everything that they create only for

their work to be scraped from the

internet without their permission and

used in training AI models so the large

corporations and businesses behind AI

the perfect world would mean one where

there doesn't need to be a middleman

there doesn't need to be an artist it'll

be a world where these large businesses

can capitalize and monopolize an entire

industry the worst part of it all is you

and I we don't have the option to opt

out and the AI does not have the option

to forget now even with all this being

said a lot of people who are in support

of AI will still try to dismiss this

point but if you're on the fence about

this all I ask is that you take a look

at the music industry there have been AI

models made to create audio content but

when it comes to audio content and the

data that's being used for that these

companies go out of their way to mention

that everything being used is copyright

free and that every aspect of that

creation process is based on a fair and

ethical system that doesn't infringe on

the rights of music artists so please

tell me now why is there such a double

standard when it comes to visual artists

visual art Just Like Music has been

around since the beginning of humanity

it's been such an integral part of our

culture from being found on ancient

artifacts on carvings on Stone Art is

one of the backbones of our humanity and

I absolutely love that music artists

have their rights protected but if

that's the case why should visual

artists be literally trampled on on an

industry-wide basis this is simply not

artists crying and whining over

something that's unreasonable this is

our creation that we hold so near and

dear to our hearts in some cases it

might be our livelihoods it might be the

way we put food on the table for our

families but in every single case this

is our passion this is what makes us who

we are and all of us me and you and even

if you're not an artist and you're

watching this video we have a right to

feel angry to feel the way that we do

right now about this unethical system

every single time an artist speaks out

about this issue I see the same tired

overused counterpoints to try to quiet

that artist down and I am just so tired

of it people saying things such as you

put your work online it's on the

Internet it's free for us to use that's

simply a misunderstanding of the law

just because something is online doesn't

mean you can use it for whatever you

want especially not for commercial

purposes I've also heard people say that

AI takes inspiration from references

just like artists do when someone says

this chances are number one they don't

understand the artistic creative process

or number two they don't understand how

AI Works AI takes data directly from

that data set and it's able to create a

perfect replica humans simply cannot and

if you point to the examples of forgery

in the art world that practice is not

something that we condone that practice

is highly frowned upon a human has to

literally look at the inspiration

process it in their minds combine it

with their life experiences with the way

they feel with how they approach every

single brush stroke I've seen thousands

of studies of my work that people post

online and tag me in and in every single

one of those pieces even if it's a

complete one-to-one study I can see the

unique human touch that made that piece

their own so no an artist taking

inspiration from someone else's work and

studying a reference is not the same as

AI image generation there is also that

really weak argument that this

technology is here to stay it's

inevitable so why don't you just accept

it and stop fighting and that just seems

to be a fundamental misunderstanding of

why artists are upset and what we're

fighting for I myself and I know a lot

of artists are not here to erase AI

technology completely we don't want to

do that and we know we can't do that the

thing is AI is here to stay I accept

that and I welcome that but the way

these systems are organized and

structured to take advantage of millions

of artists is something that we are not

okay with it's not about pushing back

against AI technology itself it's a

about pushing back against these

unethical practices of using our work

commercializing it all of which without

our consent artists such as myself are

not given the option to opt out not

given any compensation and not asked for

consent or permission before our images

are used I don't even want an opt-out

system this system should be opt in in

the first place why should my work that

have put tens of thousands of hours into

be scraped and taken without my

permission and opted into the system

automatically this system exploits

artists it's unethical and I don't want

to be a part of it and just to summarize

how bad it's all gotten I'm going to

give you guys some personal anecdotes

and some experiences that I've had with

the AI Community a few weeks back uh it

was brought to my attention that

somebody on Reddit had created a model

based on 300 images of my work all of

which taken without my knowledge without

my consent and it was shared on a Reddit

post in the community of staple

diffusion not only were these

Generations watermarked but the poster

also said that there was no need to ask

for permission from the artist in order

to make these models public which as

I've mentioned before in the words of

stability AI could get you into legal

issues so naturally I called it out I

put it on my story I showed people

what's going on I voiced my discontent

with the situation but the fact that I

called this out caused a lot of anger on

both sides some people on Reddit decided

that it's a good idea to take more of my

work more of the pieces that I put tens

of thousands of hours into and just

poured my heart and soul into and

generate even more AI models based on

that and a lot of people have been

releasing it to the public in that

subreddit I've gotten a lot of comments

from people saying how dare you react

the way you did how dare you call this

out in your story you caused all of this

drama so now this is all going to come

back to you and part of me is angry

about the situation but I think I'm more

sad about it than anything else it just

seems there's no empathy there's no

understanding there's not even an

attempt to try to understand why an

artist could be so upset about something

like this happening to them and some

people have gone as far as to directly

email my business email about their

competition that they ran to try to make

a model that looks most like my work in

a way that's very passive aggressive

very backhanded and borderline

harassment and I can tell you right now

I'm not the only one who has experienced

toxicity like this Greg Rutkowski who

I've mentioned before have received

comments and messages about how he

shouldn't feel the way he does how he's

overreacting you know just attempts to

invalidate artists calling us whiny

calling us complainers but with this

video I'm hoping to reach people to

educate people to let people know about

how big of an issue this really is and

honestly if you're an artist or even if

you're not an artist and you just care

about the rights of artists I

wholeheartedly stand with you I stand

beside you educate people on this post

it on your story let your voice be heard

even if people in the AI industry do try

to silence you just know that there are

millions of artists who stand with me

and with you who stand behind you to

make the changes that we need it's going

to take all of us knowing about this

issue talking about this issue and

educating people who don't know just how

messy the situation is and I don't want

this video to make you feel like there's

just no hope in the future because there

there absolutely is if you don't know

deviantART recently tried to opt every

single RPS ever posted onto their

website into their AI system but guess

what artists on that platform pushed

back against that they made their voices

heard and that decision was reversed by

deviantART so there is a way to make a

difference even if AI is here to stay

your voice and my voice will make sure

that the future that we live in is an

ethical and fair one to artists and to

all the artists out there who have a

following who have not spoken up on this

topic yet I understand it's hard you

want to avoid drama you don't want to be

pulled into something that you're not

ready for but this affects all of us

doesn't matter how safe you feel how

much you feel like your work is not

going to be affected oh yeah is here but

I'm still going to be drawing in 10

years so I'll be fine your job is secure

and that's great I'm happy for you but

think about the young people right now I

get so many comments and messages from

people telling me how they feel hopeless

there are literally kids out there

aren't babies who are in art schools

going through a four-year program to

hopefully work in the industry and they

feel like there's no hope for them if

you're an artist with a voice with a

platform you don't have to do it for

yourself do it for the younger

generation there are so many people

young people who are counting on you I

don't know about you guys but I want a

future where there's an option to pursue

the passion of art as a career I want a

future where the kids want to draw want

to create want to make things that mean

something to them and whether we like it

or not we're at a very pivotal time in

history right now and there are big big

changes coming and it starts right now

with me and you so if you've made it to

the end of this video I want to thank

you for being here for listening and for

trying to understand the situation I do

want AI to be part of our future but

just not this current version of it feel

free to share this video with people who

might not know as much as you do about

this current situation and please look

up some information on this topic talk

to people about it educate yourself and

educate other people as well and with

that being said I'll see you guys on the

next video