this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2024
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People are ‘blatantly stealing my work,’ AI artist complains - with notes on a similar appeal that failed hard just recently (pivot-to-ai.com)
submitted 1 month ago by dgerard@awful.systems to c/techtakes@awful.systems
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[–] Crampon@lemmy.world 56 points 1 month ago (4 children)

AI artist Jason Allen

Absolute degenerate.

I have also spent some time screwing around with AI art generators. No way I'm addressing my self as an artist for it. AI art can be useful in certain situations such as whipping together a stupid meme to share between some friends. It's not any talent involved, and it's not something you should consider as copyright worthy.

Creating nice art is available to anyone. It just require some creativity and talent if you want to love of it. Being an artist is not some basic human right. As plenty of "artists" believe.

[–] jonhendry@iosdev.space 22 points 1 month ago (2 children)

@Crampon

AI artists are just the new version of "fractal artists" who for the most part just pick a color palette and run a Mandelbrot generator until they find an appealing image.

It's not nothing but it's not going to get you very far.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Some AI artists actually take the time to touch up the image in something like phtoshop once they get the idea they want but there are still problems with the image.

As the images get better though that might stop

[–] Dkarma@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Now do pour painting

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

sign a toilet bowl

[–] jonhendry@iosdev.space 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

@dgerard

I had a bit making an exception for the value of "fine art" because that can get weird, like “unmade bed with a bunch of trash around it” or a signed urinal.

But I seem to have left that part on the cutting room floor.

If a piece of purely prompt-generated AI art hits a price like a shark in formaldehyde I strongly suspect it'll be some kind of inorganic AI industry insider self-dealing to hype up the AI art market, similar to the big Beeple NFT sale.

[–] V0ldek@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Okay but the shark in formaldehyde is fucking awesome to see in person.

It's a shark! In formaldehyde!!

[–] jonhendry@iosdev.space 3 points 1 month ago

@V0ldek

Yeah I'm not dismissing that. It's a big ass shark in a tank.

Or the guy who made a cast of his own head using his own frozen blood, that's kept in a special refrigerated display case.

[–] Amoeba_Girl@awful.systems 3 points 1 month ago

yeah, Hirst can be a bit of a hack and the names of the pieces are super cheugy but he's definitely made some really evocative stuff

[–] corbin@awful.systems 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I think it might be worth reflecting on exactly why Fountain seems to "get weird;" it had a context and complaints about it are part of that context. I liked this recent video which explores the politics of Fountain.

[–] jonhendry@iosdev.space 3 points 1 month ago

@corbin

I just mean "weird" in terms of “valued far higher than the average person might expect” but I'm not implying that that value isn't merited. I'm not one to dismiss a Rothko.

[–] mrslt@lemmy.world 3 points 1 month ago

Right? I used to think Kinkade was the pompous narcissist. That anyone would consider themselves an AI "artist" is absolutely wild.

[–] YungOnions@sh.itjust.works -4 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Thank heavens we have people like you to police who gets to be called an artist or not...

[–] militaryintelligence@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I instructed the Ford dealer to sell me a new Focus with leather interior and aluminum wheels. I am a car designer and manufacturer. I made this.

[–] Crampon@lemmy.world 22 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's not a protected title. Go to town with it.

But it's diluting the value of it if you carry no talent but want all the recognition.

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 12 points 1 month ago

Thank heavens we have people like you to police who gets to be called the police...

[–] gerikson@awful.systems 5 points 1 month ago

Your position seems to be that art is whatever the US Copyright Office deems worthy of copyright.

[–] luciole@beehaw.org 19 points 1 month ago

We all know what it means when Midjourney churns out pictures that look like your art: their model got trained on your stuff. I think it’s time for Jason Allen to go full uroboros and sue Midjourney for using his art without permission.

[–] SweetCitrusBuzz@beehaw.org 18 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

They're so close to figuring it out but don't have that much self awareness, or perhaps just have cognitive disonance about it.

[–] FormallyKnown@feddit.dk 15 points 1 month ago (2 children)

"All Allen could copyright was what he did to the image himself" - so if he trained the model himself, would that make the work copyrightable? Does that mean midjourney has the copyright of all the images created with it?

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 23 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

The image gatcha does not create a new copyright. There might be a copyright in the text of a complex prompt (do you feel lucky in court?) Mere "sweat of the brow" does not generate a new copyright in the US, so e.g. retouching work on a photo does not generate a new copyright and photos of a public domain artwork do not create a new copyright.

This doesn't touch on the old copyrights of the stuff Midjourney trained on to make its computer-mediated collages. Those copyrights still exist.

Does the computer-mediated collage launder the previous copyrights? The answer is "do you feel lucky in court?"

[–] o7___o7@awful.systems 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's Tornado Cash, but for pictures of Garfield with a machete.

[–] dgerard@awful.systems 6 points 1 month ago

North Korea: "AUGH MY EYES"

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

so if he trained the model himself, would that make the work copyrightable?

I think if he "trained" the model on art he himself created you might have an argument.

[–] anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 month ago

Not in the US, there art can only be created by a human.
If it's created by an algorithm or animal supernatural being it's public domain.

Interesting facts:

  • when photography was invented there was a debate whether photos can be copyrighted
  • if you claim to have written down something revealed to you by a supernatural entity, it's public domain
  • the following image is public domain because it was taken by a monkey