Artists are making creative companies apologize for using AI : technology

[–] [email protected] 111 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Wacom of all companies promoting their drawing tablets with AI got to be one of the most tone deaf marketing campaigns done with AI yet.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

whilst i kinda agree, i don’t think it was intentional on their part (as with most of these controversies)… i think they paid a 3rd party for an artwork, and then that 3rd party took shortcuts - whether whole cloth, or with things like content aware fill - and wacom didn’t ask questions (which they probably should have, because this image in particular is really obviously AI generated)

they should all probably update their contracts to ensure artwork is 100% done by a human with big penalties for infringement though - they just haven’t caught up because it’s a relatively new problem

[+] [email protected] -3 points 10 months ago (1 children)

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

But how much will we accept? Every step of tech was only ever used to increase production while workers got zero benefits. Now, artists will be expected to churn out way, way more because they have AI. Their pay won’t go up. If anything it will probably try to go down—if that was possible for artists.

Just because these things seem inevitable and fighting them is like fighting the tides, the conversation needs to be about how can we spread out the benefit. Share the wealth of easing the workload. And when something like that is suggested, the initial reaction is one of hesitation and “well, that’s not gonna work.” Because we’ve been conditioned into this insane world of benefit going up and workload being shoved down the ladder.

It’s created an already unsustainable world where people are worked to death while profits, profitability, and productivity soar, quality goes down, worker standard of living goes down, buying power of our paychecks go down and prices for everything only go up, profits are hoarded, untaxed, inequality explodes and we are all meant to just take it.

And then there are plenty of workers among us that think, “eh, what are you gonna do? It’s inevitable.” We can’t think like that. The line needed to be drawn fuckin ages ago. Accepting more of the same should be out of the question.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 10 months ago

People fighting AI are fighting to keep this broken system. AI has the potential to, over the course of this coming century, eliminate all human labor.

Our objective shouldn't be to fight that, but to ensure that as it happens, humans are taken care of and the benefits of this propagate to us all, because those who are trying to hoard the benefits to themselves are happy to see people fighting to 'limit' the use of AI or to 'save jobs' because it means those people are not fighting them.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

This just show how ready and willing are many companies to replace human creativity with cheap AI. If anyone really thought that this wasn't the direction they were pointing to, he was just deluding himself. New creativity tools "my ass".

[–] [email protected] 20 points 10 months ago

You're jumping to conclusions. The image was a mislabeled stock image they bought. This is just a case of poor quality control.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Wow. Such a blatantly AI generated image as well. The nerve.

Maybe the go-to way of avoiding this would be for companies to actually divulge who the artist is; credit them!

Edit: Feels like "count the AI giveaways on this image" could become a good drinking game.

Bizarre teeth arrangement
Some teeth are gum coloured
There are spontaneous toes in arbitrary places
The spine tuft migrates to the shoulder
There's some odd scaly and hairy shrimp-looking appendage next to the dragon
- Suppose it's the tail, but it's not attached
- Tail tuft is a different colour from the rest of the fur
Random third horn sprouting from the back of the neck

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

You know, that's a good idea anyway.

I wonder though what that would mean for the copyright?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

Right? There's so much talk about paying artists in exposure but how often do artists actually get exposed?

Don't think copyright should be an issue. We know for example that the soundtrack to the Disney film Encanto was composed by Lin Manuel Miranda, but Walt Disney still owns the copyright. Same could go for the rest of the entire film, they do give credits to people who contributed but Disney still owns the copyright.

Having a signature somewhere on an advert shouldn't be a big deal.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

how'd you miss the tail? i don't think it's attached...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

You mean the hairy shrimp? I didn't.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

We’re soooooorry rubs nipples

[–] [email protected] 12 points 10 months ago

Easier to ask for forgiveness than beg for permission...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

I'm surprised Wacom hasn't added ai to their tablet software like that google drawing program that guessed what you were trying to draw long ago and would make it for you

https://blog.google/technology/ai/fast-drawing-everyone/

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Several days later, and after this article was published, the company issued a contrite statement saying that the images in question had been purchased from a third-party vendor and had evaded being flagged by the online AI detection tools it used for vetting.

Despite this, the company shared a new marketing campaign for its Magic: The Gathering card game on January 4th that was quickly scrutinized for containing strangely deformed elements commonly associated with AI-generated imagery.

The company initially denied AI was involved, insisting that the image was made by a human artist, only to back down three days later and acknowledge that it did in fact contain AI-generated components.

AI detectors are notoriously unreliable and regularly flag false positives, and other methods like the Content Credentials metadata backed by Adobe can only provide information for images created using specific software or platforms.

Some creative professionals argue these are simply tools that artists can benefit from, but others believe any generative AI features are exploitive because they’re often trained on masses of content collected without creators’ knowledge or consent.

Wacom and WotC eventually provided similar responses to their respective situations: that the offending images had come from a third-party vendor, that the companies were unaware that AI had been used to make them, and that they promised to do better in the future.

The original article contains 1,181 words, the summary contains 223 words. Saved 81%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[+] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

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[+] [email protected] -9 points 10 months ago

If you become less productive than China then they get the market. You want to fix the problem by making US business owners to pay up, but capital has no nationality. If you succeed then you have to accept that there is no way for the US to have such a big military complex and it's time to let China be the world's super power.

[+] [email protected] -10 points 10 months ago (3 children)

I get why people are upset, but isn't it kinda futile? Everything that can be replaced with AI will be. From arts to dev and anything else they can think of. It's only a matter of time until the tech is good enough for any particular problem. Trying up legislate against it doesn't seem useful either. People will get around it eventually.

We're moving towards a world where lots of us won't have viable jobs in these fields. We'll either find different jobs or need some form of UBI

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago (3 children)

Ah, yes, doomerism, inspirational. I think MLK said it best "I have a dream, but it's hard, so let's all give up instead"

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Doomerism - I don't think that word means what you think it means (or you just don't understand what UBI could be the start of, don't know anything about MLK, probably all of the above).

Considering MLK's understanding and support of Marxist ideas, he'd probably be fighting for technological progress as long as it came along with UBI, since that's literally the basis of a better world for everyone, unlike systemic racism and capitalism he was fighting against, which really aren't comparable at all (sure, both could be used to fuck up the prospect and potential of technological progress and UBI, but that's the fault of systemic racism and capitalism, not technological progress and UBI).

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago (1 children)

We’re moving towards a world where lots of us won’t have viable jobs in these fields. We’ll either find different jobs or need some form of UBI

this is the comment. it's pure 100% doomerism with a "we have to find other jobs" thrown in. this isn't, "we should do this if it comes with UBI".

also don't really appreciate the giant paragraph where you claim MLK is in favour of AI, or would be, that's just weird. don't do that, don't put words in the mouth of dead people. You can make arguments without that.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (2 children)

Lmfao, says the person who invoked MLK in the first place, and literally put words in his mouth (words only someone who knows nothing about him would try to relate to him in this context)... 😂😂😂

Thanks, I really needed a good laugh to start the day with, and apologies for challenging you with two whole sentences, I won't put you through such hell again..

Clown
🤣🤣🤣🤣

[–] [email protected] 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

and literally put words in his mouth (words only someone who knows nothing about him would try to relate to him in this context)

you realize i was using those words as an example of something he didn't say right? Specifically, I was pointing out how his message was against defeatism and doomerism by showing how he didn't use those words.

do you not understand this concept? In addition, why are you like this?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Loads of people have reading comprehension issues. They literally have trouble comprehending anything beyond grade school level writing

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

rude ._.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

You're right about marxists favoring tech progress, but they traditionally oppose a UBI. That's generally true of the traditional left, not just the fringes.

They represented (or wanted to) the working class; people who did not just work for a living but took pride in being a worker and contributing to society. They tend to believe in a right to make a meaningful contribution to society (aka work) but also in a duty.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

BTW do you know anyone who's hiring buggy whip makers?

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago

Optimism about the future of AI capabilities is not doomerism. It's going to expand humanity's capabilities, not limit or reduce them.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 months ago

Yes and No. That Wacom Dragon legitimately looks awful; its tail a messed up, nonsensical mess. I think the problem isn't as much just "AI art" as it is "awful art", because if a human had made it, it would have been absolutely better; it would have made sense at the very least. Instead you have middle managers trying to cut corners and the end result is an insult to creative workers everywhere; and the managers and marketers who approved this said "meh, good enough" and didn't even try.

That's the most insidious part of AI Art used in marketing, a race to the bottom in terms of quality that leads to crap being thrown in consumers faces because creative, knowledgable people aren't being included in the conversation.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

It is, this is the equivalent of protesting the printing press. It would be most useful to find a way to transition gracefully, but most people are still in the denial stage.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

The printing press didn't change the text inside the books and made books widely available to the public. Art is already everywhere, we don't need AI to have enough of it and it fundamentally replaces what is actually good about art.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

AI is making it possible for everybody to create art (for certain definitions of art). That's the same thing the printing press made possible, it lowered the barriers to anybody creating their own publication. The parallels are extremely numerous and striking, for those without a preexisting bias.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Prompting a machine isn't creating art any more than commissioning an artist is creating art. Writers still had to actually write books to print, AI removes everything between the initial idea and the final product.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (1 children)

There's a thousand Benedictine monks who said the same thing at the thought of an unadorned, unillustrated stack of paper stapled together.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

You'd have a point if the printing presses only put out randomized, meaningless chicken scratch, but instead you're conflating how art is presented with the art itself.

[+] [email protected] -20 points 10 months ago (2 children)

I feel like anymore, artists just look through companies work just to go point out AI art and whine about it

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (2 children)

If artists aren't producing work and just complaining about AI art, who is AI stealing the work of?

Your argument literally defeats itself.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 10 months ago

You should check out this article by Kit Walsh, a senior staff attorney at the EFF. The EFF is a digital rights group who recently won a historic case: border guards now need a warrant to search your phone.

[–] [email protected] -5 points 10 months ago (1 children)

No-one. Training a neural network, natural or artificial, is not "stealing". Or no artist would be able to study the works of other artists to become a better artist themself.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

Your argument seems to be that we should consider the AI to itself be an artist and to grant it the rights of other artists.

That's fair.

But other artists aren't allowed to profit off reproducing other's works.

They also are compensated for their work.

Is OpenAI putting money in a trust for when their product gains sentience?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago

But other artists aren’t allowed to profit off reproducing other’s works.

But we do allow them to take inspiration from other artists and emulate their styles.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

wacom is a company that produces drawing tablets. you know, hardware tools for artists. it is their job to market specifically to artists.

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