
Human Intelligence - Are the robots coming for us?
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Let me lay my cards on the table, as it stands, the new AI systems get a big NO from me when creating visuals, same thing goes for written work unfortunately. Apologies for the hyperbole, but I don't want to be an accessory to possibly the largest heist in history; they've literally taken millions of pieces of artists and authors copyrighted work to train these systems without permission, which is just theft. I only support stealing when it's accompanied by green tights, a bow and arrow and contained within a folk ballad from the Middle Ages. You wouldn’t be O.K with someone breaking into your home, stealing your jewellery say and then breaking down the component parts to create a new piece to sell, no matter how skillfully done. That certainly wouldn’t protect them from prosecution...so just because this is all done online doesn’t mean it is any different. Theft is theft. There are new lawsuits popping up all the time for a reason folks...
johnny_automatic, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Let's begin with a bit of myth busting around some of the go to talking points:-
1. We're removing the gatekeeping of art! - Umm sorry to break it to you, there is no gatekeeping no, like literally you can wander down most streets and see some amazing street art, or in a field a surprise sculpture will appear. We're far more likely to be gate decorating with a bit of yarn bombing than keeping. I mean all this guarding of gates would take time away from what we love to do most – creating art. If we're honest, most gates are about trying to keep artists out, we're usually the ones getting overly excited by a new set of pens and saying 'hey guys look at this, you have to try this out it's so much fun'!
2. Artists take inspiration from other artists, this is just the same! - Taking inspiration from other artists work is not the same as literally uploading that artist's work into a machine to create a copy of their style. Taking inspiration is part of an ongoing artistic conversation, a back and forth. The current AI systems are those annoying people who listen to you in a meeting, rubbish your ideas, but a few minutes later repeat them word for word pretending they came up with it.
3. It's only a bit of fun - Whilst I agree the idea of transforming myself into a *insert sparkly magical creature here* via the power of a bit of computer wizardry is hilarious, I don't think my having a quick giggle for a few minutes is worth hurting other people, and it is hurtful. They haven't just stolen from dead artists who can't answer back, I too have searched the datasets and found some of my own imagery has been stolen and used to train these systems, I wouldn’t be surprised if quite a lot of you had too, it's not just art they've stolen.
But what can we do in the face of these scary robots???
Talking about it in terms of robots triggers any scary/mildly hilarious vintage sci-fi movie we've ever watched, I'm looking at you Forbidden Planet! It makes it seem beyond our control or somehow inevitable that these big scary tech things are going to take over. But this isn't a sci-fi movie with robots coming for your jobs, there are very real people behind these systems that have taken it upon themselves to steal, running roughshod over millions of people and quite frankly just being a bit crap. If these companies had approached artists and said please can we use your work for this purpose and we will give a portion of the profits to you, now that would be a different story...they could have done this...they chose not to...they just stole.
The ethics and decency are the thing that’s missing here, the technology itself isn’t inherently bad it’s the people who created it in the wrong way in the first place that are the problem. We all know ourselves, from going about our lives, running our own businesses, how you should treat people. As a small business I put a lot of effort into treating my customers and suppliers with respect. There seems to be no respect in this process at the moment...
So why now??
What I find weird is that this all seems to be happening in a fairly rushed way. It's like they all got caught up in the idea of being the first one to the finish line, they myopically focused on the end point and forgot if you lie, cheat and steal to get there the odds are you'll end up being disqualified; slow and steady folks...channel the tortoise not the hare! It's also particularly interesting that it seems to be happening at a time when I actually think people are becoming more eager to learn new things. If the success of platforms like Skillshare, Domestika, Creative Live and even the tutorials on Youtube and TikTok tells us anything, it's that we're in a golden age for learning. People thirst for knowledge, enjoy learning new things....let's be honest we like to play, I mean it's how we all learned as kids isn't it??
So why do some of the people behind AI want to take the learning out of creativity? If you're an independent learning individual you're just that, independent! You start exploring beyond the small boxes they want to keep you in, you're less controllable if you can think for yourself. No great theory of science, art or any discipline ever came about because people stuck to the status quo... and contrary to what they tell you, they are not revolutionising anything with these particular systems, they're regurgitating, because the sources they are drawing on are things that already exist, because an artist had to create it in the first place. Trailblazers think sideways, diagonally, while doing loop the loop you name it, there isn't necessarily a linear logic to things sometimes. So many great discoveries were 'mistakes', in the quest for some mythological 'perfect' you eradicate the chance discovery, the happy accident....the wonderful mistake!
I dunno maybe some of the tech folks are worried we'll stop needing them with all this joy of learning, hey do not fear we love you as long as you respect us in return. I mean seriously, whoever developed and coded the undo/redo buttons for software deserves all the fancy prizes. Admittedly yes, it has provided us artists with yet another tool to torture over for hours, but that really is more about us than it is them! I'm sure applied ethically with some basic decency AI could be really useful, but there doesn't seem to be anyone out there at the moment really doing that, or if there is they're not easy to spot amongst the morass.
There's nothing I'd like better than someone to take the pain away of having to write a million different product descriptions basically saying, look I made this, it pretty, please buy. I mean they do exist they're called copywriters, but a small biz like mine can't quite afford them. So here's an idea, why not work WITH people like this and other artists and authors, in collaboration when creating these systems. Deal with people with respect, offer fair compensation, if they say no respect it and find someone else who is happy to work with you. There is real potential here to help each other, to increase accessibility for those starting out or who might not have the funds to hire people on a more personalised basis. It really didn't have to be this way and there's still time to course correct, how about we all just start respecting each other a little more...
I know I'm not alone in this, there are some other really great pieces about the minefield of this issue out there so if you'd like to read more than just my ramblings I'd recommend checking out this great post by Megan Auman that really lays out the bare facts and is beautifully honest about the complexities of navigating an online presence as an artist at the moment. You should also check out this very witty take from Alex Dobrenko` that cuts through some of the guff and the below fabulous YouTube video by illustrator Emma Reynolds. As a community let's all have each other's backs when our copyright and intellectual property is being threatened.