If you know me then you know I'm not one for stirring the pot. My general attitude toward literally almost everything is that I purposefully don't have strong opinions to one side or the other, simply because I don't have the time or capacity for stress to care about whatever silly 'world changing' event is in the public noosphere. Though, I guess that's become less true with the sudden rise in AI generated art content.
Paragraphs 2-4 address some of the more common arguments I tend to see in defense of AI art if you want to just to skip to the end.
I don't stand for it, and I don't think it can do anything but harm the art/furry/cub community on every level. To be clear, since i've seen these arguments made numerous times, I want to address them up front in relation to how they affect me. They probably won't, at least not in the sense of compromising my job. I'm not afraid of losing my career as an artist since the people who generate art probably wouldn't have wanted to hire me to begin with. It's a simple matter of interaction, and the ecosystem that's remained relatively undisturbed since the dawn of the fandom. CREATION and COMMUNITY have been the backbone of the fandom since its conception, and both of those are at risk of being neutered by means of automating the process of making something that should be crafted not just with a few taps of a keyboard, but passion.
The next point is that stupid buzzword I keep hearing tossed around for some people to try and gain a sense of intellectual high ground. No, I am not a "Luddite". The invention of new technology is amazing and I yearn to see what new tool is released to further help me and others in the artistic sphere to grow and hone our craft. AI generated art is not a tool. At least not in its current state, more on that in a bit. The vast majority of the way that I've seen it being used is the generation and immediate publication of a piece that was made by a machine, with no attempt to improve upon the image whatsoever. No one should be sitting here reading this with the delusion that it was ever created with the intent on helping artists better themselves. So no, it isn't a tool, it's a stand-in for the creative process.
Last is probably the most divisive point considering the vastly differing cultural views that surround it. AI generated art, as it stands right now, is theft. To be fully transparent, not every AI generator is built on the backs of stolen artwork, but who here is really going to sit there and honestly say that they'd prefer to use the inferior model trained on consenting artists with a smaller pool of data points to work with? It's unrealistic to assume the average user won't gravitate toward what produces the highest quality work they are searching for since the average user does not care about the ethical dilemma that revolves around this issue. Open source models may still use image libraries with millions of images scraped off of the internet, which is why I don't agree with the rules as they are now for Inkbunny. Until there is a model that openly and demonstrably has the consent of EVERY artist that it uses as a data point, I can only see it as a very complex form of thievery.
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To round everything up, AI art in its current form isn't just irresponsible, it's dangerous. The ONE thing that people enjoy doing, and yet some seem to want to automate it. I don't fault the engineers for building their technology. Used properly it can do more good, but the fantasy that it will ever be anything other than a meat grinder for misappropriated art is certainly not something we will see in the next decade. I implore you as someone who wants art to not use an AI model. Instead, PLEASE, even if you aren't satisfied at first, make something with your hands. Create! Share! Maybe we as a community need to band together, to take others under our wings who may want to become better artists but don't know how. Perhaps then it will quell the insecurity that one might have when choosing to generate their idea instead.
The rules surrounding AI generated works on this platform aren't to limit the theft of work from the entire sphere of artists as a whole, but to protect the intellectual property of one's "style" as an individual. And while it is a nice gesture, I don't think it is enough. ChocolateSalmon made a post recently about this, and honestly it was the one thing needed to push me out of silence too. I've spent a lot of sleepless nights in worry about what effect this will have on the fandom in future generations. The past 15 years as a part of it has made it feel like a family that will live forever, but now I strongly fear for it after my generation is gone.
As to not end on a low note, I don't have more to add to this discussion. It was just a way to share my thoughts while at the same time relieving a little bit of my stress born from all this. You're welcome to have differing opinions, and I have no interest in defending any of my points. And while I share no animosity with someone making AI art (I understand the appeal, I really do.), please note I have and will continue to go through every avenue to avoid seeing it and further thinking/talking about it. It is a point of contention and I won't allow it to cause any further stress in my life. This is probably the one journal I won't reply on, but you can always reach out in DMs if you want to chat about anything NON-AI related.
I hope y'all have a lovely weekend and remember that we're all still one community. It's easy to lose sight of that. We should be bound by our common interests, not torn apart by diverging ones
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1 year, 5 months ago
09 Dec 2022 21:38 CET
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