I had some thoughts about paying to feed your face into a generator built on unpaid work used without consent. Transcript and links under the cut.

So let’s talk about AI art, and how incredibly unsafe y’all are being with it.

First, most of these apps, including the avatar makers, are developed using a generator called Stable Diffusion that was trained on LAION 5B, a database containing 5 billion pictures scraped off the internet, including illustrations from deviantart and pinterest. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stable_Diffusion#Training_data

It also contains thousands of images of patients scraped from private medical records. And the database creators have refused to remove them or take any responsibility. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2022/09/artist-finds-private-medical-record-photos-in-popular-ai-training-data-set/ 

Many artists have spoken up about how unethical it is to use their work without their consent to make an art generator that is now being used for paid products. These generators wouldn’t exist without the work of thousands of artists around the world, but they never gave permission for their images to be used this way, they can’t opt out, and they are not getting paid even for apps that charge *you* to use them.

Maybe that’s enough to change your mind about the “magic avatars” and “time travelling portraits.” But I get that they’re fun, and frankly, people will overlook a lot of harm when they’re having fun. Which brings us to the “find out” part of this video.

When you are giving these apps 10-20 pictures of YOUR FACE, where in the terms of service does it say they won’t sell those pictures to police surveillance companies? https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/18/technology/clearview-privacy-facial-recognition.html

When you are giving them your face, where in the TOS does it say they’re responsible if their databases get hacked? If their data is used to impersonate or stalk you? https://thenextweb.com/news/people-using-facial-recognition-app-stalk-adult-actresses 

Where in the TOS does it say your face can’t be used by companies training AI to help genocide? https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-55634388 

Where in the TOS does it say your face will not be sold to a service that will splice you into porn? https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/09/13/1035449/ai-deepfake-app-face-swaps-women-into-porn/ 

That will create an on-demand version of you for strangers to assault? https://vocal.media/viva/why-are-men-creating-ai-girlfriends-only-to-abuse-them-and-brag-about-it-on-reddit 

And you are giving some of them your payment info? You are giving all of them 10-20 pictures of your face? 

They don’t care about the people whose work makes their generators possible. Why do you think they’re going to care about you?

Searching for Survivors - RHADS (Artem Chebokha)

This is an ai “artwork” hate blog now

The Keeper

Ascendance, the story of Lucifer. (with progress shots)

let me explain why i’m flooding your dash with posts about the harpercollins strike

As a bookseller, I want you to know that one of the worst things about our industry is the unsettlingly pervasive idea that we should financially suffer for working in it. There is a powerful idea in creative fields (as in many, many fields under late capitalism) that one should be willing to forego necessities of life – namely, an adequate wage – in order to have work that one resonates with emotionally.

In bookworld, I’d say that this is frequently aided and abetted by two factors. First, we often feel a strong sense of community with our coworkers and the book creation/promotion world at large and feel we should sacrifice personally for them; that to do so is right. Second, we have a sense that, due to a confluence of factors  from Amazon monopolization to the rise of the Internet to the pandemic’s financial tolls, we work in a permanently struggling industry – that we should be willing to take the hit, as it were, to help keep our business afloat.

Neither of those feelings is accurate in an independent bookstore. It doesn’t matter how narrow the profit margins are or how close you are with your coworkers. Your labor is labor, and it must be compensated. They are even less true in the context of a multi-billion-dollar publishing corporation, where the people at the top (including the parent company’s owner, who is literally Rupert Murdoch) benefit from growing monopolization while employees are unable to afford basic cost-of-living expenses. May I remind you that of HarperCollins’ thousands of employees, many are required to live in New York City – one of the most expensive metropolitan areas in the world. While working long hours, HarperCollins staff making a starting salary (45,000/year) make $18,600 less than the average annual cost of living in New York City for a single person.

This is unacceptable. As one sign carried on the picket line read– PASSION DOESN’T PAY THE RENT.

Fair wages do.

Wee animation done on procreate of Jinx after watching Arcane! so much talent was involved in creating it, I love it , definitely need a rewatch

Also added a preview of my piece for the DIVIDE ZINE (Ekko is linked to their carrd if anyone is interested to know more)🤩

Worked on these months appart but I think the color gamut is quite similar.

Hi, I'm a freelance illustrator who loves making book art and fantasy-based landscapes/character art.

http://Nicoledeal.com

Commission Info/availability: https://nicoledeal.com/commissions-about…

Instagram: https://instagram.com/nicole.deal.art/…

I knew patrons wanted possums, so 🥰

Costume. Chitons.

just wanted to doodle something of one of my fav shape-shifting fellas. :)

Night is calling.

Cardan from Holly Black ’s Folk of Air Series.  

Prince Napkins Is a Himbo

Mr Disco Tiger ( April 2021)

There’s this scene in Spinning Silver (Naomi Novik) that I want to draw but it’ll be hard. When Miryem meets the Staryk king, he’s mounted on this terrifying white deer with sharp teeth and red eyes, and looking down at her in his supercilious way and she can’t decide if he’s beautiful or freakish. I took a stab at his face today. I am on a Viking braid kick. Will try a few sketches of the deer next!