Opinion on AI art?

Hum (and know that 'hum' encompasses the minutes I sat here staring at the wall sorting through my feelings on AI art)

First and foremost, before I say anything else, know that I'm no artist. I can't draw to save my life.

On it's face, it's a really cool concept that has really wonderful potential. People like me who cannot create artwork but who write- we can have a tool that lets us visualize scenes and work out stuff. Any creative person can have that- from writers to tabletop gamers to really any number of people.

I do think it's a good thing, I do think it's a promising thing... that just wasn't done the smart way.

I know they would have needed a lot of images to train the systems, and there are a thousand reasons they would have just used any image they could find.

But... it would have been smarter to put limits on the images drawn from. There were always going to be original artworks caught up in it all- the way people steal and repost art across platforms, things were always going to be caught up in it.

But to my knowledge, no effort has been made to rein it in and limit what it's drawing from to only image libraries that it can subscribe to vs dragging in original creations.

It sounds like a wonderful tool (I haven't tried it at all, not curious enough to hunt it down), but it just wasn't handled properly in its development. There were ways they could have done it to try to at least lessen the original creations being pulled in, and those steps simply were not taken.

Or at least not yet, I'm open to changing my opinion if they make a more ethical form of it. It makes the "creation" (generation) of art more accessible to the un-artistic and can open creative outlets for a lot of people, if it is done properly.

Art is a relatively exclusive industry, just because the talent for it is fairly rare. AI generated art will open that wide, sure, but there will always be a demand for artists. Every technological leap has led to cries of "this is the end for art", and it never is. Creators will always create, and there will always be a consumer demand for their creations.

So yeah. I wish the engines were produced ethically, and overall I'm not bothered by the existence of it. But again, I'm not an artist, so what do I know?

Hey, just wanted to let you know that that Unclemotherfucker guy is going full meltdown mode after I asked him to not use AI images in his posts (one that you reblogged)

In response to my asks, he's been saying some insanely intolerant stuff and is even committing to doing more AI stuff just to spite people who are genuinely concerned with the lack of ethics surrounding the technology. All this while he furiously tries to paint himself as some paragon of goodwill, then in the same breath says:

"I don’t have the care in the world about your fucking feelings and whatever lens you see the world through"

With a quote like that, I would go so far as to say this guy is actually a danger to the community due to his severe intolerance and outright hostile disregard for other peoples' concerns, feelings, and well-beings. I don't mean to get you wrapped up in anything, but I do feel it's important to make others aware of his extremely concerning behavior

Alright so I have a couple things I wanna say on this.

I think you have really well meaning frustration directed in the wrong place. I also don't love AI from an ethical stand point in general. But I also think there's a huge difference between monetizing the use of AI art and using it as a shortcut. Uncle isn't making money off of Hang Gang. He has created a group chat for people within the space to feel comfortable to hang out and make friends. It's a free thing that he and the other volunteer mods oversee to make sure it's a safe and cool space using their own free time. If it were for his Only Fans or like a literal piece of art intended for sale or being used as such (still mad at you, Late Night With the Devil), then we'd be having a different conversation entirely. If he was stealing someone's direct likeness and creating AI of them specifically, then we'd have problems as well. But this was his quick way to create an eye catching image to draw attention to a thing he's proud of.

His options in terms of other ways to do this were also kind of limited. Either he A) Commission someone to create art for his free Telegram group, B) steal someone else's content and use that, or C) create a slap-dash attempt at a graphic to try and get people's attention that will end up backfiring because it doesn't turn out well. Content already gets stolen constantly, so he wouldn't want to add to that problem. Commissioning someone is expensive and time consuming for a free service. And Uncle himself said he's not an artist. So creating an AI image and writing a poem to go along with it is the simplest solution.

The quote you have taken sounds really bad out of context, and it wasn't awesome in context either, I will say that. But I also don't love your approach in the first place to the whole thing, either. It was a very bad faith assumption that Uncle was doing this out of malice, which he wasn't. And you're response to his initial ask was pretty condescending. Like I mentioned, I also don't love AI when applied to art. It can really devalue the work that goes into creation. But Uncle wasn't taking away from someone else's efforts by doing this. I just think your anger is severely misplaced.

People are also allowed to have human moments. People get angry and blow ups happen. I've had my own blow ups here on the platform and people have snapped back at me for them. People get upset and will say shit when it pisses them off. Going "full meltdown" in one post is also not really going into full meltdown mode in my opinion. I've seen full meltdowns in the space, and they are far more wide spanning that one long-winded post. I have seen people create entire blogs in an effort to ruin someone before. Losing your temper at a condescending message is far from the worst internet sin ever committed.

I like the anger you have towards the system when it comes to AI, that's not my issue. The art has been scraped and stolen from others, that's very true and deeply infuriating. But the solution to the problem is not yelling at one guy on the internet about it. The solution is yelling at the people stealing the content and the corporations using this content to profit and take the credit and work from those artists. Lets focus our energy on that.

Info post

Figured I'd post this little update. TL;DR at the bottom. I have deleted my images and reblogged posts on here, in case tumblr decides to go through with handing our art over to AI tools like Midjourney etc. that are all using databases full of stolen art. Art which artists didn't consent to give. Art for which the artists weren't compensated and art where some artists weren't even able to deny consent, because the preset was "Opt in" and people have lost their passwords to their accounts or have simply died, leaving their art on some kind of platform at the mercy of said platform. To make this clear: There currently isn't an ethical way to use these AI models, simply because they all rely on stolen art. Simple as that. It doesn't matter if you feed it your own art. It will still mash other people's art in there. If you think: "Oh but AI makes art accessible for everyone" Just pick up a pencil and learn to draw. Practice and practice some more. "Oh but I'm not talented - I will never be able to draw" No. Every single artist had to learn. They put in lots of time and effort to hone their craft. And everyone can do it. There are artists that draw with a pencil wedged between their toes, because they don't have arms. So literally your excuses are just that. Excuses. Bad ones at that. Pick up a pencil and draw. Or get other mediums like acrylic and just experiment with colour. They don't need to be expensive at all. No need to literally steal other artist's work, mix and mash it together in a machine and then promote/sell it. This also goes to the artists that use AI to draft the image they will be drawing themselves. Or to companies that expect their concept artists (if they keep them at all) to use generative AI in some of their steps. Or even if you only do it for personal use. It isn't ethical. It is theft. So please. Stand with artists against AI. I'm not sure if I will be posting any art here anymore, but I wanted at least this info post to be here, if anyone finds my account. You can find me as Sharimibo or Sharimibo.art on the app where the sky is blue and on the gram respectively. (Among other platforms) TL;DR Generative AI is unethical, as its databases are mostly full of stolen art and if tumblr decides to hand out art of their users to generative AI like Midjourney etc I probably won't be posting here anymore. This is also why I deleted all my previous posts and reblogs. You can find me on other apps, if you are still interested in my art.

HUGE WARNING!! PLEASE READ

UPDATE, PLEASE REBLOG!!

A kind blog bythe name @erin-gilberts has given this reblog with information and seems to cleared up the air about the blog below. I'll do my best to summary but please check the reblog from Erin-gilberts as it's much worded better.

Overall, the person who seems to own the blog is a mirror, and the drawn art is a lean to family, the lady in these videos isnt associated with the blog either and seems to be famous for reactions (but isnt reacting to the stolen art). The photoshops may be due to strange shipping with themselves with these characters but uses young actors to convey that. Do not send hate this persons way as they are just a minor! Just block if you're uncomfortable, do not harass them.

I wanna apologies if I caused any panic or hate sent this persons way, I am also a minor and was very shocked at what i found and rushed a bit to conclusions. Though adult-kid shipping is no joke nor need to be pushed aside here it's good at least this isn't an adult running this account. Again a great thank you for those who did help out a bit with translations and dig work.

Small note: I'm sorry for lack of censoring and work in this post as I was in a hurry to get it out, if I run across another blog I'll make sure to try my best and dig further in before put a warning post out.

Be safe guys!

Below the read more is the original warning post/ there is a lack of censoring so be careful reading and seeing some of the adult-kid suggestive frist image!

Sorry if this isnt good, I've never done post like these, but there is a blog who's been showing up in the tags making edits of the Ghostbusters team with kevin (aka the home alone kid). This blog is @/alexissanchez3367174

Now it doesnt sound bad on paper, but when I looked deeper into this blogs context, I found this.

This is fucking gross, and if it's a joke, it's not funny. As a minor myslef and those on here, this is gross and uncomfortable. Looking more into this persons context it's all adult with kids, not as bad as post above but considering it, i get really bad undertones.

They have some werid intrest with Russel and Charlie, and maybe Ray and Kevin. They do steal content for video from others as Spengy, Stanzy, Dioinabag, and inculed me and more, using our pictures in videos of a recurring women reacting to them and speaking I belive Spanish, I'm asumming the women is the person who owns the blog, but I could be wrong.

I dont say we send this perosn death threats nor horrible things but block and report them at best. I'm uncomfortable with the feel these edits give me, they are red flags so I will be blocking as stated before. Thats all I have, if you look up this blog you'll see there isnt alot but starnge undertones, so you can really come up to your own conclusion and choice to make, to everyone here, be safe.