
Artists fight AI programs that copy their stylesArtists outraged by artificial intelligence that copies in seconds the styles they have sacrificed years to develop are waging battle online and in court.
by Agence France-Presse
29-03-2023 14:10
in Art and Artists
Image from Twitter by Sport NFT Card
Artists outraged by artificial intelligence that copies in seconds the styles they have sacrificed years to develop are waging battle online and in court.
--
Fury erupted in the art community last year with the release of generative artificial intelligence (AI) programs that can convincingly carry out commands such as drawing a dog like cartoonist Sarah Andersen would, or a nymph the way illustrator Karla Ortiz might do.
Such style-swiping AI works are cranked out without the original artist's consent, credit or compensation the three C's at the heart of a fight to change all that.
In January, artists including Andersen and Ortiz filed a class-action lawsuit against DreamUp, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, three image-generating AI models programmed with art found online.
--
ALSO READ: Is Artificial Intelligence the future of art?
Andersen told AFP she felt violated when first she saw an AI drawing that copied the style of her Fangs comic book work.
She fired off an indignant reaction on Twitter; it went viral, and other incensed artists reached out to her with stories of their own.
--
Backers of the suit hope to establish legal precedent governing generative AI models that copy artists' styles.
Artists want AI creators to be required to secure permission for works used in training software, with an option to remove it.
They also want suitable compensation.
There is room for a conversation about what that would look like, said Ortiz.
ALSO READ: Musk and experts call for halt in giant AI experiments'
Compensation could take the form of a licensing model, she mused, and would need to be appropriate.
It would be wrong for artists to get a couple of cents while the company gets millions of dollars, added Ortiz, whose resume includes working for Marvel Studios.
Cheap and easy On social networks, artists are sharing tales of jobs being lost to generative AI.
The suit notes that a video-game designer named Jason Allen last year won a Colorado State Fair competition with art created using Midjourney.
Art is dead, dude. It's over. AI won. Humans lost, Allen was quoted as telling The New York Times.
ALSO READ: Chinese tattoo artist: Tells women's stories through ink
The Mauritshuis Museum in the Netherlands sparked controversy by displaying an AI-generated image inspired by Vermeer's Girl With a Pearl Earring.
The San Francisco Ballet, meanwhile, caused a stir by using Midjourney to generate illustrations used in promotional material for Nutcracker performances in December.
It's sort of a natural consequence of something being easy and cheap and accessible, Andersen said.
Of course they are going to use that option, even if it is unethical, she added.
AI companies named in the lawsuit did not respond to requests for comment.
Stability AI founder and chief executive Emad Mostaque has portrayed generative software as a tool that can tend to mundane image output and provide new ways of ideating for artists.
ALSO READ: Influential Japanese manga artist Leiji Matsumoto dies
Mostaque contends that it will allow more people to become artists.
Critics disagree. When a person prompts software to draw in the style of a master, they say, it does not make that person an artist.
Mostaque has said that if people choose to use generative AI unethically or to break the law, that's their problem.
Death of creativity? Companies defending themselves from artists' copyright claims are likely to claim fair use, an exception sometimes allowed when a new spin is put on a creation or when it is only briefly excerpted.
The magic word used in the US court system is transformative, said lawyer and developer Matthew Butterick.
ALSO READ: Massive asteroid to pass Earth THIS WEEKEND
Is this a new use of the copyrighted work, or does it replace the original in the marketplace?
Artists are turning not just to the courts but to technology to defend themselves against generative AI.
Prompted by artists, a team at the University of Chicago last week launched their Glaze software to help protect original works.
The program adds a layer of data over images that, while invisible to the human eye, acts as a decoy for AI, said Shawn Shan, the doctoral student in charge of the project.
That still leaves the onus on artists to adopt Glaze. Butterick predicts a cat-and-mouse game as AI makers figure out ways around such defenses.
ALSO READ: South Korea to build world's largest' chip centre
Butterick also worries about the effect of AI on the human spirit.
When science fiction imagines the AI apocalypse, it's something like robots coming over the hill with laser guns, he said.
I think the way AI defeats humanity is more where people just give up and don't want to create new things, and (it) sucks the life out of humanity.
By Julie Jammot Agence France-Presse
SOAPIE QUIZ: How well do you know Generations: The Legacy'? WIN R1 000 in cash!
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
15/05/2026
Join Calrec at MPTS 2026 | May 13-14 | Stand A40 | Olympia, London We're looking forward to meeting up with customers and partners at this year's Media ...
15/05/2026
86% of media planners would move more linear TV budget to CTV if they had show-level targeting and reporting - and 65% would also shift dollars from programmati...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Clear-Com will showcase new communications solutions and major platform updates at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7005), June 17-19, in the North and Central Halls of t...
15/05/2026
Following an outstanding inaugural year in 2025, Rise AV is proud to announce the return of its flagship leadership initiative, Elevate. The programme continues...
15/05/2026
Berklee Announces Lineup for Inaugural AI Music Summit The three-day event puts musicians at the center of the future of music creation, ethics, and the indus...
15/05/2026
Lightware returns to InfoComm 2026 with a focused showcase of scalable USB-C connectivity, next-generation AV-over-IP solutions, and technologies that help over...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/05/2026
Delivering a live, arena-scale production of a massively popular band is no small feat. Between expansive in-arena LED walls and a global live stream fed to onl...
15/05/2026
Connection is the heartbeat of any strong community, and with live streaming becoming more accessible in the modern era, it's much easier for faith-based or...
15/05/2026
Powered by GX 3 media servers, optimised IP-VFC workflows and on-site engineering expertise, the production delivers high-performance visuals for one of the wor...
15/05/2026
Against that backdrop, IAB UK has added retail media to its Gold Standard. Jan Pitt, Commercial Director at ABC, spoke with Liv McCullagh, Retail Media Lead at ...
15/05/2026
Further to RT 's statement released yesterday and in the interest of full transparency, with the full permission of Derek Mooney, we are now publishing the ...
14/05/2026
Sweetwater and Airstream have announced a custom-built Dolby Atmos mobile recording studio inside an Airstream trailer, set to tour music festivals, schools, tr...
14/05/2026
The American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB) has announced a new par...
14/05/2026
ESPN has announced plans to transform Santa Monica Beach into a broadcast hub du...
14/05/2026
Amagi has announced a significant update to Amagi CLOUDPORT, its cloud-based broadcast playout platform. The update includes 250-plus features shipped in FY25-2...
14/05/2026
Clear-Com will exhibit at InfoComm 2026 (Booth N7005, June 17-19, Las Vegas Convention Center), introducing a new product that builds on Arcadia Central Station...
14/05/2026
Ikegami will exhibit at BroadcastAsia 2026 (Stand 5D3-1, Singapore Expo, May 20-22), introducing two new viewfinders alongside its existing camera, control, and...
14/05/2026
Grass Valley has announced that dB Broadcast has delivered new IP-based outside ...
14/05/2026
NAGRAVISION, a Kudelski Group company, has announced a partnership with the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) to launch Play Snooker,...
14/05/2026
Belden Inc. has announced a definitive agreement to acquire RUCKUS Networks from Vistance Networks for approximately $1.85 billion. The transaction has been app...
14/05/2026
NVIDIA has released the Content Localization Blueprint, a modular reference arch...
14/05/2026
Disney has announced that Disney will be the exclusive U.S. streaming home of the Banana Bowl, the Banana Ball league season championship, streaming live this ...
14/05/2026
Arkona technologies and technology partner manifold will demonstrate their production solutions on the Magna Systems and Engineering stand (Booth 5D1-1) at Broa...
14/05/2026
Haivision will host a webinar on Thursday, May 21 at 10 a.m. ET / 4 p.m. CET cov...
14/05/2026
The CW Network and ESPN have announced a sublicense broadcast agreement for The CW to televise ACC football and men's and women's college basketball gam...
14/05/2026
The agreement marks Scripps Sports' first NBA local rights deal...
14/05/2026
A new report from education-technology company Wiingy testing post-ChatGPT predictions against three years of real-world data has identified broadcasting as one...
14/05/2026
Global Citizen and FIFA have announced that Madonna, Shakira, and BTS will headl...
14/05/2026
LOS ANGELES, CA, May 14, 2026 - The nonprofit Sundance Institute announced today the cohort selected for the 2026 Episodic Lab program, taking place at Dunaway ...
14/05/2026
At Spotify, we're focused on making every listening experience feel intentio...
14/05/2026
Spotify recently welcomed songwriters, artists, executives, and music students t...
14/05/2026
New articulations, ostinatos, Motion Scoring Articulation Sets & more
Sonuscore's flagship cinematic string library has just been treated to a significa...
14/05/2026
World-class studio opens on T rkiye's Aegean coast
P r Recording & Residence have announced their official opening, introducing a new world-class reside...
14/05/2026
Now supports channel layouts up to 9.1.6
Nugen Audio have just released an update for their AI-powered dialogue intelligibility and compliance tool. Set to ...
14/05/2026
New recordings & one-key chord tool
UVI have just announced the release of Orchestral Suite 2, a ground-up redesign of their all-in-one symphonic orchestra ...
14/05/2026
Two new arrivals & expanded factory content
Rob Papen's all-encompassing plug-in and virtual instrument collection has just been treated to another upda...
14/05/2026
Embed QR codes into DAW sessions
FSK Audio's latest plug-in doesn't process audio, but serves as an organisational tool that allows QR codes to be e...
14/05/2026
SBS Board appoints Jane Palfreyman Managing Director
13 May, 2026
Media releases
The Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) Board of Directors is pleased to an...
14/05/2026
Transforming bold ideas into market-ready productions: Digital Originals returns
14 May, 2026
Media releases
SBS, NITV and Screen Australia have announced ...
14/05/2026
Australia Uncovered Returns to SBS with Bold New Season Featuring John Safran on...