When you do not have a style, copy it (at least according to AI)
About a year ago, one of the most interesting and significant cases related to the indiscriminate use of copyrighted visual material by some of the world's leading artificial intelligence players began in the United States.
The aim of Midjourney, Stability AI, and Deviant Art is to feed their systems with as much data and information as possible in order to become autonomous in the creation of truthful and complete images, starting from existing productions, which in most cases are copyrighted. The fundamental problem with these operations (which actually occur for other types of protected content, such as literary artistic works, in a broad spectrum) is that authors are often completely unaware that AI has been trained on the basis of their works.
In this regard, in a historical moment that still presents many problems in terms of legal regulation of rights derived from AI, three visual artists named Sarah Andersen, Kelly McKernan, and Karla Ortiz have filed a lawsuit against Midjourney & Co to protect their content. The artists believe that these companies have violated the Copyright Act (DMCA), the right to publicity, unfair competition laws, and terms of service. In particular, it is claimed that they have used billions of images without the artists' permission, causing them damage. The central issue is the unauthorized use of copyrighted works to train artificial intelligence, without compensating or recognizing the rights of the artists involved.
The developments of this trial could have global significance because they would question the basic way in which AI grows and develops, that is, with content indiscriminately used by taking it from others.
To follow the developments of the trial, you can connect to the site that their lawyer (who is also an excellent typographer) has created to report the developments.
A year later, there is an important new development because the judge appointed to resolve the matter has accepted into the records of the case a list that would confirm the scientific intention of the AIs to copy the style of numerous international artists and photographers, both living and deceased.
The list was promptly removed from the net, but by the golden rule that once online forever online, here is a link to consult it.
From Ann Liebovitz to Ansel Adams, passing through Robert Capa (and outside the photographic field also our Francesco Hayez, for example), all the relevant names that the AI wants to take as masters to copy their styles and works without limits.
The admission of this content means that the judge considers it relevant to the decision to understand the AI's approach to the use and targeting of other people's content, proving the intentionality of the copy.
We will see the next developments in the coming months. For now, happy reading!
p.s. The image in the cover of this article has been created with DALL-E under following instruction: please paint Francesco Hayez while is drawing and a robot is trying to copy him”.
When I asked DALL-E to copy the style of Man Ray to deliver a picture he replied that this is agaist their policy and he can give with pleasure instructions about his style but cannot reproduce a content protected by copyright. Way to go, DALL-E!