AI has been a staple of futurists’ visions for the evolution of the working world for decades. Whether the form it takes is the predictive text function of a smartphone or an ‘autopilot’ function in a smart car, companies the world over have dedicated R&D wings tasked with the creation and implementation of AI in these products for a more efficient, less taxing user experience. When it comes to the newly emergent software for the creation of images, the driving force is ‘generative’ AI. This simply refers to a set of algorithms that create an output. ‘Outputs’ can range from plain text to illustrations, captions, essays, emails and computer code, among many other content types. This form of algorithm includes the likes of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, a tool unveiled in 2022 that shocked the world – and the legal sector, as in-house counsel wondered at its potential to create legal documents on demand. In the art world, generative AI image creators of note include Midjourney, DALL-E 2 by OpenAI and Dream by WOMBO. All are simple to operate, often requiring only a text prompt of varying specificity in order to produce a selection of images on demand. This ease of use has been one of the most important factors in the explosion of popularity that AI art experienced in the latter half of 2022 and which continues today. The above programs did not become able to create art spontaneously. In each instance, their algorithms were ‘trained’ on millions of pre-existing images, establishing patterns that can later be reproduced should a user input an associated keyword. These images are ‘scraped’ from the internet and public data sets such as free-to-use art sites, often without the original creator’s consent or credit. In many cases, generative AI can even be used to directly emulate the style of an established artist should the user request it. The backlash to this from some quarters has been extreme. Popular internet content creators Corridor Digital drew condemnation after producing an AI-created video trained on the style of animated series Vampire Hunter D, which some viewers branded as “theft” of the source material. Others have characterised the emergence of trained AI as an encroachment of corporate management upon the art world. This was the stance of Swedish painter Simon Stålenhag, whose work was mimicked by a Midjourney user in a series of viral Tweets that have since been deleted. “It basically takes lifetimes of work by artists, without consent, and uses that data as the core ingredient in a new type of pastry that it can sell at a profit with the sole aim of enriching a bunch of yacht owners,” he said of generative AI. What is Behind the Technology? “Ease of use has been one of the most important factors in the explosion of popularity that AI art experienced in the latter half of 2022 and which continues today.” “Generative AI can even be used to directly emulate the style of an established artist should the user request it.” Where is the Conflict? 34 LAWYER MONTHLY APRIL 2023
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