e244. An A.I. Took Your Art, Daddy!

If you listen to our show, chances are you’re on the Internet. If you’re on the Internet, then chances are in the last couple weeks you’ve seen a proliferation of people posting A.I. generated selfies in crazy art styles. Then, you’ve perhaps also seen the explosion of controversy over people arguing about whether or not this is theft and why and how. Some people are arguing that it is a violation of copyright from artists who did not offer their consent. Some people are arguing that it is lowering the value of the work of real artists. Some are arguing that the A.I. isn’t producing new work but that it is stealing bits and pieces of other work. A lot are just arguing about whether this is real art or not at all! There’s a lot of arguments out there. Of course, the honest truth is, most of those arguments are based on memes and not facts. There actually are facts out there that aren’t simple opinions… AND there are complex opinions that are based on those facts. On today’s show Mav and Katya welcome digital artist James Curcio and intellectual property lawyer Seth Polansky to actually talk about how all of this works and what the actual issues are. Join us as we talk about the how the technology actually functions, what the legal, ethical, economic, artistic, and cultural considerations of this are, and what the history of the tech was BEFORE… you know… three weeks ago. Whatever you think you know about A.I art… we almost certainly go back farther than you think. Listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments! Citations and Links: * Call for Comments for this episode * Lensa’s AI Terms of Service * Stable Diffusion Github * “Dall-E2 VS Stable Diffusion: Same Prompt, Different Results” by Jim Clyde Monge * @DiffusionPics on Twitter * “Introduction to Diffusion Models for Machine Learning” by Ryan O’Connor * “AI Calculates What Famous Historical Figures Would Look Like Today” by Anish Vij * @hidreley on Instagram * “Arts and AI: Being Authentic to Intent” by James Curcio * “Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons“ * Follow James’s Website: