in this episode of in the loop art imitates life, whi
is why it's no surprise to see real world plotlines end
up in movies and tv coming up. We'll show you how
Hollywood is taking on reproductive rights like never
before it was the first plot line to really focus on
the person having the abortion instead of on the doctor,
the lawyer, the detective, the police officer. Plus for
decades holocaust survivors hav been able to share
their first hand accounts of genocide. But soon there
won't be any survivors left. We'll tell you more about
technology that will allow survivors to continue
telling their stories in three D. Long after they're
gone. This is in the loop. I'm christian Bryant. We'
get to those stories in a few. But first we have a new
edition of our next level series which dives into the
world of gaming and tech tonight's focus ai art. It's
almost gotten good enough to mimic a real artists work
down to their own special style And while it might be
cool to think how far this technology has come, this
new ability is presenting some serious questions about
the ethical, legal and moral boundaries of taking
something that someone spent hours days or even weeks
making and essentially just stripping it for parts.
Next level correspondent Matt picked breaks it down for
us, artificial intelligence is getting scary good at
making artwork good enough to pass for humans in some
cases platforms like mid journey Lanza and dolly allow
humans to turn a handful of key words into a steering
the specific surreal work of art. Computer algorithms
can now transform your selfies create gorgeous digital
landscape paintings or depict a wide array of realistic
looking people with slightly too many fingers for
comfort. But behind the curtains of this new technology
are billions of artistic images scraped off of the web.
And the artists who created those images in a lot of
cases aren't happy with how the robots are using their
work. The rise of AI artwork has sparked organize
protests and divided our communities as artists try to
assert some measure of control over the new technology
as artificial intelligence becomes more prevalent
across a wide range of industries, the fight over a ar
could shape the future of this groundbreaking tech and
the limits we place around it. I found out because my
friend messaged me and he said like hey I don't know if
you noticed but someone just figured someone is using
your stuff as a I.R. Model and they won't tell anybo
who it is like they're hiding it. Deb JJ lee is a
freelance illustrator and graphic novelist whose work
has appeared in several prominent publications
december 2022 they were alerted to a post of some Ai
artwork which bore a striking resemblance to their o
work. The user later deleted that post after being
confronted but the AI model used to produce that work
is still out in the wild lee doesn't know who else has
access to the model or if someone will try to replicat
their art. Again, it was just devastating, you know,
just because my work takes a long time to do and if
you're just like taking stuff and just putting into a
machine and just that ones and zeros like that's just
insulting. Lee isn't alone. Tons of artists have found
their work mimicked by ai generators without their
knowledge or consent for these artists. Our work is
starting to look a lot like theft and a potential
threat to their job opportunities. Illustration
traditionally a very bespoke practice. An artist gets a
specific idea or prompt and spends hours sketching,
outlining, coloring and shading their work until it's
finished. Artists spend hundred or thousands of hours
on practice and experimentation to improve thei
technique and better techniques lead to paid
commissions, project work and other jobs artists can
use to support themselves. Ai by contrast can't come up
with ideas on its own, it must be handed a series of
key words by a human. Once that's done, the Ai digs
through its database of billions of images, finds the
elements that line up with the keywords and synthesiz
them into a finished work. Better Ai art doesn't come
through practice, but machine learning a human or
artificial appraiser tells the ai what art works and
what doesn't and it updates its parameters accordin
This method can lead to some stunning results, but a
artwork is only as good as the data sets is looking at.
If an algorithm is trained on a specific artist or
style, it can sometimes feel like it's indirectly
copying that artist's work. It should become big enough
that artists have started to rally behind collective
movements. This idea that aI companies or tech
companies in general are able to just take whatever
data they want just because it's online, it will be a
bigger issue than creative people wanting to protect
the rights to their work. Rachel Minor Ding is the co
founder of the Concept Art Association, an organizatio
originally created to recognize artists illustrate
inspirational images from movies, television and video
games. The association is currently spearheading the
support. Human artists campaign focused on raising
money to lobby for regulatory change about how AI is
used in creative industries illustration is hardly the
first field to face the threat of ai automation, but
the reliance of AI art on the work of human artists
could give the industry more of a say in how this tech
develops the cause has attracte a lot of support from
an industry that hasn't had the same sort of regulatory
muscle as other creative firms visualized typic
historically haven't had like an organizational power
behind them because they're all individuals. So I think
it's kind of amazing and beautiful what we're seeing
right now with the artist community kind of bandin
together to be like, hey, I'm just one time, you know,
I might just be one artist, but collectively we're
huge voice. Most artists realized that calling for an
end to AI development isn't realistic. Instead they'r
asking for more control over how their data is used for
AI projects, restricting commercial models to open
source or opt in images. These restrictions woul
it tougher for Ai platforms to create high quality art,
but it would allow artists to post their art online
without worrying about it showing up in an algorithm.
Artists so heavily rely on these portfolio sites and
instagram for passive recruitin for years. You know,
all of us artists have been putting art on the interne
so that we could get jobs because that's how the job
market is these days, we had no idea we were being
scraped and our art was being collected to train this
thing that was going to uh that they're trying to use
to replace us, john lamb is a storyboard artist at riot
Games and organized the create don't scrape hashtag to
protest Ai art artists would never ask for permission
to descend into these machines were never given any
sort of agreement or percentage And now the makers of
these programs are trying to enter our industry trying
to replace us with the data that we unknowingly
provided lamb and other artists have been critical of
some of the measures ai platforms have taken to appease
artists like creating opt out forms to exempt them from
training data. That's a company placing the
responsibility that should have been on them onto the
people who are being affected. I feel that that's
unfair and I feel like um if you were planning on
monetizing to begin with, everybody should have been
made aware of what was happening. Ultimately the
responsibility for better data curation falls on AI
developers without strictly pro the data AI learns from
these algorithms often fall into the worst patterns of
human behavior. The reason we'r in this mess right now
is because it was not curated and nothing was regulat
and everything was just a free for all on the internet.
So restart this thing ethnicall from the word go, it's
hard to say where the Ai art fight goes from here. A
lot depends not just on the technology but on the
cultural and regulatory framework that surrounds it.
Right now, Ai artwork is on track to get even better
and more realistic in the future. That ability rests on
the human artists that are powering the algorithms wit
their labor, whether those arti get a say in how
their work is used in Ai art could determine where th
technology goes in the years to come. Alright, many
thanks to matt and jennifer Smart, the graphic art
behind some of those animations and the peace. No Ai
art detected. If you're interested in hearing a bit
more about this issue, you can catch the full next
level episode on our scripts, news apps and check out
the other stories in this series, It's time for us to
take a quick break if you need a snack now might be the
time to grab one because when we come back, we're
talking about food from food roasting emissions to
drama over fake meat. Yeah, there's a lot to impact. So
grab a bite and meet us back here in a few.