https://archive.ph/tR7s6

Get fuuuuuuuuuuuuuucked

“This isn’t going to stop,” Allen told the New York Times. “Art is dead, dude. It’s over. A.I. won. Humans lost.”

“But I still want to get paid for it.”

  • @cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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    129 hours ago

    I get that socialists will naturally be sympathetic to artists who often are not well compensated for their labor. However I think it’s also important that we understand that in order to make a living, independent artists rely heavily on intellectual property law. As such, they tend to want to categorize all AI art as unoriginal and derivative of existing works.

    Unfortunately I think that’s a bit of a liberal argument. It ascribes some ineffable quality to human creativity that AI cannot replicate. In doing so it obfuscates the process by which the state creates and enforces a market for intellectual property. Therefore, I don’t think it’s particularly useful argument for socialists to make.

    That’s not to say “AI” companies aren’t exploiting the work of unpaid artists. That is definitely still true. We just need to be advocating for solutions that go beyond what capitalist markets can offer.

    • yoink [she/her]
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      118 hours ago

      Unfortunately I think that’s a bit of a liberal argument. It ascribes some ineffable quality to human creativity that AI cannot replicate.

      every single time the AI argument comes down to this. “oh you just don’t trust AI cos youre a rube who believes in a soul” no motherfucker I’m just not some fucking anti-intellectual who has decided, apropros of NO research into neuroscience, that I know how the brain works and it MUST be analogous to something algorithm based machines can understand

      you genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about, and you have to take so many intellectual shortcuts to derive your position that you are not worth taking seriously

        • yoink [she/her]
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          11 hour ago

          here?

          Unfortunately I think that’s a bit of a liberal argument. It ascribes some ineffable quality to human creativity that AI cannot replicate.

          unless my lying eyes deceive me

          • @cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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            145 minutes ago

            When I say replicate I mean replicate an output. I.e. AI can be used to create images that are unique but categorically indistinguishable from various types of digital images that we would classify as art. I did not mean to imply that the AI models which currently exist can replicate processes that occur in the human mind.

            I understand why there might be some confusion and I’m sorry if I wasn’t more clear. I genuinely dislike calling these models “neural nets” or “AI” because that implies they function as a human mind would. Anyone who understands the basics of both should know that’s not at all true.

      • UlyssesT [he/him]
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        37 hours ago

        every single time the AI argument comes down to this. “oh you just don’t trust AI cos youre a rube who believes in a soul” no motherfucker I’m just not some fucking anti-intellectual who has decided, apropros of NO research into neuroscience, that I know how the brain works and it MUST be analogous to something algorithm based machines can understand

        you genuinely don’t know what you’re talking about, and you have to take so many intellectual shortcuts to derive your position that you are not worth taking seriously

        As I said elsewhere, the “human intelligence is just a sufficient number of TI-88 calculators bolted together, actually” type of bazinga arguments (as often proclaimed by occult-tier techbros like “FrightfulHobgoblin”) may exist in part to belittle actual artists for the sake of boosting the treat printers (or the treat printer prompters) to artist status.

        • yoink [she/her]
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          5 hours ago

          exist in part to belittle actual artists for the sake of boosting the treat printers (or the treat printer prompters) to artist status

          that’s what’s so insane to me. for the longest time, STEM folk were all about ‘artists aren’t worth respecting’ ‘oh arts degree? just put the fries in the bag lmao’

          then suddenly AI art comes about and then it’s ‘look at my art! AI makes better art than anyone and it’s imperative we dump everything into it! you must respect my AI art! you must treat me like an artiste’

          and now that it’s clear it’s a grift, it’s ‘art is dead, we will never beat AI, artists are back to not worth respecting’

          once again, tourists visiting every creative medium they can to try and find fresh rubes for their machine

          • UlyssesT [he/him]
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            5 hours ago

            then suddenly AI art comes about and then it’s ‘look at my art! AI makes better art than anyone and it’s imperative we dump everything into it! you must respect my AI art! you must treat me like an artiste’

            I’ve seen that shit here too. Today.

            I think the ideological core of it is the boosters want cheap treats, or even want to feel like artists as “prompt engineers,” and refuse to even acknowledge the costs and consequences and would rather shit on working-class artists, writers, and other imperiled people that are supposed to be comrades. No leftist I can respect goes there.

    • Andrzej3K [none/use name]
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      159 hours ago

      I don’t think it is a particularly ineffable quality though? It’s art because another human did it, and it really doesn’t have to be much deeper than that. That said, I do agree that intellectual property is ultimately blind alley. What most people don’t understand is that IP laws are only enforceable in the name of capital.

      • @cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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        3 hours ago

        I think I disagree with the idea that art is art because a human created it. I think art is art because it provides a particular kind of experience to us as humans. Whether or not a human made the art by hand, with a machine, or if it was simply an item someone found in nature it’s all still art. Even curating art is art.

        That said AI art is still a product of human creativity. It’s abstracted by a few layers of technology sure and most of the people that build or use the models don’t know what good art is. However bad art is still art. People get drunk at paint nights and create shitty imitations of famous paintings but it’s still art as reticent as I am to admit it.

      • UlyssesT [he/him]
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        7 hours ago

        it’s art because another human did it, and it really doesn’t have to be much deeper than that.

        The “human intelligence is just a sufficient number of TI-88 calculators bolted together, actually” type of bazinga arguments (as often proclaimed by occult-tier techbros like “FrightfulHobgoblin”) may exist in part to try to reject that idea.

    • Water Bowl Slime
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      88 hours ago

      Yeah I think what AI is exacerbating is the tension between creativity and commodity. Businesses don’t celebrate art, they seek profits. Images, articles, music, and whatever else are all simply products to sell under capitalism. Turning every artist into a copyright lawyer won’t change the fact that their creations are ultimately still commodities.

      I see a lot of arguing over the definition of “art” but that’s beside the point. The problem is the entire bourgeois concept of property and the way capitalism impoverishes the working class so that they must spend their lives selling their labor.

    • UlyssesT [he/him]
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      8 hours ago

      We just need to be advocating for solutions that go beyond what capitalist markets can offer.

      Most of the people posting here currently live under capitalism. Unless you have solutions you want to advocate for now that for some reason you left unsaid in your post, it sounds more like a “stop complaining” proposal.

      • @cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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        25 hours ago

        That’s not what I’m saying though. It’s more that I think arguing for better protections under IP law is akin to participating in get out the vote campaigns for democrats. If the goal is to better conditions for working people including artists, neither of those avenues will lead you anywhere.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
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          15 hours ago

          Again.

          Post your your supposed “solutions” to advocate for.

          Otherwise you still read like you’re a treat printer enjoyer that wants everyone to stop complaining, no matter how the planet burns.

          • @cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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            13 hours ago

            You’re only reading me that way because you’re lumping my arguments in with all the pro AI nonsense that’s out there. I honestly don’t care for any of the slop AI models tend to produce and it’s not reasonable to assume that I do.

            Also my arguments stand on their own. Even if there are no near term solutions to the plight of artists that doesn’t mean reifying the concept of intellectual property is worth anything.

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
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              3 hours ago

              Also my arguments stand on their own.

              Then stop bullshitting and actually provide what I asked for. Post your supposed “solutions” to advocate for.

              • @cecinestpasunbot@lemmy.ml
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                12 hours ago

                That’s irrelevant to the legitimacy of my argument. I can tell you rhino horn isn’t going to fix your love life without telling you what will. That said I’m an ML. I don’t believe most artists will be fairly compensated for their labor until we can actually abolish capitalism.

                • UlyssesT [he/him]
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                  1 hour ago

                  That’s irrelevant to the legitimacy of my argument.

                  You DID NOT provide ANY complete argument. Are there no solutions that you had to propose to begin with?

                  Thought so.

        • UlyssesT [he/him]
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          58 hours ago

          I haven’t seen that for some time, unless you’re broad brushing people that don’t like when artists stop getting commissions or lose their livelihoods entirely.

          • combat_doomerism [he/him]
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            48 hours ago

            people are in this very thread saying that AI is “stealing” art. I fundamentally think that this reinforces the idea of IP

            • UlyssesT [he/him]
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              58 hours ago

              In the current economic system you’re saying that artists trying to get paid for making art should effectively cease to exist.

              • combat_doomerism [he/him]
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                58 hours ago

                I mean I don’t mind artists setting up patreons or doing commission, but I also don’t really care if something they post publicly gets “stolen”

                • UlyssesT [he/him]
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                  28 hours ago

                  Feel that way if you must, but I am explaining why a lot of people here aren’t quite as bazinga for the treat printers when it comes to driving artists entirely out of the craft because of economic precarity, consequently leading to even more expansion of the bland and bleak brave new world of treat printers.

                  • combat_doomerism [he/him]
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                    27 hours ago

                    the vast majority of artists don’t make money doing art and never will if they don’t work at a company I don’t understand this take. maybe it’s because I’m so into fanfiction but like there will always be millions of people making more art than you know what to do with. I’m not saying you have to like the AI art, most of it really is quite shit which is a fine criticism that companies are blowing billions on shit art but like they do it either way, I think the best criticism of AI treat machines like you’ve said is how environmentally wasteful it is