AI ART Workshop at the ABQ Museum -- Legal Issues

I went to the PUBLIC ART and ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WORKSHOP at the Albuquerque Museum on November 19th, 2024.  The guest speaker was an attorney -- Sarah Conley Odenkirk -- who spoke mostly on the legal issues, and not how to generate AI ART:

Public Art & Artificial Intelligence Workshop

at the Albuquerque Museum

Opening lecture image

Example how AI Art

was too similar to the original Getty Images art

I didn't learn anything about how to make AI ART, or whether AI ART was any good or about other aesthetic issues, or even how to apply for public art programs using AI ART. However Sarah Odenkirk did point to two projects designed to subvert AI ART, by poisoning the images in the input training data:

• Glaze
• Nightshade

Other websites that she brought up:

• chatgptiseatingtheworld.com
• Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity

Personally I don't feel like AI is an imminent threat to artists yet.  It can generate some intriguing images, and artists should take advantage of the tools we have in our times:

An intriguing AI ART image

that I generated last year in 2023

However most of the current AI ART images are rather dry and limited.  I feel like they are shoehorning all the generations into some kind of Barbie archetype, more and more, at the expense of more creative visions.  

Moreover AI can't generate good fake images of my drawings (no matter how hard I try to get AI to do so).

Finally I feel like AI ART innovations have slowed down recently -- unlike a year ago (note also the software programs)-- and Matt Wolfe agrees.  I follow his YouTube channel for new AI ART tools, and am not finding much new to play with recently.  Currently I'm more keen on 3D AI ART innovations rather than the recent AI ART VIDEO progress.

She also pointed out that Midjourney has the right to use any image you generate, as well as any images you upload, to do what they want with it...

Midjourney terms of service

may be overreaching

... so is there any way to sue Midjourney if they DON'T -- "reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute the Content you input into the Services, as well as the Assets produced by You through the service."  The way I read their TOS is that Midjourney has the OBLIGATION to promote my bad art and bad AI ART generations.

Earlier Adobe changed their Terms of Service, and it was even worse than Midjourney's.  From my June 10, 2024 blog post

• Adobe changed their terms of service to own everything you make with Photoshop
• (YouTube): Adobe roofies all of their customers

Also note that printmaker William Hogarth started copyrights:

 

"Hogarth was a pioneer in copyright for artists as well. His work was so heavily plagiarized that he lobbied for the legal protection of engravings. As a result, the Copyright Act passed by Parliament in 1735 is known as the Hogarth Act."