4 - Plagiarism and Fabrication

 

How to use AI as an Artist Ethically!

These days anyone that has access to AI generative technology can use a prompt and create beautiful art, but does that make them an artist? As an artist I do have my reservations about people using apps such as ChatGPT, Midjourney and Dall-e to "create" art and passing it off as their own creativity. However at the same time, as an artist I actually love AI to help with the creative process, so in this blog I will be exploring how to use AI as an artist ethically.

Some of the Ethics of AI generative art to be aware of: 

AI Generators Learn From Images Without Artists’ Permission

AI technology works because it compiles a bunch of existing information into its system, and when it comes to art that includes using art that's already out in the world, which is technically stealing from the original artists that created that art. 

"an AI art generator learns from existing images, videos, text, and so on, all of which come from the internet." -https://www.makeuseof.com/ai-art-generation-ethical-pros-cons/

AI app developers don't alert artist's when their art and data has been added to the AI engine, so artists can't do much to reclaim their art. 

Copyright Laws against AI are still Developing

AI is still fairly new, but already there has been a few legal disputes that have come up against AI from artists, 

"In November 2022, the GitHub Copi­lot litigation began, filing a lawsuit against the engine's users—including Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI—for violating creators' legal rights." -https://www.makeuseof.com/ai-art-generation-ethical-pros-cons/

But until we have clear legal regulations on AI and creative property, the legal rulings favor the AI companies. 

How to use AI in the Creative Process as an Artist:

 “AI has the potential to enhance and elevate human creativity, helping artists find their unique style and creating art in virtually any form, from poetry to music, from digital art to 3D models.” -https://www.datasciencecentral.com/generative-ai-ethics-navigating-the-boundary-between-human-and-machine-creativity/

Understand that AI is a tool, not a replacement for human creativity. Use AI as a creative tool to help you generate ideas, find new styles, and explore techniques. 

Be Transparent about your use of AI, be an advocate for transparency in the use of AI to maintain authenticity in your work. 

Avoid Plagiarism, if you are directly using AI generated content without permission or attribution to the AI engine you are plagiarizing because this is not your own creation. 

Find ways to be transformative, as an artist when I use AI, I always find ways to transform the art into my own work by adding my own creative process. 

Right now (Mar 2024) there is an exhibition of art in Brinson Fine Art Gallery that was created using a transformative process with AI, the advance studio art students used random prompts to generate a story then they created an image using AI and then using traditional techniques like drawing and painting they recreated a new image. This exhibition will be up until Spring Break. See an examples below:

As an artist I’m always gonna advocate for human creativity vs. the product of generative AI art prompts, but I also want to emphasize how AI can enhance our creative process. AI should not be something to fear but rather something to be aware of and used to empower us as artists.