― Alan Turing, Computing machinery and intelligence
NEW DATA POISONING TOOL LETS ARTISTS FIGHT BACK AGAINST AI
This was shared high and low by jubilant artists, but keep this in mind:
"Zhao admits there is a risk that
people might abuse the data poisoning technique for malicious uses."
What could it mean? Well, for one thing, it is not entirely impossible for a mischievous nerd that lives in his mothers basement to download and tinker with this technology, pick any artists name at random, and poison it.
The results would be, that instead of a cow jumping over the moon, you get a handbag floating in space. That would be a tame result, but what if it is something more sinister? Such as some fascist symbolism or whatever comes into this devilish mind.
Even as an artist itself using this tool, you cannot be sure of the outcome.
In many AI applications the prompts are open (the option of hiding prompts is available in some), so you, the artists name, is prominently displayed as a modifier of the prompt. Would you honestly want to be associated with the results? Results that are not in your style or mode of painting, results that could at a minimum be embarrassing when associated with your name? Because your name is on it! The one who generated the AI would not be that concerned about it. In fact I read one comment that said (s)he looked forward to such crazy results. But would you? The 'creator' of the AI piece is mostly a unknown, but you, the artist, whose name appears on the prompt, is possibly well known!
I spent a lot of time in the academic ivory tower, and I came away with the conviction that most of them live in their own little box of knowledge, oblivious to what goes on outside of this bubble. So they come up with some stuff like this that once released and out in the wild, it is like opening Pandora's Box. In other words, you cannot put the genie back in the bottle. They are like the Sorcerer's Apprentice, to drive the analogy further.
Artists are of the impression that AI is all about them. But in fact the application to art is just a small side track. There are uses in Science and Industry, Medicine, Research, Museums, Search Engines, sophisticated programs like Adobe Photoshop (to name just a few) that rely on the use of AI as a tool. What would happen to that if this poison spreads? It took years for AI to become the sophisticated tool it is today. A poison program that only existed for a few months could very well grow just as exponentially and be a real menace in the mainstream of AI application.
But yes, according to the haters, it is all about art and (the ego) of artists.
But I outlined above what it could mean to you, the Artist, in the first place.
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