Art, obsession, and identity
The creative industry is fighting back against the automation of its work. Artists and writers are finding new ways to resist what they perceive as the theft of their labor and diminishment of their work. Jobs that were once thought to be unique in terms of production and faced little threat from the technology industry are now feeling the heat of AI generative platforms. The absorption of their work into large databases, turning out creations under fair use policies, has created a legal battle that is sure to set the tone for the future of creative professions.
Intrigued? Click through the gallery to learn more about what creative professionals are doing to fight AI.
The creative industry is taking big steps to counter AI and its reproduction and circulation of human work.
For many years, creatives believed their jobs were too unique to be threatened by AI programs and technology.
In other sectors, however, workers have long faced fears that their jobs could be replaced by cheaper, automated systems—likely similar to the fears brought on by industrialization generations ago.
Now, much to the surprise of creatives, their work and creative outputs are being absorbed into AI algorithms and regurgitated for further commercial use.
Artists, writers, and other creative figures have started a massive push to question the legal framework that allows their work to be used by AI generative platforms.
At the forefront is the need to develop greater mechanisms to understand how and where content is being pulled from, as well as the enactment of more protective legislation,
Perhaps the loudest movement, or the group that has received the greatest attention, is that of the visual artists, who have been quite deliberate in their positions from the very start.
But other creatives have also expressed their dismay. Writers, musicians, narrators, and actors, among other groups of creatives, are enraged.
Voice-cloning technology is putting narrators and actors out of work, as their voices are contractually tied into permissions for machine learning.
Since 2021, Google has been issuing books narrated by algorithms. Amazon has regularly done so since 2023. This, narrators argue, amounts to theft.
Susie Alegre, British author and human rights lawyer, believes that AI generative platforms are actually robbing people of “a sense of achievement.”
By facilitating intellectual work through AI, Alegre believes that “the value of authentic thinking has already been undermined.”
When we think about the great debates regarding the reproduction of literature and different forms of writing, piracy certainly comes to mind.
In the last several decades, since the more widespread use of the internet, many different piracy channels that allow access to creative works for free have been created, but not without legal retaliation.
Platforms offering illicit ways to access films, TV shows, books, and scientific articles, among other resources, have all been targeted in terms of individual outrage and legislative support.
But writers aren’t so concerned about piracy now that their work is being translated into some sort of software innovation initiative.
An interesting case is that of the author Jane Friedman, who had written 10 books, primarily guiding writers through the publishing process.
Over the last few years, people began to reach out to her regarding new works that were being published under her name.
A series of what Friedman refers to as “garbage books” have been published under her name. The issue is, she did not produce them.
The AI-generated texts hold titles similar to her work but are not written, reviewed, or produced with her involvement in any way.
Published under AI innovation and commercial giant, Amazon, Friedman naturally contacted Amazon to report the issue and have the books taken down.
Unfortunately, Friedman didn’t hold a trademark to her own name, so a copyright infringement case was nearly impossible.
The fight against what Friedman calls “reverse plagiarism” is the key battle that authors are facing. Basing AI works on the work of human authors is, technically, not copyright infringement.
Friedman is far from the only author experiencing these tribulations. While groups like the Author's Guild have been working to back authors in their legal confrontations, AI continues to reproduce their works.
Meaning, as the legal battle continues playing out, the exploitation of creative work also continues simultaneously.
Singer-songwriter Nick Cave was presented with an AI-generated set of lyrics based on his music. Horrified, he called it “a grotesque mockery of what it is to be human.”
Indeed, others have argued that by consuming such literature, we “forfeit part of your identity as a human being and concede your rational agency to an impersonal program that mimics and mocks humanity.”
This strong statement is certainly one shared among authors and other creatives, who are urging us, once again, to question everything we are being served in the public forum.
Even in their demise, artists are still bringing a humane confrontation to the public, urging that they value their own intellect above misinformed, AI-generated content.
Sources: (TechHQ) (The Guardian) (Minding the Campus)
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LIFESTYLE Creative professions
The creative industry is fighting back against the automation of its work. Artists and writers are finding new ways to resist what they perceive is the theft of their labor and diminishing of their work. Jobs that were once thought to be unique in terms of production that would face little threat of the technology industry are feeling the heat of AI generative platforms. The absorption of their work into large databases, turning out versions of their work for under fair use policies, has created a legal battle that is sure to set the tone for the future of creative professions. Intrigued? Click through the gallery to learn more about what these professions are doing to fight AI.