The Great AI Debate

Artificial Intelligence (#AI) has advanced our productivity by miles in the last ten years. And it's not slowing down. In fact, its ramping up more and more than ever before. AI is going to change the way we do everything, and in some instances it already has. But computers evolving the way we work isn't a stretch of the imagination.

This almost reminds me of #stopmotionanimation back in the 50's and 60's, right? Where after some advancements in the field thanks to #GeorgeLucas mostly, we really started to digitize #animation. That gave birth to a whole new way of "creating animated films". But in that example, there are still people behind it all. And stop-motion animators just had to pick up new skillsets to become digital animators. That is NOT the same case here.

As many of you know, I am deeply embedded with the #tech and #gaming industries as a whole, having a career in both that spans three decades now. (Boy, do I feel old!). But more recently, as video gaming has moved further into the realm of #filmmaking, I have landed myself in an intersection that I don't feel very comfortable in.

What is that? You ask? Well, we're starting to see a lot of our #artists' work out there being fished up by AI bots and then regurgitated out as "AI Created Art". I literally can build entire storyboards with AI, eliminating the need for storyboard artists, concept artists, environmental artists, etc. Typically, I use a combination of several of these artists to create foundational pieces of #art in order to build video #games or create #films. These are copyrighted pieces of art that often take a lot of time and money to create. And now, I certainly stand on the side of using AI Created Art is in fact #copyright #infringement.

And if this type of #theft (yes! I am calling it that) is happening across big companies in gaming and filmmaking, its also happening to the little guy/gal out there trying to showcase their art in web-based portfolios like #DevianArt, #ArtStation, #Instagram, and others as a form of #selfpromotion. So, what can we do about it? Really?

I do believe this is why #NFT's (non-fungible tokens) have actually taken off, but how do we bring that technology to all artists that want to put their stuff out there, but don't want it to be stolen and brought into AI applications? That's the question. We need an easy, accessible, extremely affordable way to ban AI crawlers from taking works of art --- digital drawings, web graphics, novels, blogs, etc. --- and allowing them to be reused by just anyone.

And this is where I think we need a web service, and my vote goes to either World Wide Web Consortium (or #3wC) or --- hear my out --- #Wikipedia, that allows artists of all kinds to safeguard their work. I mean I would venture to guess that someone's thought of this and has some ideas to add. Heck I'd build it if someone wants to throw money at it. I am in fact a Senior Solutions Architect so I could certainly design and build it. But I digress, I'll help anyone build such a system because I can foresee the need for it.

What do you think are ways we can protect the rights of creators and still allow ourselves to evolve so that Artificial Intelligence respects and works with creators rather than blatantly steal their ideas and concepts?