Can AI rescue the tech industry? #AiArt
A twice-weekly, curated roundup of the most interesting stories in the world of AI-generated art.
A New Area of A.I. Booms, Even Amid the Tech Gloom
From Erin Griffith and Cade Metz of the New York Times
What happened: Despite down times for the tech industry, Silicon Valley investors are pouring money into artificial intelligence ventures, investing more into A.I. companies in 2022 - $1.37 billion - than in the previous five years combined.
And this: OpenAI, the San Francisco lab behind ChatGPT and DALL-E, has a potential deal that would increase its value to $29 billion, doubling what it was valued in 2021.
Investors at Sequoia Capital wrote that generative A.I. had “the potential to generate trillions of dollars of economic value.” And Lonne Jaffe, an investor at Insight Partners, said, “There is definitely an element to this that feels like the early launch of the internet.”
Forbes: ChatGPT Creator OpenAI Discussing Offer Valuing Company At $29 Billion, Report Says - Nicholas Reimann
'I Don't Believe You:' Artist Banned from r/Art Because Mods Thought They Used AI
From Samantha Cole of Vice
What happened: A Vietnam-based artist who goes by the name Ben Moran got kicked off the popular r/art subreddit, which has 22 million members, after he posted the cover for a fantasy fiction novel that he drew. It’s against the subreddit’s rules to post AI-generated art. Moran, however, offered to provide all of the rendering files and layers to prove otherwise.
“I don't believe you,” a moderator for r/art replied. “Even if you did ‘paint’ it yourself, it's so obviously an Al-prompted design that it doesn't matter. If you really are a ‘serious’ artist, then you need to find a different style, because A) no one is going to believe when you say it's not Al, and B) the AI can do better in seconds what might take you hours. Sorry, it's the way of the world.”
Buzzfeed: A Professional Artist Spent 100 Hours Working On This Book Cover Image, Only To Be Accused Of Using AI - Chris Stokel-Walker
For discussion
Vox: What is generative AI, and why is it suddenly everywhere? - Rebecca Heilweil
Daily Dot: Is AI photography as ethically plagued as AI art? - Gabriele Di Donfrancesco
TechCrunch: Is Adobe using your photos to train its AI? It’s complicated - Devin Coldewey
The New Stack: AI Image Generation Models and the Ethics of ‘Data Laundering’ - Kimberly Mok
Just for Kicks
Fortress of Solitude: Artist Uses Midjourney To Turn X-Men’s Wolverine Into A Jedi - Megan Oosthuizen
Tech
Dark Reading: ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence: An Upcoming Cybersecurity Threat? - Ketaki Borade
NFTs and Digital Art
TechCrunch: YouTuber Logan Paul’s CryptoZoo NFT project is a total mess - Amanda Silberling
Coin Telegraph: Mutant Ape Planet creator arrested in NY for alleged $2.9M NFT ‘fraud’ - Luke Huigsloot