#AiArt News: Lawsuit challenges AI training methods
A twice-weekly, curated roundup of the most interesting stories in the world of AI-generated art.
In the spotlight
Lawsuit Takes Aim at the Way A.I. Is Built
From Cade Metz of the NY Times
What’s happening: An L.A. programmer is suing Microsoft over its Copilot AI technology, which generates its own computer code and suggests it to programmers as they work, much like your text message or email will try to finish sentences for you. Microsoft bills the Copilot software as a way to make the jobs of developers easier. The technology relies on “AI training” by analyzing billions of lines of code publicly available on the internet. However, the lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, says Microsoft and its collaborators co-opted the work of the programmers who wrote the original code.
Why it’s a big deal: The area of AI training is becoming increasingly controversial as artists complain that companies are scraping data – including photos, art work and music– that doesn’t belong to them. Tech companies, which include AI art generators, say it falls under ‘fair use.’
From Richard Whiddington of Artnet
“Imagine the following proposition: after viewing all 130,000 works in the Museum of Modern Art’s collection, a person is asked to produce an artistic reflection. Assuming the individual hasn’t died of exhaustion, what might their work look like? This premise is at the heart of Refik Anadol’s Unsupervised, a newly unveiled project that feeds the museum’s collection into an A.I. that spits out ceaselessly shifting works of beguiling shape and color.”
Q&A: Artist Refik Anadol on AI-based NFTs for Instagram - Blockworks, Ornella Hernandez
From Technode
It was a showdown between man and machine to see who could do a better job of completing an ink painting by Chinese painter Lu Xiaoman, who died in 1965. We’re going to give this round to the humans.
Just for kicks
Guess the prompt behind these AI-generated images - Fast Company, Elissaveta M. Brandon
these shamans don't exist, but one architect still captures their portraits - Design Boom, Dimitar Karanikolov
This AI Time Machine Transforms You Into A Historical Figure From Any Era - Screenrant, Jam Kotenko
Tech
Big tech has not monopolized big A.I. models, but Nvidia dominates A.I. hardware - Fortune, Jeremy Khan
3D for everyone? Nvidia’s Magic3D can generate 3D models from text - Ars Technica, Benj Edwards
New Stable Diffusion 2.0 improves jaw-dropping capability for generating AI images - Interesting Engineering, Chris Young
NFTs and Digital Art
What Does the Rise of A.I. Models Mean for the Field of Generative Art? NFT Artists and Curators Weigh In - Artnet, Dorian Batycka
Interview with NFT artist Emily Xie: brushstrokes made of code - Cryptonomist, Joe Morgan
Nick Knight on his NFTs of Jazzelle Zanaughtti and the metaverse - I-D, Joe Bobowicz
The ‘Is it art?’ thread
Is AI-Generated Art Still Art As We Know It? - KrAsia, Degen Hill