Artists Are Losing the War Against AI

Author: Editors Desk Source: The Atlantic

October 2, 2023 at 11:20

Illustration by Jared Bartman / The Atlantic. Source: Getty.

OpenAI has introduced a tool for artists to keep their images from training future AI programs. It may not make a differe

Late last month, after a year-plus wait, OpenAI quietly released the latest version of its image-generating AI program, DALL-E 3. The announcement was filled with stunning demos—including a minute-long video demonstrating how the technology could, given only a few chat prompts, create and merchandise a character for a children’s story. But perhaps the widest-reaching and most consequential update came in two sentences slipped in at the end: “DALL-E 3 is designed to decline requests that ask for an image in the style of a living artist. Creators can now also opt their images out from training of our future image generation models.”

The language is a tacit response to hundreds of pages of litigation and countless articles accusing tech firms of stealing artists’ work to train their AI software, and provides a window into the next stage of the battle between creators and AI companies. The second sentence, in particular, cuts to the core of debates over whether tech giants like OpenAI, Google, and Meta should be allowed to use human-made work to train AI models without the creator’s permission—models that, artists say, are stealing their ideas and work opportunities.

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