Artists and creators who don’t want their work used on AI art generators.
The DeviantArt community is in uproar over the recent changes to the site’s Terms of Service. The company who manages DeviantArt, Inc., has recently adopted a new policy that allows it to use all creative works across the site on its own AI art generator, including Photoshop plugins, textures, brushes and 3D models.
This is particularly worrying for artists and creators who have opted out of participating in automated creativity – those that don’t want their artwork or creations to be used on an AI-driven graphics generator like Stardust. For example, the Artificial Intelligence for Creative Expression project at Stanford University is using AI technology to match human works of art against large databases of images and then use that data to generate art – often indistinguishable from a human-generated creation.
However, there’s yet another significant issue. DeviantArt Inc., which runs the site on behalf of itself and its registered users, has recently changed its Terms of Service to enable it to use all Creative Works in its new AI Art Generator. Since this includes all user-created content, this includes even things like comments, blogs, Journals and forums.
So basically, everything a user creates on the site and uploads to their account becomes the property of DeviantArt Inc. with no further compensation for the original creator. The company apparently intends to use this data in its AI art generator Stardust which scans millions of pieces created by tens of millions of people to discover new patterns, shapes and technological concepts that can be used to create entirely new artwork.
DeviantArt’s apparent desire to take advantage of its members’ work without offering any compensation has caused an outcry among users upset at the whole idea in general – and even more so at the way in which DeviantArt has implemented it.
Some artists have decided to delete their accounts after discovering their work on Stardust, while others are choosing to remain on the site but limit the amount of new content they create. Many are debating whether they want to follow what is essentially a forum-ish style of social media with these restrictions and how to best go about doing so.
For instance, some artists simply delete old works but leave new ones on the site. However, this means that older work may be identified by DeviantArt as old and removed from Stardust as part of its automated processing of user data. This is a huge disadvantage for artists who have been at DeviantArt for several years.
While some users are still deciding whether they should stay or go, others have decided to fight back – and they’re not afraid to voice their opinions directly at the people responsible for making the policy changes. Some users have even gone so far as to start petitions on Change.org, intended to put pressure on the site’s management.
“Artists and creative thinkers like us deserve better than this”, one petition reads. The petition had gathered over 2000 signatures within 12 hours of its publication.
