From a milestone in a class action lawsuit against the AI image companies to animators pushing to contain AI in the workplace, it was a good week for human artists
I'm conflicted about this. I support the artists and their goals, but this might also be chasing windmills. The illustration market has changed considerably already due to gig-economy models. The unionised workers were simply protected from what has been affecting everyone else for about a decade now. AI just adds fuel to that fire and finally exposes them to the heat of a globalised, digitised art market.
I'm not saying this is good, just that it's happening. A few court cases in a few countries against AI will not change the larger trend. Already, I've had some art tutors advise me to focus on freelancing, because studio jobs are going to thin out radically.
Why are artists, creators, writers, actors, etc. not simply forming their own worker co-op movie studios, media outlets, etc. (along the lines of Nebula) and sayimg to the corporate studios "Good luck with your doomed AI movies and shows"? No one will want to watch anything corporate made because it will be garbage, soulless content devoid of the humanity so essential to art and creation, and the corporations will fold as people naturally gravitate towards the superior, human-made and human-centered stories the co-ops tell. We don't need corporate billionaires taking all the rewards and forcing the risk onto the rest of us. They are useless to society. So let's just do what needs to be done without caring what they think, want, or do.
Hasn't that, or something along those lines, happened in the American film industry a couple of times? As I understand it, United Artists and First Artists were both attempts by actors and some related creatives to break away from corporate hollywood.
The structure of our particular form of economic organization forces any such "insurgent" organization to institutionalize and professionalize. The lawyers and managers (who, even if they have good intentions are socialized to the system and can't imagine far beyond it) get into decision-making positions and in a few years the whole thing is sold to become a subsidiary of a corporation.
Maybe animation and software people can avoid the traps and bottlenecks built into our economy to protect corporate power. MPtT.
That's very interesting and I didn't know that history. Perhaps creatives can learn these kinds of lessons from the past and form a co-op structure that is legally bound to remain a co-op or at least more resistant to repeating the same mistakes.
I hope the organizers of these demonstrations are also organizing in the colleges and universities where current animation and software engineering students are. I have a theory that one reason for age discrimination is older workers know how to stand up for their rights and push back better than younger workers. If we teach young people how to organize and stand up for themselves it will also help us older workers.
And it's so weird, because the average owner/boss/manager is generally dumb as a bag of hammers when it comes to tech. If all the network administrators and programmers did a mass walkout those bozos would probably be killing each other for canned food within a week.
Its great seeing the case make more progress. These tech companies absolutely need to be put under legal scrutinity if they can't be bothered to have any morals or ethics for themselves
Though these are good things, but historical precedent on (concentrated) 'entrepreneurs' versus (in the end loosely organised) 'labourers' isn't making me optimistic. Especially since 'labour organising itself' is weak in many parts of the world.
In this case โ because GenAI doesn't copy 'art' but in a way copies 'the artisans' โ this might be stopped by classifying this training on copyrighted 'art' as not 'fair use' (which by the way is a very US thing, do not forget the rest of the world). The pressure from 'big money' has a decent chance of rewriting those rules, so a win on the current rules might be short lived. We'll see.
I was also happy to see that the case wasn't dismissed and has advanced into discovery phase. Things can still change. They did for piracy.
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I'm conflicted about this. I support the artists and their goals, but this might also be chasing windmills. The illustration market has changed considerably already due to gig-economy models. The unionised workers were simply protected from what has been affecting everyone else for about a decade now. AI just adds fuel to that fire and finally exposes them to the heat of a globalised, digitised art market.
I'm not saying this is good, just that it's happening. A few court cases in a few countries against AI will not change the larger trend. Already, I've had some art tutors advise me to focus on freelancing, because studio jobs are going to thin out radically.
Why are artists, creators, writers, actors, etc. not simply forming their own worker co-op movie studios, media outlets, etc. (along the lines of Nebula) and sayimg to the corporate studios "Good luck with your doomed AI movies and shows"? No one will want to watch anything corporate made because it will be garbage, soulless content devoid of the humanity so essential to art and creation, and the corporations will fold as people naturally gravitate towards the superior, human-made and human-centered stories the co-ops tell. We don't need corporate billionaires taking all the rewards and forcing the risk onto the rest of us. They are useless to society. So let's just do what needs to be done without caring what they think, want, or do.
Hasn't that, or something along those lines, happened in the American film industry a couple of times? As I understand it, United Artists and First Artists were both attempts by actors and some related creatives to break away from corporate hollywood.
The structure of our particular form of economic organization forces any such "insurgent" organization to institutionalize and professionalize. The lawyers and managers (who, even if they have good intentions are socialized to the system and can't imagine far beyond it) get into decision-making positions and in a few years the whole thing is sold to become a subsidiary of a corporation.
Maybe animation and software people can avoid the traps and bottlenecks built into our economy to protect corporate power. MPtT.
That's very interesting and I didn't know that history. Perhaps creatives can learn these kinds of lessons from the past and form a co-op structure that is legally bound to remain a co-op or at least more resistant to repeating the same mistakes.
I hope the organizers of these demonstrations are also organizing in the colleges and universities where current animation and software engineering students are. I have a theory that one reason for age discrimination is older workers know how to stand up for their rights and push back better than younger workers. If we teach young people how to organize and stand up for themselves it will also help us older workers.
Basically, the struggle is always between capital and labor.
And it's so weird, because the average owner/boss/manager is generally dumb as a bag of hammers when it comes to tech. If all the network administrators and programmers did a mass walkout those bozos would probably be killing each other for canned food within a week.
Its great seeing the case make more progress. These tech companies absolutely need to be put under legal scrutinity if they can't be bothered to have any morals or ethics for themselves
Man thank you for being like the one tech journalist focusing on creative labor during all this
AI free is the best label on any content
Mask-wearing sheep. No wonder they bandwagon on the AI hate instead of using it to augment their work and make it better.
Funny how itโs always the most creatively bankrupt dregs saying things like this
Though these are good things, but historical precedent on (concentrated) 'entrepreneurs' versus (in the end loosely organised) 'labourers' isn't making me optimistic. Especially since 'labour organising itself' is weak in many parts of the world.
In this case โ because GenAI doesn't copy 'art' but in a way copies 'the artisans' โ this might be stopped by classifying this training on copyrighted 'art' as not 'fair use' (which by the way is a very US thing, do not forget the rest of the world). The pressure from 'big money' has a decent chance of rewriting those rules, so a win on the current rules might be short lived. We'll see.