Just upload a photo or enter a paragraph of text, and in a few seconds, you can get an artistic picture that is very similar to the image in the uploaded photo.
This is not a sci-fi movie, but a new visual experience brought by the current popular AI painting software.
AI painting is artificial intelligence painting. It is an AIGC (AI-Generated Content, content automatically generated by AI technology) product that is popular on the Internet in the second half of this year. It only takes a few seconds to generate a picture, and the generated result is completely random.
The fast and fun user experience of AI drawing software is sought after by many young people, who have posted interesting pictures drawn by AI on social platforms.
At the same time, there are constant controversies about AI painting on the Internet.
If there are bloggers, they will post reminders, please stop using AI to paint, "you will be sued!"
Why the "outrageous" AI painting is so popular
"AI painting made me go directly to the second dimension", "AI painted my boyfriend as a dog", "AI painting is too outrageous"... In the past few days, the discussion on AI painting on the Internet has remained high.
Statistics show that since November this year, the search index related to "AI painting" has increased by nearly 500% month-on-month.
Someone created a topic specifically for AI painting, and as of now, the total reading volume has reached 210 million times.
Netizens are keen to discuss whether the finished AI painting is interesting and eye-catching.
The online topic #AIpainting puts the dog into a muscular man# has been read more than 25 million times.
On social platforms, some AI's "outrageous" paintings often catch people's attention.
As the enthusiasm for AI painting continues to heat up, some netizens even posted "Strategies for Taming AI Painting", sharing how to generate popular AI pictures by entering keywords, selecting reference pictures, and setting picture parameters.
However, in the midst of the upsurge of AI painting, there are many calm netizens posting posts, asking netizens to "stop uploading pictures generated by themselves with AI", saying that the reason why some software "draws so well" is because its essence is Using machine learning to "collage" over 100 million pictures with the works of outstanding painters.
In the user agreement of these software, a considerable part of the software expressly stipulates that "the software is only for testing, and the output shall not be disclosed, provided, forwarded, disseminated, and made public to third parties through others in any way or carrier." Therefore, users upload If the behavior of AI painting on social platforms infringes the copyright of the original author, it may be held accountable.
Is AI painting "stitching" or algorithmic generation
"(AI works) There are many paintings by teachers I am familiar with" "I beg all teachers to pay more attention to AI"... Illustration blogger Luo Qi complained about AI's Weibo and received more than 10,000 reposts.
She pointed out that the style of many pictures generated by the AI painting software Nijijourney is highly similar to the works of some painters, and some of the pictures are directly below the signatures and watermarks of these painters. "It is made up of their paintings!"
However, in the eyes of professional technicians, the AI painting process is not "stitching materials", but iteratively processing data through different algorithm models to generate images.
Senior algorithm engineer Liu Cheng explained the principles behind AI painting, saying that the essence of AI is machine learning, and the machine will imitate the process of human learning painting based on neural networks.
Developers need to let the machine learn by collecting the currently existing images, use the algorithm to classify and recognize the images and continue training, and then the AI software can "draw" a satisfactory picture.
At the same time, he admitted, "Some algorithm models are not very accurate, and there may be an effect similar to 'collage'."
On the Internet, a large number of painters claimed that their works did not authorize AI to learn, but found that the pictures generated by AI were highly similar to their previous works.
And if ordinary users want to use the above-mentioned AI painting software to generate pictures, they also need to become its members, with a minimum fee of $10 per month.
Luo Qi questioned, "If you use unauthorized pictures to train AI and make profits from it, isn't this infringing on the rights and interests of these painters?"
"AI makes plagiarism easier." Huang Tao (painting pseudonym), who has been a painter for 6 years, sighed.
In October of this year, the artist @喜啦小朝 posted a blog saying that someone used AI to plagiarize her paintings. Among the pictures she posted, the style and composition of these paintings were exactly the same.
"This is too obvious," she said on Weibo. "AI is really not for you (the plagiarist) to use it like this."
"No matter how smart an AI is, it cannot be above the law"
"In the final analysis, AI 'plagiarism' is still 'plagiarism' between people." Li Yang, director of the Commercial Litigation and Arbitration Center of Beijing Jingsh (Shanghai) Law Firm, said that AI has no independent personality and does not conform to the norms of my country's copyright law. Therefore, the key to solving AI "plagiarism" is to solve the abuse of developers and users behind AI.
In response to the behavior of some developers training AI with a large number of creative works protected by copyright without permission, Li Yang believes that from the perspective of encouraging the creation and dissemination of works and promoting the development of the art industry, simply training AI is beneficial to the development of the art industry. The act of studying and researching the creation ideas of previous works without involving commercial use itself does not constitute infringement, but if the presentation result of the AI painting is only a simple copy and paste of the previous work, and the painting is used to seek commercial benefits, prior Obtain the authorization and pay the usage fee, otherwise it is an infringement.
What degree of similarity constitutes "plagiarism"?
Liu Junhai, a professor at the Law School of Renmin University of China, said that my country's copyright law does not protect abstract "thoughts" such as similar painting styles, but protects the "expression of ideas" such as specific elements in paintings. According to the standards of "sex, contact and substantial similarity", a comprehensive comparison of the works is required to determine whether it constitutes plagiarism.
Li Yang reminded that if a painting created by AI displays a watermark of a previous work, it is necessary to comprehensively consider whether the AI work is original, whether the acquisition of the watermark is authorized by the author of the previous painting, etc. to determine whether it constitutes plagiarism.
Are works generated by individuals using AI protected by copyright law and enjoy corresponding rights?
Li Yang emphasized that it is necessary to judge whether the behaviors of software developers and users in the process of generating paintings are creative acts, and whether the relevant content conveys the original expression of the two. If not, the two should not be the authors of AI paintings , the AI painting cannot constitute a work and cannot be protected by copyright law.
The user agreement of some software has a prior agreement on this issue. For example, the "Yijian AI Painting" applet stipulates that the works generated by it are "only for experience and communication, not for commercial purposes", and the copyright still belongs to the developer.
Regarding the question of whether human painters will be replaced by AI, Huang Tao said that although AI is growing at an astonishing rate and seems to be able to replace painters without personal style, it cannot replace top painters with strong creative ability. "Painting is much more than painting. It’s as simple as drawing the shape and filling in the color.”
"No matter how smart AI is, it cannot be above the law, and it should not become a privileged subject beyond the law." Liu Junhai believes that AI itself cannot surpass humans, and its essence is still based on the accumulation and inheritance of existing human wisdom, with the help of human big data It has been developed with the help of technologies such as deep machine learning.
Under the current legal system, there are still conflicts between the rights of AI paintings and real-life painters. This requires the law to respond to this, and start the legal "reform and abolish interpretation" approach, and make legal provisions by amending the Copyright Law or amending judicial interpretations. Keep pace with the times and let AI technology benefit mankind.
"AI may be able to accurately reproduce the colors and lines of human painters, but it will never be able to replicate the emotions that human painters pour into paintings during creation." Huang Tao said.
Liu Yinheng, trainee reporter of China Youth Daily and China Youth Daily Source: China Youth Daily