Thousands of artists protest at ArtStation against images generated by artificial intelligence

• Special The science fiction revolution that is already here

In just a few years, artificial intelligences have evolved enormously.

This same year they have shown that they are capable of programming, writing texts and even making illustrations, with many flaws still to be polished, but there they are.

Obviously, as a consequence of this 'automation', many digital artists have raised an uproar and thousands of them use the largest internet art network,

, to show their disagreement.

Their argument is not anti-technological, they are not against artificial intelligence, the problem lies in how it is capable of creating an illustration in just four seconds.

From PÍXEL we already explain step by step how to make your own illustrations, for free, detailing very briefly the mechanics in question.

These AI

, to later include our photographs and thus create a final product with the merger.

Nor does it have the consent of these artists to be part of the database with which they train or on which they are based.

stolen art

This fusion needs raw material, just what artificial intelligence trains with, drawings and illustrations from different websites such as ArtStation, art made by humans, human beings.

For many of these artists, this is outright theft, as neither these AIs, nor the artists who have already started selling artwork made from them, give credit or acknowledgment to the original illustrators they are based on.

In addition, the ArtStation page itself has full permission for this type of 'art'.

Some users have even gone so far as to share a screenshot of how one of these engines has left pieces of the signature of the human artist, when it has resorted to the fusion of different backgrounds and elements to make the final illustration.

Aware of how this technology, for now, has difficulties in identifying between signing and elements of the drawing itself, they have decided to replace images of their own profiles and portfolios in ArtStation with a banner with the acronym AI with the prohibited symbol above under the motto:

.

This idea, created by the illustrator Nicholas Kole, known for his designs for the video games

, as well as different collaborations with Disney and Nintendo;

and costume designer

, known for her work in She-Hulk Lawyer

;

It has spread over the web in just a day and a half.

To the point that some of these AI 'artists' are already complaining because illustrations are appearing in which pieces of this banner appear, destroying the creation.

"ArtStation's rules of use do not prohibit the use of AI tools in the process of creating images and sharing them with our community," a spokesperson for Epic Games (the owners of ArtStation) explains to

.

"That being said, ArtStation is a platform designed to elevate and celebrate the originality of its community of artists. The images of these artists should feature work that they have created themselves and we ask users to be transparent with the process. Our guidelines are available here."

In these normal you can read the following.

"ArtStation is a portfolio platform. The works in your portfolio must be works that you have created. Only post works that you own or have permission to publish."

Taking into account the operation of AI, many artists consider that their illustrations are not genuine, they do not belong to them because they are made based on the creations of other people.

AI creations already selling

"No traditional or artisan artist can escape the reference, unless they were born in a cave and are still there. Everyone, even unconsciously, bases their art on the art of others, on the drawings they You've seen, the movies you've enjoyed and the books you've read. I don't see any difference with what AIs do", explains an AI artist, as he likes to call himself, who already sells his creations to individuals and plans to rent a stand at the next

.

Like him, there are more creators on ArtStation like iArtist, Lodestone.design or Tropical Florida Girl, who even sells these creations for $12.

In fact, there are already several children's books whose illustrations (which correspond to most of the content) have been created by an AI.

This is the case of 'If animals had jobs' and 'Alice and Sparkle', in fact, in the latter, made by Ammaar Reshi (or rather ChatGPT and MidJourney, two AIs) texts have also been generated by artificial intelligence and not even on the cover he has mentioned the AI, there is only his name.

They all argue that creating this content also requires some talent.

That of writing a series of words or

, nouns and adjectives, all in a row, to describe the scene that they want the AI ​​to generate.

On some occasions they even mention the name of the author on whom they want to base the creation, to imitate his style.

AI as inspiration

Some digital illustrators, craftsmen, and 3D artists do favor this tool as an aid, of course.

For example, when it's time to get inspired or complete a draft, it can be useful.

Being able to show a scene or a series of elements that they use as a scheme in their own creation, but not as a final product.

"It's not a question of whether the machines take away our work or not. The problem is the database, using images that do not respect copyright and profiting from it," says

, a Spanish illustrator who also has a portfolio on ArtStation.

"I do not get any compensation and I have not given my consent. However, not only are there people profiting from this individually, but there are paid applications that use these same engines and our drawings," explains

, digital illustrator .

Applications like

, add more problems to part of this lack of ethics, according to different artists.

This also uses databases such as LAION-5B, which last year was pointed out by several researchers for containing misogynistic, rape and racist images and texts, which is why many users of it have had problems in the case of using images. of racialized people, for example.

The solution for many is that websites like ArtStation put a limitation when uploading content, forcing it to be 100% human creation and trying to make ethical training databases in which permission has been requested (and some kind of mention) to the works that swell it.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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