Nicole Addison @thepowerwithin

8″ x 10″ silk screen of Anne Sexton  Art prints available on my Etsy. & if you enjoy my art a good place to check out my art on Instagram.

— Unknown

I'm sorry if someone treated your emotions as an inconvenience. You deserve better.

I implore all of you to please respect the artists around you. The Generative AI debate has always been good at one thing and that's revealing who doesn't respect artists and wants to use them as a means to an end. This comes down to just basic consent and respect for boundaries. Even when artists just bring up how they would like to have the power to opt out of data training (have legal protection if their work is scraped and transparency in data processes to ensure it hasn't) or be fairly compensated for their work being scraped by a multi-million or billion dollar company, they're called entitled gatekeepers. You're welcome to give your art, photos or writing to AI companies for free if you want, but others should be able to opt out or be paid.

All of these artists (none of whom are by any means rich and may even be actively struggling to afford necessities) are being treated with contempt, as if they're the elite 1% and access to art is impossible (there are hundreds if not thousands of small local artists that can be hired by small businesses for instance). It is disheartening to see so many people telling artists, many of whom have spent decades honing their crafts that they should be happy they're going un-credited and uncompensated. In any other case with copyright infringement or plagiarism an artist's ability to protect their work has been the norm for over a century, it shouldn't be any different now.

Artists should have say over what happens with their work, just as everyday people should have say over what happens with their own personal photos and likeness. If someone specifically took photographs of you and your family without permission and mixed them together to make "new" people for their advertisements, you probably wouldn't like that very much (and yes that is also happening. Gen AI doesn't just scrape art, it scrapes photos and doesn't discern between what's an ethical photo and what's not ((i.e., photos that would break the law to be in possession of, lets say))).

If your company model solely relies on unlimited access to everyone's art, writing, photos and likeness for free without permission and while deliberately violating personal boundaries, maybe your model shouldn't exist.

Let me repeat:

GenAI has scraped CSEM.

CSEM!!!

Child Sexual Exploitation Material. (Don’t call it “child porn”, porn implies consent and children can’t consent!)

The worst moment’s of a child’s life of being violated by an adult, and that is in the mix too. Horrible.

If you haven’t washed your hands, brushed your teeth, washed your face, and/or showered recently, be sure to take a break soon to do that. Personal hygiene is part of taking care of your health, and you’ll feel better after you do!

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