General Discussion

reflected light via a light-sensitive medium.

Image generators create images that are mashups from stolen art and photos. Zero talent or skill required from the AI user. As I said, you can get an image generator to spit out a picture of something even if you have absolutely no knowledge of what you're requesting. Not an inkling of what it should look like. But if the right images and words are in its training data, the AI could probably dredge it up, though it might take it a lot of tries. Tries made in seconds, with the AI generating different images every time. It could generate thousands of images fairly quickly. The user could sort through all those images to find one they like, but that isn't creating art - it's shopping for an image to show off - and since the user has absolutely no idea what they're looking for, they might decide an image of something else looks like it could be right.

This. Is. Not. Creating. Art.

You could ask a young child to type in a prompt asking for a picture of a flying pachyderm hovering over an Eames chair in a midcentury modern living room, with the child having no idea what a pachyderm or Eames chair or midcentury modern should look like (and you'd probably have to spell out certain words for them). And if those words and images are in the AI's training data, you might get those elements in a picture. Given the amount and type of intellectual property stolen for the training, the flying pachyderm will probably look like Dumbo, and Dumbo might be on or even under the chair, or the Eames chair might be floating, with or without wings, because that's also the sort of thing these mindless plagiarism machines can do.

But no matter what the results are, the child wouldn't have created the images churned out, and neither would you have. You've shopped for images with keywords.

And no, you cannot separate the fact that the training data was stolen or misappropriated from the images you like to have the AI generate for you. Any more than you could or should separate a meal being prepared by slave labor from a discussion of the cuisine, even if you're particularly happy with the cuisine because you provided your host with the menu and recipes.

Those are real artists and photographers whose work was stolen.

Midjourney has for years been considered one of the best image generators.

It's also been infamous for its images including complete or partial watermarks from all the photos and other images the company stole. And the typical user of these AI tools just views that sort of thing as a nuisance to be edited out.

As I've said here a number of times, if people are forced to use unethical generative AI for work or school, I can sort of understand them trying to set the ethical considerations aside. But that does not make the tools ethical.

The AI bros are hopIng to get the laws changed to carve out exemptions for training the AI they hope to make millions, even trillions, from. That won't make the tools more ethical, either.