this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2024
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Sexually explicit AI-generated images of Taylor Swift have been circulating on X (formerly Twitter) over the last day in the latest example of the proliferation of AI-generated fake pornography and the challenge of stopping it from spreading.

X’s policies regarding synthetic and manipulated media and nonconsensual nudity both explicitly ban this kind of content from being hosted on the platform.

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Wow this is going to be interesting from multiple fronts for me especially.

First, I'm a huge swiftie - and Taylor is probably not going to take this lightly. Who she's going to target will be a more interesting question. (Shameless plug for [email protected] if you want to join our small community)

Second, as a nerd who has dabbled with generated art - thank you trolls for ruining it for all of us. This is just going to beg for regulations that is going to ruin the generative AI world - as if we didn't have enough regulations barreling towards the area with copyright issues.

Third, as someone who hates Musk - I hope everything focuses on him and the platform formerly known as Twitter.

[–] [email protected] 63 points 9 months ago (2 children)

This is just going to beg for regulations that is going to ruin the generative AI world

Awesome.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Is that hatred, or fear, that I hear in this comment?

[–] [email protected] 53 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Is that hatred, or fear, that I hear in this comment?

That's "suppressing theft masquerading as art is awesome" you hear in that comment.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago (4 children)

Ah, it was the third option, ignorance.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Ah, it was the third option, ignorance.

Oh, I'm not at all ignorant of how horrible generative " art " is, but I appreciate you checking on me.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 9 months ago (2 children)

If it's horrible and it's also "masquerading" as human art, what does that say about human art?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Are you mad at people who can draw or something?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (5 children)

No, I'm just pointing out the common contradiction I see in threads like this, where people argue that AI is both a big threat to "traditional" artists and also that AI is terrible compared to "traditional" artists. It can't really be both.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago (1 children)

The use of "horrible" in their comment isn't necessarily about the quality of the art. Judging from context it's probably more about the ethical considerations. So not really a contradiction.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

He put quotes around the word "art", which gives me the opposite impression.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago (16 children)

I just notice alot of cheerleaders for this " art " form come from a place of vindictiveness against people with artistic talent and their positions are rooted more in a desire to see people the view as gatekeepers receive comeuppance than an honest defense of an ostensive tool.

It can't really be both.

It totally can. Take the example of fast food. Simultaneously a threat to traditional cooking and terrible.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 9 months ago

Misunderstanding doesn’t make the comment into the type of gotcha you think it is

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (4 children)

I have an honest question and would like to hear your (and others, of course) opinion:

I get the anger at the models that exist today. DallE, Midjourney and others were trained on millions of images scraped without consent. That itself is legally ambiguous, and will be interesting how courts rule on it (who am I kidding, they'll go with the corporations). More importantly though, some of it (and increasingly more, as the controversy reached mainstream) was explicitly disallowed by the author to be used as training data. While I don't think stealing is the right term here, it is without question unethical and should not be tolerated. While I don't feel as strongly about this as many others do, maybe because I'm not reliant on earning money from my art, I fully agree that this is scummy and should be outlawed.

What I don't understand is how many people condemn all of generative AI. For me the issue seems to be one of consent and compensation, and ultimately of capitalism.

Would you be okay with generative AI whose training data was vetted to be acquired consentually?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

I don’t have a problem with training on copyrighted content provided 1) a person could access that content and use it as the basis of their own art and 2) the derived work would also not infringe on copyright. In other words, if the training data is available for a person to learn from and if a person could make the same content an AI would and it be allowed, then AI should be allowed to do the same. AI should not (as an example) be allowed to simply reproduce a bit-for-bit copy of its training data (provided it wasn’t something trivial that would not be protected under copyright anyway). The same is true for a person. Now, this leaves some protections in place such as: if a person made content and released it to a private audience which are not permitted to redistribute it, then an AI would only be allowed to train off it if it obtained that content with permission in the first place, just like a person. Obtaining it through a third party would not be allowed as that third party did not have permission to redistribute. This means that an AI should not be allowed to use work unless it at minimum had licence to view the work. I don’t think you should be able to restrict your work from being used as training data beyond disallowing viewing entirely though.

I’m open to arguments against this though. My general concern is copyright already allows for substantial restrictions on how you use a work that seem unfair, such as Microsoft disallowing the use of Windows Home and Pro on headless machines/as servers.

With all this said, I think we need to be ready to support those who lose their jobs from this. Losing your job should never be a game over scenario (loss of housing, medical, housing loans, potentially car loans provided you didn’t buy something like a mansion or luxury car).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (5 children)

What I don’t understand is how many people condemn all of generative AI. For me the issue seems to be one of consent and compensation, and ultimately of capitalism.

Would you be okay with generative AI whose training data was vetted to be acquired consentually?

Not if it was used to undercut human artists' livelihoods.

Hypothetical future where everybody gets UBI and/or AI becomes sentient and able to unionize, maybe we look back at this again.

I don't think AI has a soul but there no reason it couldn't be given one.

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[–] [email protected] 42 points 9 months ago (1 children)

In doesn't matter. Sophisticated models are open-source and have already been forked and archived beyond all conceivable hope of regulation. There's no going back.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (2 children)

We’ll just see about that.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Are you going to somehow reach into my personal computer and remove the software and models from it?

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

Neuromorphic hardware is coming to some future gen phones to allow training custom sophisticated models.

Indeed we'll see... the rest of the iceberg.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago

This is just going to beg for regulations that is going to ruin the generative AI world

One can only hope! Fingers crossed!!!

[–] [email protected] 42 points 9 months ago (1 children)

This is actually an excellent way to trigger faster regulation of fakes. I applaud this.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

You can't regulate something that takes desktop levels of power to make. What are you going to do? Arrest people in China, Russia NK, etc.? Societal change is needed, not regulation.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Societal change is needed, not regulation.

I agree on the regulation, but I don't think that society is likely to change. Are entertainers going to stop making use of sex appeal?

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Just look at Facebook, yesterday I was spammed by sites with AI fakes of Scarlett Johansson, reported them all, this morning Billie Eilish with biiiig boobs in suggestive positions, reported, now I'm being bombarded by Alexandra Daddario obvious fakes, it's getting ridiculous

[–] [email protected] 40 points 9 months ago (1 children)

I haven't seen any of this, and Google knows I'm a big old perv.

Have you guys considered

Uhhhh

Not being on Facebook and Twitter?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 9 months ago (3 children)

It's not that at all. I keep tabs on several far-flung friends and relatives on FB. Zero spam. TBF, I make it a point to click on ads for things I don't need but don't mind seeing (rockets, 3D printers, vocal jazz stuff). Of course, I'm on IPv4 with my whole household, so if I search for hiking shoes, everyone in the house gets FB ads for hiking shoes. I got a bunch of ads for Merino Wool outerwear in mid December. My wife was kind enough to get me several base layers for Christmas. There is no good and bad, just poor internet management and hygiene (IMHO).

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (3 children)

Who is on X, though? Sigh.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 9 months ago

Can't you read? Trolls who post explicit AI images of Taylor Swift!

[–] [email protected] 14 points 9 months ago (2 children)

Still literally millions and millions of users who don't care about the things we care about

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 months ago

Sharks have flooded Shark Infested Waters with shark asshole stink but this time the asshole stink is AI generated and Taylor Swift has a billion dollars for lawyers.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 9 months ago

@tardigrada so now Twitter is called XXX?😅

[–] [email protected] 10 points 9 months ago

The obvious solution on X's side is to ID everyone that wants to post anything. And remember that the obvious solution doesn't have to be the best solution, a good solution or, even, a real solution at all.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 9 months ago (3 children)

Too bad I'm not on Twitter anymore. Otherwise, I would check some of these out.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 9 months ago

I am shocked! Shocked, I say!

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