Queer artists discover AI art app uses their art without permission

“If they need art to train the AI, they could ask artists or license existing work. Instead they’re going online and stealing it”

Original painting of a model by Paul Richmond (L) compared with a Lensa AI Instagram App “drawing” of LA Blade contributor StanChris (R)

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – When Paul Richmond, a Queer artist, first started to see AI-generated portraits trending on social media, he thought they were “cool” and “interesting.”

“I’ve been intrigued by AI [artificial intelligence] for a while, and I’m very open to new technology,” he told the Los Angeles Blade. “I think there’s a lot of exciting potential with it.”

That was until Richmond discovered that Lensa AI, the app behind the popular Instagram trend, was using his artwork to train its AI – without his permission. Richmond said it felt like a “violation.” “They’re just finding things online and stealing it,” Richmond said.

Marc DeBauch, another Queer artist who discovered his artwork was being used to train AI, called the process “a slap in the face of artists that spend their whole lives working to create a body of work.”

DeBauch took issue with the app – which costs $7.99 per month or $29.99 per year – profiting while many artists are unaware their work is being used to train the AI. “I do all the work, but somebody is making a profit from my work, and I’m not getting anything for it,” he said. “And that really hurts because I’m not making a lot of money from my art.”

Both Richmond and DeBauch only realized their work was being used days ago after visiting the site HaveIBeenTrained.com, which allows artist’s search databases – like the one Stability AI uses to train Stable Diffusion – for links to their work and flag them for removal. The site is run by Spawning, a group of artists building tools for artist ownership of their training data.

“Holy cow,” DeBauch recalls thinking when he plugged in his work. He said he spent roughly two hours Sunday trying to flag his work for removal. He called the process “arduous,” as he couldn’t search for his artwork on his phone, and some images didn’t fit the site’s specifications.

“For us to have to opt out is kind of like [adding] insult to injury,” DeBauch said.

Richmond and DeBauch both said the internet has helped and harmed artists. On the one hand, it has helped artists easily distribute their work. But it has also made their art easier to copy or use without permission. 

“The internet is a double-edged sword for artists,” DeBauch said. 

While DeBauch called himself an “old-school artist” who “doesn’t even really like digital art,” Richmond said he “love[s] all of the advancements in technology, and what that has allowed artists to do. We should never be afraid of that kind of thing.”

READ THE COMPLETE ARTICLE BY ZACHARY JARRELL

Published: 20th December 2022

Categorised in: Friends of Tom, News