lu9

[lu9]

"wait until you find out about the digital camera" photography didn't murder the art of painting you moron, but AI is sure gonna murder the art of photography. And painting. And digital art. And writing. And graphic design. And 3D modelling. And

actually, at the time, artists DID fearmonger about photography murdering the art of painting, and it DID cause photorealism as a genre to basically lose its moneymaking ability practically overnight. anyway, i'm very interested to see how generative AI is going to gobble up all art ever and leave nothing in its wake because nobody will be able to draw any more... i mean, why would anybody draw when they could just get a robot to do it for them, right?

[lu9]

in an effort to ween myself off ai art discourse, I've been making it a habit that every time I see a post on the topic that annoys me real bad I'll practice my meditative breathing. and then I'll open my notes app and rewrite the post word for word but replacing every instance of the phrase "ai art" with "photography" (and if applicable, every instance of words like "drawing" with "oil painting", and etc similar replacements) and then I'll sit back and re-read what I've written while pretending it was posted by a disgruntled oil painter 100 or whatever years ago during the advent of photography as an artistic medium. and this makes me happy, yes

[lu9]

Looking at some of your work, it is stunning but it is very similar in style to AI artwork, do you have any recommendations for how to tell apart photography like yours from AI.

I've been thinking about this. And this may sound controversial at first, but I'm hoping people will hear me out.

We should stop trying so hard to detect AI art.

I think we should all lift that burden from our brains.

I have often talked about "woke goggles." Where conservatives have lost the ability to enjoy anything because they are hypervigilant about detecting anything woke. They've cursed themselves into just hating everything. All they have left is the "God's Not Dead" Cinematic Universe.

And I worry people are getting AI goggles now. They are so concerned about accidentally enjoying robot art and hurting artists that they have overcorrected to the point where they are hurting artists.

One cannot say "AI is all soulless slop that always looks bad" and then accuse a real artist of making something that looks like AI and not hurt them. By doing so, it includes the baggage of all of the "slop" comments along with it. This crusade is having collateral damage to the very artists we are trying to protect.

Yes, we need to be cautious about malicious AI images. Misinformation and deepfakes are going to be a big problem. People using AI imagery for profit is already a mess. But if you are cruising your feed and like a cool sci-fi robot gal or a photo of a waterfall and it turns out to be AI... that's fine.

It was trained by real artists and AI is going to create some cool shit because of that.

Honestly, I think a lot of the worst slop is because the dipshits creating the prompts have no artistic taste. People keep blaming the AI for how bad it looks and often don't consider it is a product of the loser who published it.

There is plenty of non-slop out there that has fooled me. And, like it or not, it is going to get harder and harder to tell what is AI. Until there are better tools or better regulations, I don't think there is much we can do to avoid enjoying AI art every once in a while. If only by accident.

Current "AI detectors" are mostly a scam. Even the best forensic-level AI image detectors struggle to stay above 70–80% accuracy across a wide range of models and image types. And that's in controlled lab conditions.

Free online tools often drop to near coin-flip accuracy (50–60%), especially with newer image generators and post-processing applied.

The best way to avoid AI imagery is to look at an artist's body of work. It's much harder to create consistent, non-obvious fake images in a large sample size. That is usually enough to have confidence in authenticity. Plus, if they have posted similar art before 2022, you can pretty much rule out any shenanigans.

Otis literally died before genAI was available.

But images you see in the wild, just let yourself enjoy them if that is what your brain wants to do. It'll be okay.

I just think we are attacking this backwards. If we want to protect artists, we need to support them.

Calling out random AI art does not support them.

It does not put money in their pockets.

It does not grow their audience.

Over a decade ago I tried to lead a fight to create better systems of attribution on websites like Reddit and Imgur. I even spoke to the Imgur team after an article was written about me.

I asked them to allow sources on their posts and to develop tech that would help people find where an image came from. They said they were "working on it" and it never manifested.

IMAGE SHARING SITES STEAL MORE FROM ARTISTS THAN AI.

But we just kind of accepted it. No one really joined me in my fight. The prevailing defeatist attitude was, "That's just the way it is."

I think now is the time to demand better attribution systems. We need to be vigilant about making sure as many posts as possible have good sourcing. If an image on Reddit goes viral, the top comment should be the source. And if it isn't, you should try to find it and add it.

Just to be clear, "credit to the original artist" is NOT proper attribution.

And perhaps we can lobby these image sharing sites to create better sourcing systems and tools. They could even use fucking AI to find the earliest posted version of an image.

And it would be nice if it didn't require people to go into the comments to find the source. It could just be in the headline. They could even create little badges "made by a human" for verified artists.

Good attribution helps artists grow their audience. It is one of the single most effective things you can do to help them.

I literally just got this message...

There are maybe 10 popular artists who I helped grow their audience early on. Just because I reblogged their work and added links to all of their social media. I even hired my best friend to add sourcing information to every post because I believed so much in good attribution.

Calling out AI art may feel good in the moment. You caught someone trying to trick people and it feels like justice. But, in most cases, the tangible benefits to real artists seem small. It impedes your ability to enjoy art without always being suspicious. And the risk of telling someone you think they make soulless slop doesn't seem worth it.

But putting that time and effort into attribution *would* be worth it. I have proven it time and time again.

I also think people should consider having a monthly art budget. I don't care if it is $5. But if we all commit to seeking out cool artists and being their collective patrons, we could really make a difference and keep real art alive. Just commit to finding a cool new artist every month and financially contributing to them in some way.

On a bigger scale I think advocating for universal basic income, art grants for education and creation, and government regulation of AI would all be helpful long term goals. Though I think our friends in Europe may have to take the lead on regulation at the moment.

So...

Stop worrying about enjoying or calling out AI art.

Demand better attribution from image sharing sites.

Make sure all art has a source listed.

Start an art budget.

Advocate for better regulations.

[lu9]

this is not something i think anyone wants to hear but whenever i see anyone talking about how we need copyright because "otherwise disney could just steal your art and get away with it", not even counting all the times they already did that...

what makes you think they want your art?

that what you have to offer is so special that the only reason disney hasn't just ripped it off and filed the serial numbers off is The Vagaries Of Copyright Law? i dont know, it strikes me as very myopic and... very... i don't know. like. almost egotistical? that what you have to offer is so special and high quality that disney would rip it off you the moment they could If Not For Copyright. the "temporarily embarrassed viviziepop" phenomenon.

(and this isnt even accounting for the fact that if they wanted what you were selling (they don't) they'd literally just buy it from you because they have more money than g-d. see; star wars, marvel, etc.)

[lu9]

I keep reading posts talking about “hsr”, and I get confused because they’re describing some kind of Homestar Runner toon or game I’ve never heard of. Until I realize “Oh wait that means Honkai: Star Rail.”

[lu9]

is art i draw am excited for everyone to play deltarune!!

[lu9]

[lu9]

genuinely a really cool blog to see as a hand-drawn artist. i've been baying for ai artists and traditional artists to coexist as a greater art community since the beginning, and have always personally been of the mindset that i would love to consent and draw data for a model. i admit, i was a hardcore anti-ai guy for much of 2023-2024; pushed that way because of billionaries and alt-right rallying around the topic. the obsession with eradicating art as a job (with no recourse for the unemployed) + the obsession with some sort of revenge fantasy against furry artists on twitter really made me reactive against the tech. however, as the year went on, the reactionary sentiments from the other side (obsessions with 'human soul', social contagions, purity of art, and other such fash nonsense that became indistinguishable from the alt-right side) pushed me towards the middle. dibbling into theory this year certainly helped.

all this to say that the AWAY collective is everything i wanted from the AI debate, and i hope you guys end up leading the charge on how this technology is developed. i'd love to live in a world where ai artists and traditional/hand-drawn artists are friends within the same community, not enemies.

:)

[lu9]

Your code of ethics doesn't mention making it clear that your artworks are AI-generated except in the context of forgeries.

Are you okay with AI artists selling their art without making it clear the medium they made it with?

Yes.

[lu9]

friend inside me

[lu9]

:)

[lu9]

[lu9]

this marketable plushie is what all true warriors strive for

GPTube Poop - The King Invests in Dinnercoin (4o)

[lu9]

GPTube Poop - The King Invests in Dinnercoin (4o)

[lu9]

Computer Chronicles - Windows 98

[lu9]

This is just very funny to me.

[lu9]

everyone’s trying to stump the akinator so i’m gonna try and see if he’ll know that i’m thinking of the little symbol on the front of his turban