ArtStation: The battle of creators against AI art

In early December flared up on the portfolio platform ArtStation one protest actionwhich continues to this day and continues to make waves beyond the boundaries of the art community.

In this article we summarize what fueled the conflict and why the struggle of the artists continues tirelessly.

Artists on ArtStation demand: NoAi!

Even if you’re not particularly interested in art, design, or photography, scrolling through social media over the last few days may have been a bit of a hassle for you prohibition sign encountered which the word Al (artificial intelligence) crossed out. These include sentences such as “No to AI generated images” or “AI is theft”.

These postings come in different variations and are an expression of the displeasure and protest of many creative people who betrayed by ArtStation feel. By the way, the beautiful interpretation of the NoAi logo on our featured image comes from Concept Artist Sangsoo Jeong.

the to EpicGames The portfolio platform ArtStation, which belongs to it, developed over time into one of the most popular websites for artists. There they show their works to reach potential clients, but also to exchange ideas as a community and to support each other.

Not just recently Growth of AI generated art on the platform a thorn in the side of much of the community. Alexander Nanitchkovwho along with Nicholas Kole one of the initiators of the NoAi movement, writes via Twitter:

“AI Art is made on the backs of hundreds and thousands […] produced who, with a lot of time, love and dedication, have created a billion images […] their works will […] stolen for profit by selfish people without the slightest concept of morality.”

How works of art can be created by artificial intelligence, we have you in this article about DALL-E 2 explained in more detail. It also refers to the risks received that carry these technologies with them, but also on her potential.

The community on ArtStation is fighting back. The postings calling for the ban on AI not only want to draw attention to the fact that creative people are being exploited, the pictures are also intended to show the training programs of Stable diffusion disturb.

On December 16th, ArtStation responded with a Adjusting their site settings. With the help of the “NoAi” tag, users of the platform can now decide whether their work can be picked up by AI tutorials or not. The option can be applied to all projects in the gallery or can be set individually.

ArtStation does not want to follow the desire of the community to set the option by default. In the FAQ it says: “We don’t want to become a gatekeeper”.

The accusation of gatekeeping, i.e. the controlled restriction of a thing or the exclusion of people from a thing (in this case art production using AI), offends many of those affected.

It’s not about wanting to exclude someone from creating art, but about protecting artists from having their works without express consent used for AI tutorials. Because this is the only way to guarantee that there is a knowing decision is. As long as this is not accepted, the protests should continue.

How do you feel about the debate? Can you understand the concern of the creative people or do you think the demands are an unjustified form of gatekeeping? Let us know what you think about it in the comments!