In recent years artists, both local and non-local, are under threat from A.I. image generation websites such as OpenAI’s Midjourney and Dall-E image generator.

Artists such as Hayao Miyazaki and Karla Ortiz have had their work stolen by these sites, their creativity taken in by an algorithm and smashed together with another’s to form work with no human interaction, and they have no real way to combat this on a large scale. It doesn’t matter how small a creator you are or what medium you work in, as long as you’ve posted your work online you’ve likely been used in AI “art” generation before. If you’re an artist, try searching your name using haveibeentrained.com and it’s likely you’ll find yourself.

Smaller groups like those working at nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/, a site that makes small changes to art so that A.I. sees it as something completely different than it is, messing up the generation process, have managed to mitigate some of the damage A.I. could do to artists, but that’s such a small portion of people that it doesn’t really matter.

This thievery should not be simply glossed over. Advancement in technology is important, yes, but not at the cost of our humanity, and so I urge you to commission real, human artists for their work when you’d like to have something drawn.

George King

San Juan Island