note: this was originally posted in August 21st 2023. my opinion on genAI has changed a lot since then and I have close to 0 hope in the technology now, specially after learning more about how LLMs work and discovering that even AIs that were trained to output on a very specific set that you own the copyrights to still use bigger LLMs that were trained on stolen data as their backbones. But the pics still make me laugh so I’m archiving it
Irasutoya now has an genAI tool and it’s challenging my opinions on what an ethical genAI tool could be. If all of Irasutoya’s illustrations really are done by the same illustrator, who is the owner of the company himself, and the dataset used was exclusively his own illustrations, then there is no problem with it, right? It’s the most ethical application of genAI I’ve seen so far.
But it still rubs me the wrong way. Irasutoya has such a huge variety of free to use illustrations and it’s so fun to mash them together like paper dolls to create anything that it feels like a waste having a tool to try to replace the craft. In theory this is what I’ve been saying genAI should strive towards, but I’m still feeling really meh about it. Maybe it’s just kinda weird letting computers draw after all.
But anyway, I tried it out and the results are pretty good, so enjoy. “Green haired girl using the computer”, genAI on web canvas, 2023
If i can be honest tho: the monetization models and resource usage bother me more than any discourse about whether it’s art or not. The idea that resources are being spent to create garbage pictures to try to salvage a single good one, and that people have been paying more for access of models than commissions/freelance would cost them just for the sake of having a stupid enormous output in an age where the internet is already so bloated… Nothing is enough to sate people anymore, only an endless stream of “content” as quick as it can be provided. I wanna believe in the good the tech can bring, but if it’s only to feed this monster we’ve become then what’s the point