Hi. So I’m asking this because I had a talk with my friends about ai and I have some questions. I’m using a throw away account because I don’t want to upset my friends by asking them this stuff.
I’m in a writer’s group with some friends and a few days ago we started talking about ai, I said that I use perchance for concept art (just for myself, I never post it or anything) and sometimes chatgpt for more specific stuff (for formatting tips and feedback on stuff I don’t feel comfortable showing other people yet).
I thought it was fine as long as I don’t post the art or have it write the story for me but they said it was still stealing. I asked how and they told me that it trains using stolen art and writing, so any use of it is contributing to theft because the artists never consented.
Is that true?
And how does that work for other stuff? I didn’t mention it to my friends but I use playlists, Pinterest boards, and movies and stuff for inspiration too and I don’t have people’s permission for that either. Or is it different?
To preface I'm not expert but maybe I can help out a bit.
Is it theft: Why yes AI is trained on stolen art and stuff if u didn't already know, but if you ask me by merely using it for inspiration you are not committing theft yourself. HOWEVER it is still bad because your using of the AI programs supports the program and thus the makers of it, meaning that money goes towards them. Furthermore this kind of casual attitude towards AI only helps to normalise AI and make it more justifiable to people who DO post it and use it in ways that can be argued to be theft.
AI bad other reasons: Furthermore AI is bad for other reasons, chiefly it is very bad for the environment, according to this article I found just now, gen-AI uses seven or eight times the electricity that a normal computer-server-thing does, this isn't even considering the water used for cooling and the metal used to construct the computers. There is also a deeper societal issue that arises out of the normalisation of gen-AI to be discussed here, that is to say what is the impact on our ability to think and do things ourselves in a society, but a little tumblr post is not the place to get into this deep complex issue.
In terms of other sources of Inspiration: there is absolutely nothing wrong with using playlists or Pinterest boards or movies or whatever else for inspiration, in fact I would actively encourage that!
In summary: Any engagement with generative AI is actively quite harmful to our species, but no OP u don't need to feel guilty just maybe stick to wholly-human sources of inspiration from now on :)
Theft: Got it, so it’s less about what I’m doing with it and more about supporting it overall because people steal and make money from it.
Environment: I get what you’re saying here, but I don’t know if that’s a reason to stop using it entirely. Because isn’t a lot of stuff we do bad for the environment but also okay to do? Like eating meat instead of beans and stuff, taking baths instead of showers, or driving to somewhere when you’re able to walk? Idk, it would feel hypocritical for me to stop using ai on that basis while still doing all those. Unless maybe I should go vegetarian or something?
Human-made inspiration: But doesn’t other stuff have that issue of people stealing and making money as well? A lot of stuff on Pinterest is stolen, what makes that different from ai? And I still don’t have the original creators consent to take inspiration from their ideas?
And what about if I get good enough at writing to be able publish and sell my books when I’m older? I’d be profiting off of using others work without asking?