spiltink550

If anyone is curious about why I haven't been uploading as much content lately, it's mostly over the current state of AI generators. I see pros and cons to using AI to help create art, it can be applied in a multitude of ways that amplify art in ways that normally would take human hands hours to create. I think of the music video for Linkin Park's "Fighting Myself." If you haven't seen that video, you should, it's a trip. Personally I have a pretty hyperactive imagination and that video is the closest thing I've seen that compares to how it feels seeing images in my head. But I think of how long it would've taken to make that video, even with a team of artists. Every frame of that video is so detailed, and those details change fast to make you feel like you're drifting through a world incredibly vast to the beat of the song. It's insane, and it's something AI does really well. But recently, I want to say it was Midjourney? Don't quote me directly, but some AI developer company recently had information leaked against them, including a list of artists' names/handles and screenshots of managers talking about ways to steal artwork from artists. I wasn't on the list, thankfully, but the fact these companies have this intention to take artwork from artists without permission or payment or anything and use it for their AI models is just insane and almost downright evil. My biggest problem with it all right now is how unregulated it is. There aren't realistically any laws in place for this kind of stuff and that's part of why it's such a big problem. There are options out there for artists to use to protect their art, it essentially encodes the data of an image in such a way that the AI can't understand it and some of them actually disrupt the AI model. But the ethics of these softwares are also heavily debated. I've personally been avoiding it all by not uploading any newer artworks, and if I decide to upload anything, it unfortunately will be watermarked pretty heavily (emphasis on the pretty part, I made a cool looking watermark at least!) because that will help discourage theft. I usually use the DA watermark, but it's no longer enough. And sure, you could also remove the watermark from the picture and use it, but it at least employs an extra step thieves have to take before using it. So, I personally believe that AI holds a world of possibilities for artists as a tool, but right now, there's a lot of other people using it and for the wrong reasons and I'm trying to wait it out and see what becomes of it. I hope it'll improve so I can upload more artwork on here without feeling uncomfortable about it. In other news, if you missed out on the character design commission season I had going on here, I've started a Fiverr account and have a gig available where you can get one! This will be on-going and I hope to make it a full-time thing if I get enough buyers. I also plan on adding more gigs as time goes on and I get a feel for the platform. https://www.fiverr.com/s/E7wdkY