It’s amazing, even ironic, how corporate types can compartmentalize their thought processes. One moment, they’re vehemently objecting topiracy, pointing fingers at unauthorized content acquisitions, be they software or movies. The very next, those same supposedly hyper-ethical corporations are wholeheartedly condoningAIlike it’s the second coming. Is this some weird paradox? Or are big businesses only concerned with their own interests?
Maybe this is a pessimistic viewpoint, but the first answer is for the wide-eyed and credulous. The second one, through hard-earned experience, feels like a cold, hard truth.
When imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery
Before this all starts to sound like sour grapes, let’s build our case. Artificial intelligence has been celebrated by news outlets as a creative tool. In truth, however, the technology doesn’t create; it imitates. It scrapes existing content from the vast halls of the internet and merges it in new ways so that it seems original. It regurgitates, recycles, reiterates. Parroting creative artwork, generative art falls short of true creativity. Without getting overly philosophical about what it means to be human, what we really have in generative AI ismachine manufacturing.
Beyond those depressing implications, there’s a serious question of where the source material comes from. Forgenerative art, AI is “trained” on thousands of original works. How is that legal? How is that right? Not that the oncoming steamroller that is AI concerns itself with right or wrong, of course. Still, principles should matter, even in this supposedly new and exciting age of the machine.
There is no code of honor protecting original code
Lawsuits are incoming, even though the architects of art generators like Dall-E and Stable Diffusion are using legal terms like fair use and intellectual property as doctrine shields to protect their own rights to mass produce this coded content. Speaking of, code is another problem for AI. Microsoft’s own Copilot, available now in Windows 11, has been making the news for all the wrong reasons.
Similar to the generative art problem, where artists are seeing their work ripped off and coldly blended into something it was never intended for, lines of code are being directly lifted from resources like GitHub. Now, remember that this is Microsoft, perhaps the most recognizable software name in the world. It’s Microsoft, and they’re engaged in actions that are sucking code away from developers like a vampire drinks blood from his victims.
It’s blatant plagiarism, as conducted by a corporate giant that is hiding behind a mask of artificial intelligence, and it’s fully getting away with these copyright-swerving activities. Unfortunately, the filed lawsuits face an uphill battle with established laws and doctrines to contest, where small in-house software developers will find it difficult to gather momentum and fight for this class-action suit. On the bright side, though, this is likely the first of many suits.
Bracing for the oncoming AI storm
It seems incredibly ironic that the first salvo from artificial intelligence isn’t some naked man sent back in time to fight Skynet. No, it’s the creative spirit of regular people that’s taking the first hit. Writers are under threat, with works generated in mere seconds by machines. Programmers and artists are clearly under siege, their works sucked into a vast lake of machine intelligence to be callously pored over and spat out under the guise of faux originality. Even musicians and voice actors aren’t safe. Don’t believe me, hop on over to YouTube to see long-dead musicians sing jingles as if that’s just fine and dandy.
Besides anything else, we’re pulling our legendary creative icons down to our level with all the grace of a car crash. Who wants to see Freddy Mercury sing a jingle? Does Elvis pouring his heart out over a hamburger commercial really enhance our appreciation for his talent? We’d like to think that the answer is still no. Finally, just look at the SAG-AFTRA strike. One of the reasons this happened is because the likeness of a performer can just be scanned now and used without their permission. While it might be nice to see one of these Hollywood types given a reality check from time to time, that’s not the issue. AI is replacing you and me, plus all that we create, and that’s the only real takeaway from this article. Worst of all, those pushing this trend are fully complicit.
While it’s true that the genie is out of the bottle, and there’s no way to persuade this not-so-magical entity to go back, there is one thing that we, as morally upright humans, can do for ourselves. We can make corporations like Microsoft accountable for their actions. It might take some time, and copyright laws won’t always be on our side, but the battle for accountability is worth the metaphorical bruises and scrapes.
First comes transparency, the realization by the masses that this code and content theft is taking place. Then comes accountability, even for Microsoft. It’s a digitally fought David versus Goliath contest, but we’ll find out if the system works, even if it takes years. We just hope the so-called singularity doesn’t take place in the meantime.
