At the very least, can't any creative ( writer, artist, whatever) see that by using gen-ai they are contributing to their own quick decline? Fun fact, gen-ai is industrial level theft. Grand Theft Creative on steroids to the max. I don't understand how any creative could think its okay to use it.
Some of them truly can’t see it, apparently. There’s a long tradition of online writers in particular reusing artwork without permission or attribution. I was guilty of it myself in my earliest days of blogging circa the early 2000s. Many were. A number of us fortunately realized how damaging this was to artists and stopped doing it. Others saw no problem with it and kept doing it because it was a lot easier to nick images from Google searches than it was to do the right thing.
I expect the latter camp are often the same people now using GenAI for the images that accompany their posts, and will be the same people sitting there with shocked Pikachu expressions on their faces when “superintelligent” Artificial General Intelligence has rendered most human jobs redundant. Some predict AGI will be here by 2029, if not earlier. Bet they’ll wish they’d refused to use or support GenAI when all their freelance gigs shrivel up overnight…
It’s where the (incorrect) perception that anything posted online is ‘Fair Use’; an argument now conveniently used by AI companies to justify their wholesale theft of copyrighted works for training models.
Yes, "fair use" has to be one of the most ill-understood (and abused) legal concepts in existence. People who just couldn't be bothered to put in a bit of effort act as though "fair use" is something just floating out there in the ether that "applies" to them. They assume they can say "well, I'm using my writing to educate, so it's fair use to paste this nice artwork I didn't create into my Google AdSense-enabled blog," without understanding that fair use is merely a legal defense one can argue for in a copyright infringement case. It is up to a JUDGE to determine whether or not reuse of an image is "fair use" -- not the individual reusing the image.
Sam Altman and co. didn't get the memo either. Or chose not to.
Might I also suggest reaching out to real-life, living and working artists, whose work you’d like to support and encourage, to cross promote each other’s work? Surely we could work something out!!
Agree 100% My personal policy is not to read essays that use a generative AI image.
IMO those images devalue the writing. It’s hard to explain the feeling when I see it. But given the current hellscape we are in I am trusting my instincts.
Thank you for this post. I have a ton of photos on Unsplash and also Eyeem. Most available for free.
For my posts I create images on Canva. Anyone can have a free account. There are free and paid materials too. Illustrations, shapes, text, etc. If someone has never tried it, a little practice will sufice. It's user friendly and intuitive.
Even doing an image google search with advanced filters can give you results to download and use for your stories...
To make collages there are apps, to delete image backgrounds, there are apps and websites... also, at the end of the day, people will read you because of how good your writing is. Good art might help, but I'd be more worried about my writing.
Yes, exactly. The logic follows that if you’re *not* worried about whatever AI illustration spmeone use to illustrate work, then they’re probably not worried about the standard of their written work, either.
Immediate subscription from me! One of my favourite parts of writing is actually finding the images to “match” the vibe of what I wrote, it’s a very creative fulfilling process too! Sometimes I work in reverse, the other day I spent hours finding a “perfect” frame of Lorelai Gilmore so I could start writing my piece on late ADHD diagnose in adults. While searching for that frame, a lot of the pieces of the essay became clearer in my mind! Thank you so much for sharing more resources, I deeply appreciate the work you put into it!
Thank you for sharing these sources! They make me so excited to finish writing so that I can go looking for pictures. Lol. And using these materials make me feel like I creating a channel for art to live on. It doesn't matter if your art was created before I was born, it lives on in perpetuity because it is is still being used years after. Such a beautiful cycle. Works of art never die, or become expired or extinct. It is only waiting to be discovered and rediscovered.
Just came across this post and am so grateful for your recommendations! I usually make a point of using pictures I’ve taken myself for Substack posts, but sometimes they don’t quite fit right with the theme of the story. These resources will be so useful!! (Also just generally excited to peruse!) Thank you so much 🙌🏻
And the AI images all required the unattributed unpaid appropriation of original material by actual artists. The greatest IP theft imaginable.
Hallelujah! !!!!!
At the very least, can't any creative ( writer, artist, whatever) see that by using gen-ai they are contributing to their own quick decline? Fun fact, gen-ai is industrial level theft. Grand Theft Creative on steroids to the max. I don't understand how any creative could think its okay to use it.
thanks for all the great links!
Some of them truly can’t see it, apparently. There’s a long tradition of online writers in particular reusing artwork without permission or attribution. I was guilty of it myself in my earliest days of blogging circa the early 2000s. Many were. A number of us fortunately realized how damaging this was to artists and stopped doing it. Others saw no problem with it and kept doing it because it was a lot easier to nick images from Google searches than it was to do the right thing.
I expect the latter camp are often the same people now using GenAI for the images that accompany their posts, and will be the same people sitting there with shocked Pikachu expressions on their faces when “superintelligent” Artificial General Intelligence has rendered most human jobs redundant. Some predict AGI will be here by 2029, if not earlier. Bet they’ll wish they’d refused to use or support GenAI when all their freelance gigs shrivel up overnight…
It’s where the (incorrect) perception that anything posted online is ‘Fair Use’; an argument now conveniently used by AI companies to justify their wholesale theft of copyrighted works for training models.
Yes, "fair use" has to be one of the most ill-understood (and abused) legal concepts in existence. People who just couldn't be bothered to put in a bit of effort act as though "fair use" is something just floating out there in the ether that "applies" to them. They assume they can say "well, I'm using my writing to educate, so it's fair use to paste this nice artwork I didn't create into my Google AdSense-enabled blog," without understanding that fair use is merely a legal defense one can argue for in a copyright infringement case. It is up to a JUDGE to determine whether or not reuse of an image is "fair use" -- not the individual reusing the image.
Sam Altman and co. didn't get the memo either. Or chose not to.
Might I also suggest reaching out to real-life, living and working artists, whose work you’d like to support and encourage, to cross promote each other’s work? Surely we could work something out!!
Agree 100% My personal policy is not to read essays that use a generative AI image.
IMO those images devalue the writing. It’s hard to explain the feeling when I see it. But given the current hellscape we are in I am trusting my instincts.
There’s also Pexels, Pixabay, Dupe Photos and wikipeadia commons
I love the Library of Congress resource-so nice to see it included in your list!
Still one of my favourite websites. I have spent weeks trawling through it.
I needed an image of Priscilla Presley for a piece of content and found one that I could use at the LOC :-)
Several of these are new to me. I have used AI for my science fiction story headers, but not for my writing.
Thank you for this post. I have a ton of photos on Unsplash and also Eyeem. Most available for free.
For my posts I create images on Canva. Anyone can have a free account. There are free and paid materials too. Illustrations, shapes, text, etc. If someone has never tried it, a little practice will sufice. It's user friendly and intuitive.
Even doing an image google search with advanced filters can give you results to download and use for your stories...
To make collages there are apps, to delete image backgrounds, there are apps and websites... also, at the end of the day, people will read you because of how good your writing is. Good art might help, but I'd be more worried about my writing.
Yes, exactly. The logic follows that if you’re *not* worried about whatever AI illustration spmeone use to illustrate work, then they’re probably not worried about the standard of their written work, either.
Immediate subscription from me! One of my favourite parts of writing is actually finding the images to “match” the vibe of what I wrote, it’s a very creative fulfilling process too! Sometimes I work in reverse, the other day I spent hours finding a “perfect” frame of Lorelai Gilmore so I could start writing my piece on late ADHD diagnose in adults. While searching for that frame, a lot of the pieces of the essay became clearer in my mind! Thank you so much for sharing more resources, I deeply appreciate the work you put into it!
Very welcome Stephanie, I’ll be adding a post script sometime next week.
Thank you for sharing these sources! They make me so excited to finish writing so that I can go looking for pictures. Lol. And using these materials make me feel like I creating a channel for art to live on. It doesn't matter if your art was created before I was born, it lives on in perpetuity because it is is still being used years after. Such a beautiful cycle. Works of art never die, or become expired or extinct. It is only waiting to be discovered and rediscovered.
Thank you so much Jordan!
Very welcome, Enoch!
Www.webumenia.sk for Slovak art! 💖
What a useful resource of resources you've written here.
hell yeah 🤘
please commission photographers when applicable :,) imagine if there were a free writings database
Just came across this post and am so grateful for your recommendations! I usually make a point of using pictures I’ve taken myself for Substack posts, but sometimes they don’t quite fit right with the theme of the story. These resources will be so useful!! (Also just generally excited to peruse!) Thank you so much 🙌🏻
Very welcome!