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.
I agree, absolute bullshit. I am an artist and a writer. I also understand the copyright infringement that occurs with AI generated work. There is sooo much good stuff out there for free, in the public domain. This list of ten barely scratches the surface of what is available. Take the time figuring out how to use AI and instead do some research.
Thank you so much for this. I’ve been holding myself back from AI images and have been using my own pics. My daughter is an illustration student. I’ve come to respect the issues AI has posed for artists, just like writers. I’d love to have her draw for my Substack but she’s a bit busy with projects. Now I can use these sites and not feel like I’m betraying her.
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.
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.
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 :-)
There’s also Pexels, Pixabay, Dupe Photos and wikipeadia commons
Thank you so much Jordan!
Very welcome, Enoch!
Www.webumenia.sk for Slovak art! 💖
it may have been suggested already but https://public.work/ is one i’ve used!
thank you
I agree, absolute bullshit. I am an artist and a writer. I also understand the copyright infringement that occurs with AI generated work. There is sooo much good stuff out there for free, in the public domain. This list of ten barely scratches the surface of what is available. Take the time figuring out how to use AI and instead do some research.
Thank you so much for this. I’ve been holding myself back from AI images and have been using my own pics. My daughter is an illustration student. I’ve come to respect the issues AI has posed for artists, just like writers. I’d love to have her draw for my Substack but she’s a bit busy with projects. Now I can use these sites and not feel like I’m betraying her.
Please see my "Author's Notes" at the end of my post, "Bird's Eye View," at https://gmdileo.substack.com/p/birds-eye-view. Thanks for the source URLs!
Adding all of these resources to my list. Thank you so much for these!