As an artist, I think it is a net negative for us. Disregarding the copyright issue, I think it’s also consolidating power into large corporations, going to kill learning fundamental skills (rip next generation of artists), and turn the profession into a low skill minimum wage job. Artists that spent years learning and perfecting their skills will be worth nothing and I think it’s a pretty depressing future for us. Anways thoughts?
Whether the process by which a human being produces art, and the process by which a deep learning model produces art, are isomorphic, is orthogonal to whether or not the process itself constitutes theft. Nobody likes this guy:
The boundaries between imitation, and remix, and so-called “original” works, are all fuzzy, but they do exist. And they will continue to exist under any politico-economic system.
Authorship exists independently of politico-economic systems, and each such system will need to determine the extent to which it values and respects it. Under capitalism, the point of so-called intellectual property, like all commodities, is profit. Not public benefit. Not expression. Not for the ego boost. Not for-the-fuck-of-it. Just profit. As much of it and for as long as possible. Communism will need its own answer. And ideally, it will be an answer that balances the material needs of the people who make it, the material costs of making it, and the broader public good.
You have definitely given me a lot to think about and your replies want to make me learn more. Thanks for offering some solid discussion here (I know I keep replying but honestly I don’t know how to message people individually).