While the pessimist in me fears this is merely a futile Canute-like attempt to hold back an inevitable tide, it's good to see so many creative types come out against the unlicensed use of work for training generative AI models. That (mis)use has been branded "a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works" in a statement signed by over 10,000 people, including Thom Yorke, Kazuo Ishiguro, Robert Smith, Julianne Moore and Kevin Bacon.
Part of what vexes me about all this is that it's unclear what the actual value of this training is. Adverts and puff pieces about AI are everywhere, and yet there doesn't seem to be any real idea of how it might be used in a way that isn't cynical and destructive.
More broadly, it seems that everyone's too bedazzled by what AI can do to give serious consideration to the wider implications and risks - for art, for technology, for the environment, and more. A classic case of "Just because we can, doesn't mean we should".
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