Artists under siege by artificial intelligence (AI) that studies their work, then replicates their styles, have teamed with university researchers to stymy such copycat activity. United States illustrator Paloma McClain went into defense mode after learning that several AI models had been 'trained' using her art, with no credit or compensation sent her way. 'It bothered me,' McClain told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
'I believe truly meaningful technological advancement is done ethically and elevates all people instead of functioning at the expense of others.' The artist then turned to free software called Glaze, created by researchers at the University of Chicago. Glaze essentially outthinks AI models when it comes to how they train, tweaking pixels in ways indiscernible by human viewers, but which make a digitized piece of art appear dramatically different to AI. 'We're basically providing technical tools to help protect human creators against invasive and abusive AI models,' said Ben Zhao, a computer science professor and a Glaze team member