Artists Protesting AI is Dumb.

Your argument is "protesting is dumb because it's going to happen anyway" which, historically, has been a bad position to hold.

I don't know the nuances in the situation but if AI were learning on artists work then putting those artists out of business, I can understand why they might want some regulation or restriction in place.

Jobs being made obsolete by new technology is one thing.

Artists having their works taken and profited off of without consent, attribution, or compensation is another.

Wow, this is truly unpopular.

In short: I think workers should protest workers conditions and wages, rather than protesting technology.

They are protesting working conditions when the tech companies stole all of their art without their permission, aren't paying them and now claiming it as their own. All while putting the beginning artists out of business.

List every artist they used for training for every picture and then compensate them, just like we do for music. The artists in music are paid even if it's a sample.

True, this new tech is not going anywhere. And it is really amazing for certain applications. But the reason that AI is so good and looks the way it does is because it was trained on human made art. If it ends up putting most of these artists out of business, it would be a real shame not just for the artists and not just for all of us collectively, but it would be bad for AI as well.

AI is derivative by definition. We like our art to feel like it is fresh and relevant. Who will do that if all the artists go out of business because of AI? AI will only ever look basically how it is now until it's trained on new art. That's why it is important to have the conversation of compensating these artists. AI is generating a lot of money, and giving nothing to the artists and communities that they trained their models on. And if these communities are decimated by AI now, then these companies have killed the thing that they built their success on, and will have a hard time continuing to innovate without it.

Now, personally I don't think there is a risk of AI "killing" the art industry. Artists don't just make art to make money. There is value in the time taken. It is a good feeling to actually create something. And it's a great feeling to share that with others and feel like there's a small connection made between the artist and someone who likes what they made. That will never be replaced.

However, there is a risk of making many artist's lives, particularly digital artist's, harder than they already are. I think that might be what you are trying to get at. Don't just protest the new scary technology, protest the reason why you are struggling. And that is a really complicated problem and it's easier to just say AI bad. But we do need to support our artists, and dismissing their concerns without trying to understand where they are coming from is not helpful.

AI in its current form (LLMs) is usually just a way to make errors faster. Outside of a few very specific use cases it does nothing to address any of the issues we have as societies. In fact, it creates new ones by making companies even more dependent on silicon valley-style companies.

I mean AI has an impact on the workplace. And on workers and human labour. So I think it is core business for unions. But I get what you say. It's difficult. I still think it's warranted to go on a writers guild strike like in Hollywood. Or be pissed if you're a freelancer doing art or design.

Also that's exactly what unions are about. Imagine assembly line work. And people advocating that it needs some rules. And a bathroom break. We regularly complain about technology at the workplace?!

What if you lose your job because of AI?

AI is going to change a lot of industries forever and there is almost nothing workers and unions can do currently to actually stop the progress.

Probably true.

But protesting things we disagree with is still a good thing to do.

Why are people downvoting an unpopular opinion in this community?

You guys are downvoting this unpopular opinion on a community meant for unpopular opinions meaning you actually support this opinion and think its popular