I am seeing AI generated images become increasingly prevalent in cases where imagery has a utility such as on posters, flyers etc. Some of it is created and distributed by large entities such as my school or a gym, whose size actually makes the imagery easier to fight.
When my school puts up AI generated posters, even if my emails to staff are ignored, I can take physical action and vandalise them with a message of hostility towards generative AI. In each instance I tried it, the poster was eventually taken down, but not before acting as a statement. The school is a school and doesnt really pursue legal action against students, and I believe the knowledge that the act was by a seemingly naïve student gives it more impact somehow. (Unfortunately, possibly as a result of my actions, the school has recently put up its AI imagery on a tv screen up high which I cannot do anything about.)
The gym is probably more serious about vandalism, but they are nice enough to request feedback from members. Hence I solve the problem diplomatically by asking nicely in a feedback form and appealing to their desire to make the gym better for members, including making them more comfortable.
A far more difficult problem is the growth of usage of AI imagery by individuals and small businesses for promotion purposes. Said usage has exploded recently. I am seeing several times more AI generated advertisements for manual labour by sidewalks than before and there is nothing I can do about it. The reason I hate it is that advertisement art, annoying as it used to be, was originally a way to connect, and now another pathway of human connection is being severed in favour of cheap eye candy. Generative AI is genuinely making me appreciate corporate art.
I think people just like doing stuff the easy way and the ease of telling a chatbot to make a visually pleasing image is growing faster than people’s appreciation for art and human connection.
Where is this going? Are people just going to let AI images flood everywhere that isnt vigilantly guarded by artists? Is there anything we can do about it?
I might be maddening over a symptom of a root issue. I might be taking this too seriously.
Edit: “vandalism” is actually too extreme a descriptor
I would say be careful about your tactic of vandalism. Especially if it's only you doing that but also in general. I think you are looking to close a barn door as the horse traverses the horizon.
Art, like water, will find a way to survive. Some streams will sadly dry up, new unexpected ones will spring up elsewhere. Illumination painters went out of style after the printing press. A lot of painting got taken over by photography and video. Etc.
In the meantime, in my view, the best way to protest is not to give money to the offenders and to tell them why you refuse to. But I'm also afraid that if you are quite rigid in your stance you'll not be spending any money at all.
We are at the beginning of this supposed r-AI-volution. So far it costs several arms and legs and the results overall for the massive investment of limbs are rather unimpressive. I live in hope that economical restraints along with the anti-datacenter sentiment will course correct this quite a bit.
And every trend breeds counterculture. High usage of generated imagery will undoubtedly lead to a made by humans trend in a couple of years.
Thank you; I have noticed that for some reason I tend to adjust the extremity of my action to create balance in my environments, eg if no one is attacking something, in this case gen ai, I feel the need to ramp up my own aggression. I will try to control that.
To summarise, do you think we should encourage anti gen ai sentiment and wait for it to boil over and meanwhile just observe and dont beat ourselves up over it and let social forces do the work?
I encourage it to a point. I try to avoid it as much as I can. But it's like you're a vegetarian and sometimes there is only sausage on the menu. I like the idea of using established feedback channels to complain especially about slop. I will try to copy that.
Just wait for degenerative AI to collapse. It's basically an enormous Ponzi scheme and, since no real "AGI" is ever going to come from the LLMbecile path, it is not a sustainable enterprise.