Art Against the Machine Bi-Monthly Meeting

Art Against the Machine (AAM) is an open forum bringing together individuals concerned about exploiting human creative work by technology companies utilizing unethical generative AI. Held on the second and last Saturday of each month, the event is a critical platform for exchange, thought leadership, and collective action.

Sign up to join here.

At its core, AAM addresses a growing concern that as AI technology becomes increasingly sophisticated, so does its capability to exploit human creativity. This reality introduces a host of ethical questions:

How do we differentiate between human and machine-generated content?
Who owns the rights to AI-generated works?
And most importantly, how can we prevent technology companies from misappropriating human creative efforts for profit?

The event usually starts with a catch-up session, summarizing the latest news and actions against unethical AI usage. This keeps everyone informed and aligned, comprehensively understanding what transpired since the last meeting. It can range from updates on lawsuits against companies to regulatory changes that affect AI and creative work.

Legal, technological, and creative opportunities are explored in-depth. Legal experts offer advice on protecting intellectual property rights in the age of AI, while technologists discuss ways to develop ethical AI systems that respect human creativity. Artists and activists share how they navigate the evolving landscape by embracing new technologies or finding ways to safeguard their work.

The meetings also serve as an avenue for discovery, where participants can identify shared visions and values. One of the collective’s most important goals is to build a unified stance on what ethical AI should look like in the creative domain. Collective visioning exercises help crystallize these ideals, providing a roadmap for future advocacy efforts.

They also celebrate wins, however small or big they may be. This could be a successful campaign against a tech company, an influential article that shifts public opinion, or even a minor legal victory. These celebrations serve a dual purpose. On the one hand, they inject a sense of hope and motivation, reaffirming the belief that change is possible. On the other, they serve as a testament to the power of collective action, underscoring the importance of unity in tackling a complex issue like AI ethics.

Overall, AAM is not just a meeting but a movement, galvanizing a community to take proactive measures against the misappropriation of human creativity by unethical AI. It’s a space where artists, technologists, lawyers, and activists can come together to discuss, strategize, and most importantly, act. Amid the rapid advancements in AI technology, events like AAM play a crucial role in ensuring that the ethics of creative work are not left behind.

Here are some notes from the September 9, 2023 meeting:

Good News:

–Procreate CEO announced new product (Dreams) while denouncing both data scraping and the use of generative AI in their products.

-Brian is building a website (Luddite Pro) and already has some great resources if you’re looking for people to follow, human-friendly apps, etc. By Monday, will have a lot more content

Theme:

-Artists are fighting against exploitative AI practices

–Revolt inner circle talk

-Artists failed in 2022. Now we must do better

-We must involve all creatives–writers, actors, musicians, voice actors, entrepreneurs, developers, etc

-2023 is almost over, and we must buckle down to keep the fight going through the holidays

-We must take actionable steps to help.

To Do:

-Comment on USCO request for comments answering their questions about how you believe generative AI copyright should be handled. Submission link here 

-Creative Commons has an open letter from artists in support of AI. It was signed by 79 AI artists, including Nettrice Gaskins who wrote this blog defending her AI cover of Ruha Benjamin’s book last month. Here is the open letter from generative AI artists.

In response, Brian created an open letter discussing the important points of artists and asking for the same things (seat at the table for next week’s Sen Schumer AI round table).Would love if you shared around to try and get enough signatures that Brian can submit to journalists for publication.

Form to add yourself as signatory here (no need to register with Google)