Games worth discovering

Feeding Late Artist's Work into AI Raises Questions About Ethics and Respect

1K View2023-03-20

In early March, some AI-generated artwork featuring the character Saileach from Arknights was called out for sampling the work of the late Japanese artist, Cogecha. After this discovery, numerous players expressed concern that this practice is not an appropriate way to honor the artist's creative legacy.

Pisayun, the person behind the AI-generated Saileach artwork, received a barrage of unfavorable comments from players. At first, they tried to calm the situation by asking people to stop commenting on their work, but this only attracted more attention on social media platforms, including Lofter, Weibo, and QQ. While some players don’t hold strong opposition to this practice, others believe that it is disrespectful and undermines the value of the late artist’s work.

A screenshot from Lofter shows the AI-generated artwork by Pisayun.

A dialogue that occurred between Jixinglian and Pisayun within the comments section of Lofter.

According to online screenshots and posts, Pisayun’s work resembles work by Cogecha, believed to be used by the AI as training data, generating images similar to the original pieces and labeling them with tags such as "Saileach," "Arknights," and "stable diffusion."

One posted chatlog also showed Pisayun denying feeding the late artist’s work to AI, claiming the accusers have no proof that they used Cogecha's work. Pisayun also argued that they should not be held responsible as there was no intention to profit from or harm the late artist's reputation.

Cogecha was an influential illustrator, and in June 2020, the artist passed away unexpectedly. Cogecha's family posted an obituary on Twitter to commemorate the artist's passing.

The artwork of Cogecha that was potentially used to train AI in this instance.

Illustrator and artist Cogecha

This controversy highlights the issues and moral challenges that AI faces. As powerful as they are, AI that generates art still needs to be trained with an abundance of data created by human artists, and many of them are not happy about their work being used in this way. To many fans, applying such practices to a deceased artist’s work can feel predatory and disrespectful to the artist's legacy and is potentially an infringement on the copyright.

However, some would also argue that AI-generated art is a way to keep an artist’s style alive and further their legacy for future generations. The AI learning process is not different from, say, a very enthusiastic fan trying to copy their idol’s work, and after a certain amount of time, the creative work of a deceased artist would enter the public domain anyway.

People hold different opinions on this incident.

As of the publication of this article, the Weibo post has garnered 3.6k shares, sparking widespread attention. As the discussion continues to spread, it is clear that this issue is far from settled and will require further consideration and debate.

Source: Weibo

Exclusive Interview: Top AI Cosplay Artist Discussing Morality and Future of AI Graphics

The Interview of Kanyon Industries Johnson Ge -- Superpixel In February, a set of AI-generated cosplay photos gained immense popularity on the internet for their impressive quality and accurate representation of characters. The creator, Kanyon Industries, received widespread attention for their use of AI technology in art. The photos quickly garnered millions of views across various social media platforms, with some viewers mistaking the AI-generated images for real-life photos. Furthermore, the administrator of Bilibili initially flagged the work for being in the wrong submission category, as they were unaware that the images were not actual cosplay photos.

Superpixel6692023-03-14