I’ve been thinking about how AI generated images are created and the artists and designers whose work may have contributed to them.
I wish there were a way to give those artists proper credit. After all, AI doesn’t create things in a vacuum. These systems learn from enormous amounts of existing artwork, photography, and design created by real people.
In music, we’re familiar with giving credit to songwriters, performers, and producers. Even when someone samples another artist’s recording, there are established ways to acknowledge and compensate the original creator. Could something similar work for AI generated images?
While exploring this question, I came across the Content Authenticity Initiative and its connection to C2PA, an organization developing standards to help establish the origins and history of digital content.
I found this interesting because it suggests that technology could play a role in making digital creativity more transparent. C2PA doesn’t currently solve the problem of identifying which artists contributed to an AI model’s training, but it seems like a step in an interesting direction.
I’m not necessarily against using AI to create things. I’m more interested in whether we can develop systems that acknowledge the human creativity that makes these tools possible.
What do you think? Could we eventually build a system where AI generated content acknowledges the artists whose work helped make it possible?
I’d especially like to hear from artists, designers, musicians, and people working with AI. Is this something worth pursuing, and what would meaningful recognition look like?