Jesus. Some Artists Need to Wake Up.

I know some artists are having a rough time out there because of AI, and I'll state up front that I don't think it's ethical to steal someone else's style and label it your own or to sell under their name. I use AI for spot illustrations infrequently, and I've never had a need to steal or borrow something as particular as style. I've also been compensated by Adobe for using some of my microstock to train Firefly, which is the AI I use most often.

I'm a Jack-of-all-Trades, and built a 30 year career on being able to learn or do anything I needed for a task. I can code. I can draw. I can read complex white papers about how AI learns and understand a lot of it, okay maybe about half of it, but the point is I've been on both “sides” of this debate professionally at some time or another in my life, and I've gotta say...

There are a bunch of artists out there that need to get a grip.

This is going to be an exercise in tough love. If you can't handle a little Gen-X dose of truth in your fucking trick-or-treat bag, get off my doorstep.

Glaze is ridiculous and harmful to artists, not AI. It was cracked minutes after it was shown to the world, and that's hyperbole, but not a lot. What's crazy about that is I saw the AI art forums and sites throwing out tools to unGlaze images well before this Zurich research paper on the topic was released last month. The feeling was the same amongst the pro-AI crowd… Glaze is just going to lead to a false sense of security, leaving artists feeling doubly like their work is protected AND like they’re somehow being covert warriors in a technological war against a shadow army of bots that can somehow be “poisoned”.

You’re already fucked, and many people tried to warn you that this could happen for many years, but y’all didn’t listen. When social media companies started rolling out updates to various terms that allowed them access to whatever you give them, y’all posted about it angrily on social media, but then… continued to use social media. The same thing goes for literally every type of company out there… bitch about it, but keep giving them money… and corporations paid attention. They now know they can just wait and y’all will forget how angry you were and go on using the thing anyway.

This tactic works everywhere for everything. The outrage only lasts as long as the algorithm picks it up, then it fades away and everyone continues using the same things they complained about while saying they “don’t have a choice”.

You have a choice. You always have a choice. Everyone has a choice. You chose the easy way out, and this is the price for that choice. You wanted quick and easy access to an audience that is constantly fed a scroll of “content” that keeps them hopelessly addicted for hours on end, so you sold your soul and made an excuse. Now you’re tied up in the algorithm and trying to get out… and there’s no way out.

There was a chance. Consumers ‘vote’ with their dollars. You could’ve made Twitter, Facebook, DeviantArt, allllll of these places, develop terms that protected your work, but you didn’t. You made the choice between walking away and staying, and a vast majority of you stayed. I desperately want to have empathy, but having lived through this era as a web developer, all I can develop is a bitter scoff. Wake the fuck up. You clicked ‘Accept’ without reading, you whinged when someone told you what you agreed to, but then you just kept using the product because you benefited.

And now you want the rest of the world to save you. Good luck with that. I don’t know, maybe stop whinging into the wind and making excuses for using the services that steal from you with your consent, and actually do something?

My whole career in tech – of every engineer in tech – was punctuated by many, many, many updates to technology that required I relearn everything I did and do it differently. The fast pace is one of the reasons I like it so much. There was always some new, interesting architecture or library or technique to dig into, which kept me interested, kept the work from being too dull, and kept me on my toes.

I did bitch about it a lot in the moment, though. There was a time in the 90s where those of us that hand-built website for people were displaced by WYSIWYG editors and cheap online templates that required very little technical expertise. Many anxious tears were shed in forums and mailing lists. Work dried up overnight. Designers had to adapt or they died out. I had friends who just… disappeared… went into whole other fields. So I understand the fear and the anxiety, but if you want to make change you have to stop whinging on social media, and you have to start doing the things that actually make change. The hard things.

Leave social media. Refuse to use any service that doesn’t explicitly protect your data. If you start using a service and they change their terms, stop using that service. Yeah, it’s going to be difficult and you’re going to have to rethink what you do, but that’s the only thing that makes shareholder-held corporations listen.

Advocate for better privacy laws. Start paying the fuck attention to all the shit you were ignoring right up until the point where it started affecting you. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been raising flags and trying to get people’s attention since 1990.

Advocate for better copyright laws. Despite what people seem to think, copyright laws don’t automatically protect the creator. If the copyright isn’t registered, it can’t be brought as a case in federal court. You only have state courts and mediation at your disposal at that point. If the work is done for hire at another company, that company owns the copyright, not the creator. Even if the creator correctly registers the work and takes the case to federal court, they have to be able to afford the legal support. On the flip side, copyright trolls have developed entire businesses who abuse copyright law as their main source of revenue.

Learn about technology. Honestly, I see a lot of memes saying that AI artists need to pick up a pencil or have the courage to learn to draw. I worked in every type of engineering department during my time, and I can guarantee I know more programmers who can draw than I know traditional artists who know anything at all about the technology they use every day. All of the information about how learning models work is available online, open source… and at various learning levels… yet, misinformation on how it works is super thick on the ground. You need to know how the shit you use works, even if it’s just broad strokes.

The bottom line to the whole thing is that technology is always going to evolve, and it's going to disrupt every industry at some point. AI is just the latest in a long line of advancements that have changed the landscape for artists, just like digital photography changed it for film photographers, or digital publishing changed it for print.

Instead of wasting energy trying to stop the tide, we need to focus on how to ride it. That means learning, adapting, and advocating for ourselves in intelligent, proactive ways. It means understanding the tools and technologies we use, and it means being vigilant about our rights and how we protect them.

Stop relying on the old models that no longer serve us. Stop complaining and start strategizing. Use the tools available to you to create new opportunities and new ways of working. Understand the risks and protect yourself accordingly. But most importantly, take responsibility for your choices and their consequences.

It's a harsh reality, but it's the only way forward. The world isn't going to go back to the way it was, so we need to figure out how to thrive in the world as it is now. That means being smart, being informed, and being willing to take the hard steps necessary to secure our futures.

So yeah, some artists need to wake up. But more than that, we all need to step up. It's time to stop being passive and start being active participants in shaping the future of our industries. It won't be easy, but nothing worth doing ever is.

Don't believe me! Always fact-check everything you read on the internet through multiple sources. Here's a list to help.