By Vickie Harding-Wakeen
Never before have I been as excited about new technology as I am about the AI image-generating software I’ve been hearing so much about lately.
I first learned about this pioneering technology on an MSNBC broadcast of The Beat, starring Ari Melber. It sounds almost too good to be true. If you haven’t heard about this yet, listen up!
What is this DALL-E?
This artificial intelligence-generated software can turn text into unique, original imagery. Previously only available to a select group of invitees which included academics, artists, and journalists, it is now “open source” tech – free to the public – thanks to its developer, OpenAI. Almost immediately, journalists at media outlets like NPR, NBC, and MSNBC began putting it to the test.
No doubt creative entrepreneurs will soon be latching onto this new tool as tightly as they do other creative tools like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, or Procreate. This is fantastic news for small business marketers and anyone who needs to create content.
According to one article by CNBC, “Generative AI has gotten so much better that it’s inspired people to leave their jobs, start new companies, and dream about a future where artificial intelligence could power a new generation of tech giants.”
And according to Sequoia Capital, one of the most successful venture capital firms in history, “Generative AI is well on the way to becoming not just faster and cheaper, but better in some cases than what humans create by hand. Every industry that requires humans to create original work – from social media to gaming, advertising to architecture, coding to graphic design, product design to law, marketing to sales – is up for reinvention.”
Every industry that requires humans to create original work—from social media to gaming, advertising to architecture, coding to graphic design, product design to law, marketing to sales—is up for reinvention.
That’s huge!
Art generation is just one application that Sequoia is most excited about – and you should be too! Anyone can now explore themes and styles that used to take a lifetime to master.
Do you want a gorilla wearing a tutu painted in the style of Van Gogh? You’ve got it!
Do you imagine a crystal-clear lake in the desert with dolphins jumping into the air from the water? No problem. What artist style would you like that in?
Many digital creation companies are now adding an AI image generator and an AI writer to their platforms. One such company is Picsart. Another is Canva. And TikTok. And Lightricks.
How Do AI Image Generators Work?
When you feed one of these programs a series of random words, the program spits out a selection of never-before-seen images. The person behind the prompt can then opt to use the image as presented or alter it at their discretion using any other type of creativity tool.
According to Canva’s recent announcement, “To create AI-generated images, the machine learning model scans millions of images across the internet along with the text associated with them. The algorithms spot trends in the images and text and eventually begin to guess which image and text fit together. Once the model can predict what an image should look like from a given text, they can create entirely new images from scratch based on a new set of descriptive text users enter on the app.”
Is There a Downside to AI Image Generators?
The AI software has sparked concerns and criticism for one known issue regarding artificial intelligence – inherent racial and gender biases.
Because the technology draws on examples from hundreds of billions of images and text sources with inherent biases, the output will reflect the input, which has historically shown societal biases. Only over time can this be minimized, say social scientists.
AI companies use data filters to prohibit graphic or explicit images as results. When applications testers apply these filters, the results tend to be even more skewed or biased than the original input. Suffice it to say that companies need to be transparent about the methodology of their AI systems training.
Who Owns the Copyright to the Artwork?
There is no simple answer to this question, yet. Copyright law over AI generated images is currently an open question, and the answer may vary country to country.
As of September 2022, the U.S. Copyright office will not grant copyright registration for AI-generated art because the current law requires human authorship for copyright protection. Therefore, under current copyright law – AI generated content has no copyright owner.
In the case of Canva, their policy states, “Canva does not make any copyright claim over the images you create with Text to Image. As between you and Canva, you own the images you create with Text to Image (subject to you following our terms), and you give us the right to host them on our platform and to use them for marketing our products. However, please not this does not mean you are the copyright owner of the images or that you have exclusive rights to them.”
It would seem, then, that there is good news for artists – they can rest easy knowing there’s still a demand and a place for human creativity.
Watch Me Create on Canva
Click on the Mermaid
There you have it. You can no longer use the excuse, “but I’m just not creative!” If you can think of it, you can create it. I truly feel there has never been a greater time to be alive. Now, what will you create???
Sources:
July 27, 2022
September 30, 2022
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/30/1125976146/dall-e-art-ai-generator-npr
October 8, 2022
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/08/generative-ai-silicon-valleys-next-trillion-dollar-companies.html
November 3, 2022
November 15, 2022
Formerly a lifelong Massachusetts resident, Vickie Harding-Wakeen relocated to sunny central Florida in January 2020, and founded MyVirtualGal™, a virtual assistant services company, a year later.
Specializing in supporting solopreneurs and small business owners with the backend, administrative areas of their business, Vickie now also serves as the Marketing & Advertising arm for Hallard Press!
You can learn more about her at www.myvirtualgal.com.
