The truth is that #Lensa, like any other app obtaining "#facedata", is a bit of a slippery slope. But, the #app can be exploited for some alternative creative #art use. I trained the #artificialintelligence with the DISØRDINARY BƏAUTY 🥀 training ÆRTWØRKz made by another #AI. The machine learns from the machine.

On the topic of art and artists

These AI tools do not work without the data, and the data is nonconsensually scraped from artists work posted online. So the artists have had their labor stolen to train an AI system which will make the company a lot of money. They get no compensation for that.

Will the AI replace the artists? In some cases yes. For example, some companies may not want to pay an artist to make advertising materials and will use these systems to generate images instead. But overall I do not think it will significantly impact the financial condition of artists, it is just that a company is profiting off of theft. Te company is a data broker, the images they create are secondary to the data they have produced - stolen and coerced.

On the topic of face data

Is your face data a risk to you? Possibly. But the threat is more on the societal level. This data aggregation will result in tools that will be better at creating deep fakes. These are fabricated visuals that make it seem like something happened when it didn't. Just because these images are dressed up in fantasy (from the art that was scraped) the data itself can be used to produce more refined reality fakes. Also, it is possible to fake art materials, for example there could be new forms of revenge porn.

Does this make you bad for buying some pretty faces?

No. It is unusual that a company has managed to get real money from one of their data grifts. But ultimately the responsibility for the potential harms is on these companies and the state which will use these systems for future disinformation and carceral projects.

This has been an opportunity for public education in data and AI literacy.

Another thing that is an unexpected benefit to creating these images and playing with these tools is that it might help the average user get better at detecting deep fakes. There is a particular gestalt to these images that people may be better able to pick up on in the future.

I have worked in 3D art and animation for years and so I am still able to tell that something is off when I see a deep fake. It is possible that the more people who play with AI tools, the more people will be able to notice that something is off and be skeptical of the media they are watching.

*do not be a pedant about the difference between AI and machine learning I am trying to do public outreach here.

#LENSA #MachineLearning #AIArt #FaceData #DataBrokerage #DataJustice #TechJustice #DeepFake