I haven't put this thought into a cohesive thread yet:

Opt-out cannot work.

Opt-in is the only way.

Anything less is unethical.
#CreateDontScrape #EthicalAi
🧵1/7

Opt-Out will only facilitate the erosion of our rights. It gives all the power and value of our work and our data to corporations, with zero guarantee we get anything in return. Only the scraps they offer us.
Sure you can train your own model.
But do have ♾ money? Its expensive

Opt-in allows us to set terms. It gives negotiation power back to the creators. We can decide what we want:
A model that is only allowed to be used for 5 years then destroyed?
License for only certain types of ML systems?
More bespoke/better data?
It will take time, but why rush?

Because here's the deal:
you can try to scrape Netflix, BUT THEY WILL STOP YOU. 🚫
You have the same legal right to scrape Netflix as they have to scrape your data!

Though good luck arguing "Fair Use" against Netflix in court.

But they leech off of us. And say it's "free".
4/7

People upload pirated content and images they don't have the Copyright to DAILY. Even on paid Stock sites like @AdobeCare!

How can anyone who creates art, music or videos be expected to track down and mark EVERY piece of content they make, as "Not for AI Training"?

They can't.

Opt-out is made worse by the fact that Machine Learning systems can't forget data they were trained on.

You can't un-bake a cake.
So we should be strict with the ingredients; don't add allergens or rat poison to the mix.

A curated cake is a tastier cake.
6/7

Companies have a lot more resources. Even if you become a 1-person team, cranking out movies, Disney can take what you make, strip it of it's "essence", regenerate & sell it in higher quality.

They can drown you.
You don't have the marketing.

Opt-in is the only way.
7/7

As an aside, here's one of many examples of Adobe Stock hosting Copyrighted images that doesn't belong to the uploader.

There are many.

Any copyright governance model online is hard.
That's why it's irresponsible to call this low-effort attempt "Ethical"

If you made it all the way here, congrats!
If you agree with me, you probably align with this petition by EGAIR, the European Guild for AI Regulation!

They're already at around 6350~ signatures. Please help!
www.change.org/p/sign-the-manifesto-protect-our-art-and-data-from-ai-companies

EDIT:
Seems like @Adobe promised to let artists Opt In for Generative AI in an interview in January.

But then they went ahead with Generative AI anyway, without clarifying they were doing so.

Malicious or incompetent, I'm just tired. 😟