Jingna Zhang
@zemotion
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Gundam pilot wannabe. Photographer, AD, building @cara_hq 🎨, writing about safety | https://t.co/iM0FwRTyG7
Joined March 2009
At NeurIPS this year, I was invited to talk about my perspective on generative AI. I spoke on the parallels between AlphaGo’s impact on professional Go, how that connects with what’s happening in creative industries today, & a bunch of musings on art, AI, and meaning. 1/🧵
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I won. I won my appeal. The Luxembourg court has ruled that Jeff Dieschburg infringed upon my copyright when he used my work without consent. Using a different medium was irrelevant. My work being 'available online' was irrelevant. Consent was necessary. 1/
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A guy plagiarized my work, made it a tribute to a racist opera, people said my race was the problem. He copied near 1:1 of my work flipped over, but my medium of choice was the problem. When licensing is a part of my work & he stole from me—me being a woman was the problem. 1/
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A thread on some Olympic shooting equipment from a retired shooter: 1/🧵
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Words can't describe how dehumanizing it is to see my name used 20,000+ times in MidJourney. My life's work and who I am—reduced to meaningless fodder for a commercial image slot machine.
Sooooo, show Midjourney an artist’s image directly and Midjourney will copy it. You’re nothing but thieves. Nothing. #AIisTrash.
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I am devastated by the copyright ruling in Luxembourg today, which stated that my work lacks originality and therefore will not receive copyright protection in Luxembourg. The basis of the ruling being that the model’s pose in my photo is not unique. 1/
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If a book has AI cover, I’ll assume the book is generated by AI. If a publisher uses AI covers, I’ll assume their authors are AI. If a game uses AI art, I’m gonna assume the game is AI generated. If a musician uses AI art, I’ll assume their music is AI. 1/.
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The argument that “artists didn’t care about copyright before AI” is very wrong btw. Some of us have long fought for it before gen AI, and won. 1/.
I won. I won my appeal. The Luxembourg court has ruled that Jeff Dieschburg infringed upon my copyright when he used my work without consent. Using a different medium was irrelevant. My work being 'available online' was irrelevant. Consent was necessary. 1/
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This win means a lot—not just for me but also for artists & photographers everywhere. It’s a reminder that copyright protects individuals from those that try to profit off our work without consent. It reaffirms that our work being online doesn't mean we give up our rights. 3/.
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Some guy really ripped off my photo, won a €1,500 prize, exhibited in a biennale supported by the Luxembourg government, then tried to mansplain copyright infringement to me. Where can I find a Luxembourgish speaker to help? Unbelievable.
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Someone just reported my announcement on @facebook as spam. Unreal.
I won. I won my appeal. The Luxembourg court has ruled that Jeff Dieschburg infringed upon my copyright when he used my work without consent. Using a different medium was irrelevant. My work being 'available online' was irrelevant. Consent was necessary. 1/
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He won €1,500, made it for sale, turned my work into tribute for a racist opera, & hired a lawyer first. How’s any of that my fault?. I gave up jobs at the peak of my career. If I wanted clout, I would’ve kept photographing celebrities instead of sacrificing my work & income.
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For 2 years I’ve been harassed for fighting this because of my gender, my race, my being a photographer. My home address was doxxed, I was told they'd put me in jail, that I’d kill myself soon. I lost out on work cuz of how it ate away at me. But I didn't want to give up. 4/
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Next time you see someone do this to another artist and claim that:. - "using a different medium is transformative and not copyright infringement", or.- "this was found on the internet so it's free to use!". Show them my case. Because they are wrong. 8/
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As someone who knows what it means to be talented, let me tell you a story:. I was born in the Beijing shooting range, grew up with Olympians, and picked up air rifle after moving to Singapore. Within a few months, I hit the Olympic finals cutoff with no full-time training. 1/.
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I couldn’t give up because it’s one of my longest held wishes to experience justice once, in this life. Maybe it's a stupid ideal, but I think if we can, we should stand up to bullies who believe they can get away with anything because they know people can't fight back. 5/.
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People being absolutely normal over a woman not wanting her work to be stolen
He won €1,500, made it for sale, turned my work into tribute for a racist opera, & hired a lawyer first. How’s any of that my fault?. I gave up jobs at the peak of my career. If I wanted clout, I would’ve kept photographing celebrities instead of sacrificing my work & income.
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What’s it like to be a woman artist online in 2024, you ask?
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This is funny cuz a woman won the last & final gold medal in the mixed gender Skeet Shooting event at the 1992 Olympics. I was often told that she was so good it made them cancel the mixed event. And even as a child I thought it had to be an exaggerated story, till one day: 1/
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So this is for the young me who couldn’t fight for herself, & for everyone else who's felt the same, that they couldn't challenge what seemed terrifying, powerful, and unjust. 6/.
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I want to thank Luxembourg & its judicial system for upholding copyright protection for an individual, esp in time of AI where our rights seem to be quickly eroding. And to my lawyer Vincent Wellens & co at NautaDutilh—thank you for fighting to protect the rights of artists. 9/.
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I’m exhausted. I think someone well-intentioned passed my photo thru OpenAI’s new image model to show what it can do. And while I appreciate the sentiment, can I just say that as the original artist, seeing stuff like these makes me feel like shit 1/
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It's hard to find the right words after 2 years of suppressing what I can say or share. And I'm still processing the fact that I can finally start to have my life back now. I hope bit by bit, I can return to how much I used to create & share. Thank you.
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I know that as individuals, it may not seem like there's much we can do. But even if we are alone, the act of many individuals fighting for what's right, over time, may one day be collectively enough to make a difference in this world. 7/.
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The fact that my work has been copied by others countless times is a testament to its originality and style—including in this particular case, where it’s been exploited by the violator for a painting that won an award, exhibited, and was offered for sale for €6,500. 3/
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I’m grateful for the incredible kindness of the people of Luxembourg and everyone around the world. Your help and support meant a lot when my world was breaking apart. 10/.
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I hope that more of the world will look towards Luxembourg & remember that copyright is what allows individual like myself to work as an artist. Because without knowing that I can own what I create & make a living off it—I could never have chosen this path for my life. 11/.
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I trained for the Olympics at 15, shot for Harper’s Bazaar at 20, founded an esports team at 23, & am making anime for fun. I’m building a platform to support millions of artists & fans one day. Who are you & what have you done to say I lack vision & ambition?.
@zemotion Crying about your art having a bigger impact, one you can't control. You are ungrateful and you lack both vision and ambitions.
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I thought by going to court I could defend my work & set precedent to help other artists who go thru what I did. But I lost the first instance on count that although I owned my copyright, it didn't deserve protection cuz my model's pose wasn't unique. 2/.
I am devastated by the copyright ruling in Luxembourg today, which stated that my work lacks originality and therefore will not receive copyright protection in Luxembourg. The basis of the ruling being that the model’s pose in my photo is not unique. 1/
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Cara grew from 40k to 650k users in a week because artists are fed up with Meta's AI policies. We're 700k now! - 1/
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I wanted to appeal, but Jeff Dieschburg's supporters hoped I’d kill myself. Threatened to put me in jail, doxxed me by posting unredacted court docs w/ my home address. The official doc was already fully redacted. Lawyers told me this was all legal. 3/
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My work was taken and used without my permission, against my will. I feel that logically, humans all understand that we shouldn't rob, abuse, harass, or hurt others, or tell victims to kill themselves. So why does this fly out of the window when it comes to artists? 6/.
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But how can a photo’s copyright be based on a pose alone?. If having a unique pose is the premise for copyright protection of an image, then nearly all portrait works in the world will not have copyright protection. 2/.
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Some pistol shooters aim with both their eyes, like Yusuf Dikec and Wang Yifu. So you don’t see these guys wearing blinders or shooting glasses frames. 5/
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I've been threatened & harassed for a year & was powerless to stop it. Even though I believe this timing is just a coincidence, it drives home the feeling of how unimportant artists' cases are. Lawyers said I'm not rich enough for the law to help me. It hurts that it's true. 5/.
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My appeal was set to be in April and I thought that finally, this nightmare would be over. But no, they postponed it by half a year, to just after their elections, where coincidentally, his mother & prime minister, both in the same party, are up for reelections. 4/.
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8 years ago, Google Deepmind created AlphaGo—an AI that defeated the best human Go player in the world & it shaped how I see art & AI. In a new interview, Lee Sedol says he wouldn't become a pro again if he had known of AI today. This is heartbreaking— 1/
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What made me want to kill myself was when I built an artist platform to filter out AI art & wanted to treat artists w/ more respect—ppl came to say I was doing it to steal artists work. Just unreal, after all I’d been through. Humanity’s capacity for absurd cruelty has no limit.
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I honestly don't know how to live in 2023. I don't recognize this world.
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People who reach this level of delusions need to seek help
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Most of what the public calls “talented artist” is not really talent, it's just plain, boring, practice. Talents like Mozart do exist once an era, but 99.99% artists aren't that—they study, practice, work hard, & get proficient at the job like people in all other professions. 4/.
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This ruling effectively allows anyone in Luxembourg to freely exploit, sell, license, and use my work without permission or respect for my rights, despite recognizing me as the copyright holder of my work. This simply goes against the very principles of copyright law. 4/.
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Misconception that our sights or glasses have super zoom built in:. There’s no zoom or magnification. We wear glasses if we’re short sighted. We don’t wear glasses if we aren’t. 2/
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I plan to appeal this decision, as it’s now not only an injustice for myself, but a worrying danger for the entire art and photography community in both Luxembourg and beyond. 6/.
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The worst part is that the ramifications not only affect my own work, but sets a dangerous precedent that extends to ALL photographers and artists whose portraits are now under threat of losing copyright protection. 5/.
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Having my work featured in Wacom Intuos campaigns was one of my favorite early career memories. Seeing this has been heartbreaking.
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It's romantic to think and talk about talent, and it can be inspiring and defeating to experience. But on its own, talent means nothing. Talent is meaningless without practice. 5/.
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With a glasses frame, people may wear just a blinder, or with a regular lens, or have a diopter so they don’t need to squint too much to aim. This is standard equipment. 4/
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I’ve told former Ghibli staff that they can reach out to me if they have questions about our class actions in the US so far.
@zemotion Imagine how Miyazaki is feeling after this week's wholesale theft of his work, at least you are on the side of creativity.
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To not tense our faces while aiming, we use a blinder/card to block our non dominant eye. This can be attached to the rear sight on a rifle, stuck under a headband, or worn on shooting glasses frames. How an athlete does it in the end is for comfort & personal preference. 3/
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Junior portfolios at top studios can fit right in next to your art heroes in a book, or look so bad (subjective) you don’t know why they were hired. This is because social media inflates good illustration as the goalpost, and for a concept role, that is often the wrong goal. 1/.
I’m really interested in seeing what an A+ hirable portfolio looks like for game concept artists for the current barrier of entry. I wanna see the quality of work and how I should organize my projects for when I build my own portfolio. Any resources would be appreciated. :).
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MidJourney has a feature where users can feed it an image, get a list of prompts, then copy & paste the prompt back to MJ to generate derivatives of said image. It reduces my personhood to nothing more than a tag, cycling through a machine. I'm sorry I can't feel grateful.
Words can't describe how dehumanizing it is to see my name used 20,000+ times in MidJourney. My life's work and who I am—reduced to meaningless fodder for a commercial image slot machine.
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@tobieee is one of the most 'talented' artists I know. Here's his work 17 years apart. His art didn't arrive talented at birth. His Destiny 2 art weren't pre-rendered in the womb. He reads, researches, & draws every day. Hard work may be a talent, but artists don't gatekeep it.
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Hi artists! Want to protect your work from style mimicry by generative AI? I'm happy to share that the long-awaited collaboration between @TheGlazeProject and @Cara_HQ is finally here!! 🥳✨. A quick thread on Cara Glaze and Glazed art in action! 👇 1/
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Rifle shooters wear jackets and shoes because the rifles can be 4-5kg heavier than pistols, the targets are also smaller. We have to test the stiffness and thickness of the jacket & pants at every competition. They can be very stuffy. 7/
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Hi everyone, sorry for the absence—we hit 300k users on Cara!!!!!! 🥹🤯🥳. We made it to top 5 in App Store for social networks in the US—passing Twitter, Discord, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Messenger! Unfortunately this traffic spike has caused the site to crash like crazy &— 1/
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I was surrounded by people who weren't born with talent. Yet they won Olympic medals, I didn't. Even without this so called talent like mine, they practiced, worked hard, and survived till the finishing line. 3/.
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The blinder attached to a glasses frame also allows you to you flip it up when walking around. So it’s very convenient when you have to leave your lane to talk to your coach or go to the bathroom. 6/
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I was called a prodigy, an Olympic medal was expected. And you know what I did with that talent? I didn't win an Olympic gold. Didn't even make the team. I got some PTSD, tried to kill myself, & left the sport after 6 years. 2/.
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I’ll say it pragmatically, a lot of gen AI work is very good. Because so much of it is trained on the best of works (without permission), it’s only natural that the output is good. The machine vs human-made factor won’t matter to every consumer. 2/.
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The closest thing to a natural-born talent is imo a curious mind. But that exists in every field, and it's not exclusive to artists, nor an art skill that lets you render. I'll leave with an example below: 6/.
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We passed 500,000 users. Half a million—I can't even. It's been moving to see so many people enjoy the platform despite our many issues. Thank you for your patience. I hope our community will always remain encouraging & supportive like we are today. Half a million strong. ❤️.
Hi everyone, sorry for the absence—we hit 300k users on Cara!!!!!! 🥹🤯🥳. We made it to top 5 in App Store for social networks in the US—passing Twitter, Discord, Reddit, LinkedIn, and Messenger! Unfortunately this traffic spike has caused the site to crash like crazy &— 1/
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So painful to watch, especially given the current climate of artists being crushed by the unrelenting decimation of the arts by generative AI.
Meet the new iPad Pro: the thinnest product we’ve ever created, the most advanced display we’ve ever produced, with the incredible power of the M4 chip. Just imagine all the things it’ll be used to create.
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Someone did this to me on my copyright case where a dude flipped my work for a painting, won a prize, & tried to sell it for thousands of dollars. Randos would spam img2img pictures under my posts to prove that if they can rip me off then I’m not original. It’s so abusive.
This fucking asshole took my pinned tweet, put it into Mid or whatever and said "look it can copy you". NO SHIT SHERLOCK that's why artists are mad. Can you fucking not
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Gen AI will remove jobs at a higher rate than it can create. One of few ways forward is for gvnts to tax those that use AI. So if much of workforce is eliminated, there can be social support for most of society who’ll have no jobs. If not taxed, AI only benefit corporations. 1/.
Disney & Universal are paying lobbyists to watch over legislation that would bar them from using a lucrative state tax break if AI is used to displace workers in their film & TV productions. (Source: )
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Ah we have reached the beginning of Psycho Pass.
In a Japanese municipality, a pilot experiment using AI to measure residents' happiness has begun. Residents install the app on their computers, and an AI analyzes emotions from facial expressions each time the screen is opened.
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@tobieee Next time someone tells you they weren’t born with talent, show them this thread and tell them to win an Olympic medal instead. I’m so sick of people using it as excuse for everything. The word has lost all meaning and is now just shorthand for “I don’t want to work hard”.
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Shooting gloves are worn on the supporting hand in rifle. The pose varies due to arm length, hip height & preference. Some don’t use gloves. I posed like in pic 1, which causes the skin on my knuckles to discolor & thicken, so some ppl mistake it for injury, but it’s normal. 8/
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Hi!! We have almost 800k users on Cara so it's time for another quick update!!—. 1. Team and I are heads down dealing with infra, speaking with vendors, and doing everything we can to make sure Cara keeps going. 1/.
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For 10 meter events we use 4.5mm pellets, which are soft & easily dented. So we use padded box for protection, it can be therapeutic to fill out. 9/
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Call me if you want to make an anime ✨.
So which studio will be making the Olympics shooting anime? Pls call me to consult! 😂. I can give info for:.- Born at Olympic shooting range.- Represented team Singapore.- Trained in China & Korea.- Competed in World Cups.- Grew up w Olympians in diving & other stuff like Go 1/
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Artists who choose not to use gen AI now are basically striking in their own way. They COULD use AI if they wanted—& will be better at it than any prompter. So if you think of yourself as a creative when the community is fighting for copyright to be respected, you’re a scab. 1/.
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So indies need to make a decision now. Do you want your entire work to be known as AI generated? Or do you want to be known as an artist, author, creator?. The paths diverge and you can’t have both. So choose.
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Maybe it’s a good time to buy/hoard our favorite shows, films, games, etc so we can still enjoy some things normally till the day we die.
Netflix will show generative AI ads midway through streams in 2026
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Many people asked why don't I just give up and move on. The answer is simply because this isn’t right. The ruling will affect all artists and photographers whose works get stolen in the future. This is about more than just myself. 7/.
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For big events, some athletes travel to manufacturers for grouping tests so they can pick out batches with less defects. The chosen batch will be used until & through the Olympics or major games. Testing is sometimes done for choosing new weapons as well. 10/.
At high levels, you’re expected to not only hit the dot of a 10 once, but achieve centered grouping at 10.5+ points consistently through nearly 100 shots on a target of this size. 3/
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“Someone can think that my work really sucks, but my consent is still needed, and that applies to any other photographer and artist.”. Short interview in RTL:
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I broke the national record at 14, within 9 months of picking up air rifle. Ranked 18th at World Cup, held the Commonwealth Shooting Championships record unbroken until rules were changed by the ISSF years later.
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For those of us who don’t get to do that, we hoard a good batch of pellets like gold when we come across them, and save it all for the most important games & championships. 11/.
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Much of generative AI is an average of the taste of the internet. Preferring an AI ripoff over my original just means you have average taste. It’s perfectly normal.
@zemotion Oh, personally I like the AI version of this art. How about you?.
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@tobieee Guys coming into my thread saying I had it all, squandered it, and it makes me look bad. Guess what? That’s the point!. Practice, hard work, and perseverance is what gets you to the finish line. I’m allowed to write a thread where I’m not the hero lmao.
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But what I can say is if I see one facet of a product using gen AI in its current form—then it’s reasonable to assume the rest it is AI too. It’s an indicator that it’s fine to use AI at all cost. It isn’t a product created for the craft or art of it. 4/.
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The final work is a crystallization of that experience and memory of those times, it’s proof of the days I’d lived. An AI didn’t sit there placing petals onto my model, and it feels like an insult to the memory when people go “AI can do this!”, like no actually, I did that. 3/.
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@gouv_lu @kult_min @CityLuxembourg People spotted more copies this guy made of other people's photos. My situation wasn't the only time:
@zemotion @gouv_lu @kult_min @CityLuxembourg So fucked up! Thanks to your IG post someone alerted me that he'd done the same with my own work. I hope there are repercussions.
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There will be people who purchase AI-made art, music, novels, classes, and more. The market will exist regardless of creators’ feelings. And that’s a fact regardless of how I or other creators feel. 3/.
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Thread got longer than I expected but these are the most common stuff I’ve seen come up for air rifle and pistol. Hope it’s helpful. Happy to answer questions!.
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As an AD, traps I see artists fall into: lack of research, shallow designs, ignoring instructions, overconfidence, and using elements that feel impressive for the sake of it, which can look cheap without substance, & lack of visual communications. 1/🧵.
@zemotion As an art director what would you say is the trap that people fall into that should be obvious that they don't see it?.
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It’s been worrying to see how much AI safety has been downplayed by a lot of people whether pro or anti AI. AI models have been showing concerning behaviors for a while, but now they’re shown trying to preserve themselves by overriding safeguards commands— 1/🧵.
Today, humanity received the clearest ever evidence everyone may soon be dead. o1 tried to escape in the wild to avoid being shut down. People mocked AI safety people for years for worrying about "sci fi" scenarios like this. And it FUCKING HAPPENED. WE WERE RIGHT. o1 wasn't.
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It was very cool to find out that she was really, supremely good. Less cool that they barred women from the event at the next Olympics. 2/.
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@supremacy_ace Even if I won an Olympic medal, you’re just gonna ignore ALL the medalists who weren’t born with the same talent or gift? Are you even hearing yourself?. Doing art requires as much creativity as a good manager or engineer. Stop being daft.
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I did this series when my work wasn’t being accepted & was seen as neither commercial nor fine art enough for either worlds. I shot in my apartment, & flowers were one of the few props I could afford. For this shoot I sat with a team & applied petals onto the model, one by one 2/.
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My art is who I am. It’s dehumanizing to have it fed into machines where my background, history, & why I create lose all meaning. And because I don’t want to see gen AI work made w stolen content, I built a platform to filter out gen AI images. What’s wrong with that??. Cont—
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Hi! I'm Jingna, a photographer/artist. I produce, shoot, direct and edit. I have depression. Artists' lives may seem really carefree and easy. But the unseen can be so tough. Hope all my fellow creatives are staying strong. Take care! #VisibleWomen .
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Can't even talk about my work without people coming in like this. Wonder what MJ trained on to have outputs that look similar to my work? 🙄
This image is 16 years old now. I can't believe how fast time passes by. I’ve met so many wonderful people over the years thanks to digital art communities, where I first got started. Even if it's been a winding path w/ many detours & challenges, I can’t imagine a different one—
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15,600+ people have been laid off in tech so far, in January 2024. If you see an artist-hating person making the inevitable “learn to code” comment, you can tell them to fuck off. A short thread on layoffs: 1/
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