Tabs below contain the full essay, a short version for quick reference, and a sources page that is easy to extend.
As soon as you upload your work to the internet you give up control over how it is used. This is especially true on social media platforms or art sharing sites. Anyone including bots can download your work. This has been true since the start of the internet and may explain why some older artists are less upset about reuse.
Think of it like this. If you leave your artwork in the middle of Lincoln Road and walk away is it really stolen if it is gone when you return. Many people will see it as up for grabs.
You still hold copyright in your own work. If someone else claims they made it or uses it without enough transformation to qualify as fair use you can sue them after registering your copyright. Always keep your original files and documentation.
Scraping by AI systems is not copying. Machine learning does not store or reproduce images directly. The training process gave the AI a crash course in art history and contemporary art, similar to how students study and make master copies. Without style prompts AI tends toward photorealism. With style prompts it can mimic a look in the same way a human imitates after study.
AI does not copy art. If you watched the video by Dr Alan Warburton titled The Wizard of AI you know the basics of how the technology works.
Social media often spreads persuasive but incorrect claims about AI. Always do your own research and watch for confirmation bias. Algorithms can keep you in a loop by feeding content that reinforces your starting view and by amplifying fear anger and outrage to keep you engaged.
Fact. AI cannot copy. It can generate work in a similar style if someone types in the style of into the prompt. People have always done this by hand by tablet by tracing or with fan art. Fan art is a copyright violation unless the original creator gives written consent. Calling AI copying while making fan art is not consistent since both practices borrow from other artists.
Copyright disputes often consider whether material was behind a paywall or on a password protected site and whether the use is fair use. Remember that humans control AI and humans decide to type prompts that name another artist style.
Some people are losing creative jobs because of AI. Many of those jobs are in design not in fine art. This Animation program is for fine artists not for commercial design pipelines.
If you want to have a day job to support your art animation career, this is what I suggest: Create work that cannot be mistaken for AI. Pivot away from styles that non artists with AI tools can generate quickly. An artist who uses AI will create stronger work than a non artist using it.
Many employers in the creative field now require AI use. If they must choose between an open minded applicant who can create with or without AI and a person who refuses to use AI at all, they will likely choose the former over the latter.
Across history new tools have displaced jobs. Portrait painters struggled with the camera. Carriage drivers resisted cars. These stories repeat.
I lived through one such shift. In my high school and college years Wikipedia and the wider internet were banned in classes. Many professors believed that everything online was false and students were accused of cheating for using it. Some even failed classes. This should sound familiar.
We adapted in time just as painters and carriage drivers did. The practical lesson is simple. We may not like change or job loss but our options remain the same. We can pivot adopt or adapt.