AI generated art needs an own file format

[wnwka]

Not sure if this is the right section for this, but it's probably the most visited page, so...

Adobe apps have a big impact in the industry and therefore could be seen as the voice of the artist. As you surely noticed, AI-generated art is on the rise. Apps which gives you the ability to generate your own AI pictures are nowadays easy to use and new features/apps pop up every couple month.

However, this lead to huge problems in terms of copyrights and the question of ownership. As these services might be fun to use for a casual consumer, it’s not so fun for real artists - as it shown in some recent cases.

What's the issue?

These AI-generated pictures fetch from sources which are not always free to use. Copyright restricted pictures of artists get used without permission to generate pictures. This lead to sensitive situations where consumers - who don’t mind copyrights - generate such AI-art and sell them for profit without the knowing of artists. OR the work of artists is reproduced / straight copied with consciousness.

How can this be prevented in favor of the artists? / Idea / Thoughts

Because such apps always need some kind of input to generate art (e. g. »Draw a portrait of a cat in the style of Monet«) a conceivable way could be to insert these sources (which the AI-generator used) into the picture-file. This could be a Meta-Description OR an encrypted code inside the file itself, maybe even an own file format for such pictures.

With such mechanism, more transparency for pictures like these could be achieved in the future. Social media platforms could read the encrypted sources and list them automatically in the post, apps like Photoshop could inform casual consumers - who might not know about the copyright issue - that they open a restricted file with multiple owners. Online-Shops who offer print-on-demand could read these sources too and restrict or inform the user about the copyright issue/ownership. Just to name a few examples.

Adobe - with it's weight in the industry and resources in the form of talented devs - could be the one to introduce such file format, make it a standard in the industry and distribute it.

In favor of the artist.

Thoughts?

[Mylenium]

PS already supports content credentials using blockchain tech. The rest is beyond Adobe's control. You can cook up the fanciest file format and nobody will use it. Just look at the battle over WebP vs. JPEGXL going nowhere. I do get your drift, but it's not going to happen, even more so since there will always be services who will not want to use such formats, be it just out of spite toward big corporations like Adobe, Google, you name it.

Mylenium

[wnwka]

Thank you for your reply and your thoughts!

Restrictions will come in one way or another. Because the question of copyright and ownership will get bigger in the future. I'm sure even on international level. It could be an advantage to work on such solutions right now, to have it when time comes.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

https://blog.adobe.com/en/topics/content-authenticity

@wnwka you are correct copyright and ownership are the forefront of the Content Authenticity Initiative.

Adobe has options today in current Photoshop builds to tag your artwork with credentials.

[wnwka]

@Kevin StohlmeyerFunny, just googled it. They even use encrypted Metadata to show the origin of an image. This is precisely what I meant. Guess it now needs an option to make it readable and more visible in a way to raise the awareness - like some sort of certification. Maybe, similar to a certification for safe websites.

[Lumigraphics]

Fat chance. I suspect that AI training will fall under fair use anyway. We already have a mess of formats, people fighting over WebP vs AVIF vs HEIC vs JPEGXL. The end result is fragmentation which reduces the chances of a new dominant format emerging.

[Kevin Stohlmeyer]

Correct- this is well on it's way to wide adoption. You can go here to verify or register:

https://contentauthenticity.org/

and using the tools now available in Photoshop makes this evern more accessible.

[Lumigraphics]

I'm betting that remains a niche tool as well. Same reason copyright is such a mess. Big, rich entities can jump through hoops while the little guys don't have the time, money, or knowledge.

[wnwka]

Well, importance comes with support. Yes, it will stay a niche if no one is supporting it. But we should not say »let them do their job, I don't care, it will not work anyway«, we should support such things and not complain about it - it doesn't take much.