This new tool could give artists an edge over AI

Some have united in protest against the tech sector's common practice of indiscriminately scraping their visual work off the internet to train their models. Artists have staged protests on popular art platforms such as DeviantArt and Art Station, or left the platforms entirely. Right now, there is total power asymmetry between rich and influential technology companies and artists, says Ben Zhao, a computer science professor at the University of Chicago. "The training companies can do whatever the heck they want," Zhao says. But a new tool developed by Zhao's lab might change that power dynamic.