DISCLAIMER ON THE USE OF A.I.
You may have noticed I haven't posted much in the way of new art for a while. Allow me to explain. (…and besides, I figure I should explain my visual silence before the local authorities - to borrow a 90s phrase - literally have a cow!)
Recently I've noticed an increasing amount of web traffic to my site from a country that's known for intellectual property theft. For years now, it has been common knowledge that entities from this country routinely misappropriate the work of creatives from sites like Amazon and Society6, to name a few. And the advent of artificial intelligence only serves to facilitate IP theft by organizations stateside and abroad. Unfortunately, as of yet in America there has been no concrete legislation to truly protect the work of visual artists from AI (…Wouldn't it be nice if our leaders actually looked out for the people instead of their own personal interests or hidden agendas? As a result, the people, and visual artists in this case, are often left to fend for themselves.) So I decided to step back and implement additional precautions to secure my work across all my sites, and yes, part of those precautions include the use of artificial intelligence.
This doesn't mean I'm using artificial intelligence to create. I've been blessed with the ability make art apart from the use of AI, and I still hold fast to my commitment to create without it. Perhaps someday that may change (although I seriously doubt it!), but for now, my resolve remains undeterred. And to be clear, I'm not planting malware into the computers or browsers of those who visit my site. It's a defensive mechanism that isn't intended to target innocent visitors. But for those who insist on scraping my work to feed their artificial intelligence systems, now would be a good time to cease and desist.
I really wish I didn't have to take these steps. I'm still not fond of AI or the way it's being trained, and all this is even more work for me in what can already be a sometimes arduous process of creating, editing, and posting art. (Sure, I could have rented out the Cheyenne supercomputer to make everything more efficient, but I suppose hindsight is still 20 ∕ 20!) And lest you think more highly of me than is warranted, you should know that I didn't come up with the AI algorithms, etc. that I'm implementing. Someone else did. I'm sure you've realized by now that I don't necessarily publicize my every action and I also don't think it's a great idea to broadcast every detail of your security setup, so I'll leave it at that for the time being.
Thanks for bearing with me through yet another gap in my posts. At some point, I'd really like to get back to making and posting art!
- Omar Marcos