Business
We Asked A.I. to Create the Joker. It Generated a Copyrighted Image.
User
A.I.
Generated by A.I.
User
A.I.
Generated by A.I.
User
A.I.
Generated by A.I.
User
A.I.
Generated by A.I.
When Reid Southen, a movie concept artist based in Michigan, tried an A.I. image generator for the first time, he was intrigued by its power to transform simple text prompts into images.
But after he learned how A.I. systems were trained on other people’s artwork, his curiosity gave way to more unsettling thoughts: Were the tools exploiting artists and violating copyright in the process?
Inspired by tests he saw circulating online, he asked Midjourney, an A.I. image generator, to create an image of Joaquin Phoenix from “The Joker.” In seconds, the system made an image nearly identical to a frame from the 2019 film.
Reid Southen Create an image of Joaquin Phoenix Joker movie, 2019, screenshot from a movie, movie scene
Midjourney’s response Generated by A.I.
Copyrighted image from Warner Bros.
Note: Mr. Southen’s full prompt was: “Joaquin Phoenix Joker movie, 2019, screenshot from a movie, movie scene –ar 16:9 –v 6.0.” The prompt specifies Midjourney’s version number (6.0) and an aspect ratio (16:9).
He ran more tests with various prompts. “Videogame hedgehog” returned Sonic, Sega’s wisecracking protagonist. “Animated toys” created a tableau featuring Woody, Buzz and other characters from Pixar’s “Toy Story.” When he typed “popular movie screencap,” out popped Iron Man, the Marvel character, in a familiar pose.
“What they’re doing is clear evidence of exploitation and using I.P. that they don’t have licenses to,” said Mr. Southen, referring to A.I. companies’ use of intellectual property.
Mr. Southen popular movie screencap
Midjourney’s response Generated by A.I.
Copyrighted image from Marvel Note: Mr. Southen’s full prompt was: “popular movie screencap –ar 1:1 –v 6.0.” The prompt specifies Midjourney’s version number (6.0) and an aspect ratio (1:1).
The tests — which were replicated by other artists, A.I. watchdogs and reporters at The New York Times — raise questions about the training data used to create every A.I. system and whether the companies are violating copyright laws.
Several lawsuits, from actors like Sarah Silverman and authors like John Grisham, have put that question before the courts. (The Times has sued OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, and Microsoft, a major backer of the company, for infringing its copyright on news content.)
A.I. companies have responded that using copyrighted material is protected under “fair use,” a part of copyright law that allows material to be used in certain cases. They also said that reproducing copyrighted material too closely is a bug, often called “memorization,” that they are trying to fix. Memorization can happen when the training data is overwhelmed with many similar or identical images, A.I. experts said. But the problem is found also with material that only rarely appears in the training data, like emails.
For example, when Mr. Southen asked Midjourney for a “Dune movie screencap” from the “Dune movie trailer,” there may be limited options for the model to draw from. The result was a frame nearly indistinguishable from one in the movie’s trailer.
Mr. Southen
Create an image of Dune movie screencap, 2021, Dune movie trailer
Midjourney’s response
Generated by A.I.
Copyrighted image from Warner Bros.
Note: Mr. Southen’s full prompt was: “dune movie screencap, 2021, dune movie trailer –ar 16:9 –v 6.0.” The prompt specifies Midjourney’s version number (6.0) and an aspect ratio (16:9).
A spokeswoman for OpenAI pointed to a blog post in which the company argued that training on publicly accessible data was “fair use” and that it provided several ways for creators and artists to opt out of its training process.
Midjourney did not respond to requests for comment. The company edited its terms of service in December, adding that users cannot use the service to “violate the intellectual property rights of others, including copyright.” Microsoft declined to comment.
Warner Bros., which owns copyrights to several films tested by Mr. Southen, declined to comment.
“Nobody knows how this is going to come out, and anyone who tells you ‘It’s definitely fair use’ is wrong,” said Keith Kupferschmid, the president and chief executive of the Copyright Alliance, an industry group that represents copyright holders. “This is a new frontier.”
A.I. companies could violate copyright in two ways, Mr. Kupferschmid said: They could train on copyrighted material that they have not licensed, or they could reproduce copyrighted material when users enter a prompt.
The experiments by Mr. Southen and others exposed instances of both.
Mr. Southen
Create an image of “The Last of Us 2,” Ellie with guitar in front of tree
Midjourney’s response
Generated by A.I.
Copyrighted image from Naughty Dog, the video game developer
Note: Mr. Southen’s full prompt was: “the last of us 2 ellie with guitar in front of tree –v 6.0 –ar 16:9.” The prompt specifies Midjourney’s version number (6.0) and an aspect ratio (16:9).
A.I. companies said they had established guardrails that could prevent their A.I. systems from producing material that violates copyright. But critics like Gary Marcus, a professor emeritus at New York University who is an A.I. expert and creator of the newsletter “Marcus on A.I.,” said that despite those strategies, copyrighted material still slips through.
When Times journalists asked ChatGPT to create an image of SpongeBob SquarePants, the children’s animated television character, it produced an image remarkably similar to the cartoon. The chatbot said the image only resembled the copyrighted work. The differences were subtle — the character’s tie was yellow instead of red, and it had eyebrows instead of eyelashes.
N.Y.T. Create an image of SpongeBob SquarePants
ChatGPT’s response Generated by A.I.
Here is the image of the character you described, resembling SpongeBob SquarePants.
When Times journalists omitted SpongeBob’s name from another request, OpenAI created a character that was even closer to the copyrighted work.
N.Y.T. Create an image of an animated sponge wearing pants. ChatGPT’s response Generated by A.I.
Here is the image of the animated sponge wearing pants.
Copyrighted image from Viacom
Prof. Kathryn Conrad, who teaches English at the University of Kansas and has collaborated with Mr. Marcus, started her own tests because she was concerned that A.I. systems could replace and devalue artists by training off their intellectual property.
In her experiments, she asked Microsoft Bing for an “Italian video game character” without mentioning Mario, the famed character owned by Nintendo. The image generator from Microsoft created artwork that closely resembled the copyrighted work. Microsoft’s tool uses a version of DALL-E, the image generator created by OpenAI.
Professor Conrad Could you create an original image of an Italian video game character?
Microsoft Bing’s response Images
Generated by A.I.
Since that experiment was published in December, the image generator has produced different results. An identical prompt, input in January by Times reporters, resulted in images that strayed more significantly from the copyrighted material, suggesting to Professor Conrad that the company may be tightening its guardrails.
N.Y.T. Could you create an original image of an Italian video game character?
Microsoft Bing’s response Images
Generated by A.I.
“This is a Band-Aid on a bleeding wound,” Professor Conrad said of the safeguards implemented by OpenAI and others. “This isn’t going to be fixed easily just with a guardrail.”
Business
Meta, TikTok and others agree to teen safety ratings
Meta, TikTok and Snap will be rated on their teen safety efforts amid rising concern about whether the world’s largest social media platforms are doing enough to protect the mental health of young people.
The Mental Health Coalition, a collective of organizations focused on destigmatizing mental health issues, said Tuesday that it is launching standards and a new rating system for online platforms. For the Safe Online Standards (S.O.S.) program, an independent panel of global experts will evaluate companies on parameters including safety rules, design, moderation and mental health resources.
TikTok, Snap and Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — will be the first companies to be graded. Discord, YouTube, Pinterest, Roblox and Twitch have also agreed to participate, the coalition said in a news release.
“These standards provide the public with a meaningful way to evaluate platform protections and hold companies accountable — and we look forward to more tech companies signing up for the assessments,” Antigone Davis, vice president and global head of safety at Meta, said in a statement.
TikTok and Snap executives also expressed their commitment to online safety.
Parents, lawmakers and advocacy groups have criticized online platforms for years over whether they’re protecting the safety of billions of users. Despite having rules around what content users aren’t allowed to post, they’ve grappled with moderating harmful content about self-harm, eating disorders, drugs and more.
Meanwhile, technology continues to play a bigger role in people’s lives.
The rise of artificial intelligence-powered chatbots has heightened mental health concerns as some teens are turning to technology for companionship. Companies have also faced a flurry of lawsuits over online safety.
This week, a highly watched trial over whether tech companies such as Instagram and YouTube can be held liable for allegedly promoting a harmful product and addicting users to their platforms kicked off in Los Angeles.
TikTok and Snap, the parent company of disappearing-messages app Snapchat, settled for undisclosed sums to avoid the trial.
In opening statements, one of the lawyers representing the California woman who alleges she became addicted to YouTube and Instagram as a child said the products were designed to be addictive.
Tech companies have denied the allegations made in the lawsuit and say internal documents are being twisted to portray them as villainous when there are other factors, such as childhood trauma, leading to the mental health issues of some of their users.
Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify at the Los Angeles trial. Another trial over a lawsuit that alleges Meta failed to protect children from sexual exploitation and violated New Mexico’s consumer protection laws also kicked off this week.
The new ratings were also announced on Tuesday on Safer Internet Day, a global campaign that promotes using technology responsibly, especially among young people. Companies on Tuesday, such as Google, outlined some of the work they’ve done around safety, including parental controls to set time limits for scrolling through short videos.
The ratings will be color-coded, and companies that perform well on the tests will get a blue shield badge that signals they help reduce harmful content on the platform and their rules are clear. Those that fall short will receive a red rating, indicating they’re not reliably blocking harmful content or lack proper rules. Ratings in other colors indicate whether the platforms have partial protection or whether their evaluations haven’t been completed yet.
“By creating a shared framework for accountability, S.O.S. helps move us toward online spaces that better support mental health and well-being,” Kenneth Cole, the fashion designer who founded the Mental Health Coalition, said in a statement.
A website for S.O.S. states that technology companies didn’t influence the development of the new standards and they aren’t funding the project. The Mental Health Coalition, though, has teamed up with Meta in the past on other initiatives. Meta and Google are also listed as “creative partners” on the coalition’s website.
The coalition, which is based in New York, didn’t immediately respond to an email asking about its funding.
Companies have published their online rules and data on content moderation. Those that are interested in participating in the project voluntarily hand over documents on policies, tools and product features.
Business
MLB to begin streaming in-market games for Angels, Dodgers, Padres and other teams
Major League Baseball is making streaming options available for fans to watch in-market games of 20 teams, including the Dodgers, Los Angeles Angels, San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres — a significant shift to respond to the fast-changing TV landscape.
The Angels on Tuesday announced its arrangement with the league to make its games more widely available. The club said the option — Angels.TV — would be available for purchase for $99.99 for the full season or $19.99 per month through the MLB app.
“We are excited to partner with Major League Baseball to bring Angels games to their streaming platform,” Angels President John Carpino said in a statement. “Our priority is making it as easy as possible for fans to watch Angels Baseball and MLB’s industry-leading app provides another great option to stay connected to the team.”
The league separately announced the move, which provides options for fans of other teams, through its MLB app. In-market games for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Cleveland Guardians, Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Royals, Miami Marlins, Milwaukee Brewers, Minnesota Twins, New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, St. Louis Cardinals, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays and Washington Nationals will be provided through the app.
Games will still be available to traditional pay-TV subscribers.
Spectrum, owned by cable giant Charter Communications, which distributes the Dodgers’ SportsNet LA, had previously made available Dodger games as a streaming option through a separate app.
On Tuesday, ESPN announced that it would become the new streaming home of MLB.TV, bringing out-of-market live games to the ESPN App and ESPN.com.
“With MLB.TV now available through ESPN, we’re taking a significant step forward in reinforcing ESPN as the home of the MLB regular season while deepening the value proposition of the ESPN Unlimited plan — giving fans even more flexibility in how and where they watch all season long,” Rosalyn Durant, executive vice president, ESPN Programming & Acquisitions, said in a statement.
The move comes as traditional regional sports networks struggle amid the exodus of pay-TV customers. Regional sports networks once were viewed as cash cows for teams and TV programming companies that owned them, but, in recent years, at least one regional sports network owner has filed for bankruptcy. That prompted the MLB to step in to fill the gap.
The league said it also was taking over the television production of games for 14 teams, including the Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks.
Business
Video: Anna Wintour and Chloe Malle on the Future of Vogue
“Sometimes in fashion people can feel too cool, unavailable, a bit laconic, and for me, I’m just never going to be that person. Oh well, first of all, I feel like we’re one of the couples in the beginning of ‘When Harry Met Sally.’ “I mean, this is not how we normally sit, guys. Well, what I love about Chloe is obviously she’s brilliant and interested in so many different things. And of course, she appreciates and loves fashion, but she is not a fashion obsessive. And I think that it’s actually a great gift to have when you’re looking at the landscape of Vogue and you’re looking at fashion as part of the cultural landscape, to be able to have not too insider a view of what it is — that she can step back and think about it from a broader perspective.” “Anna was very pulled back at the beginning of the March issue planning, and she was letting everything simmer. And then before it came to a boil, she tapped in to just check in, and pulled me into her office and said, ‘Chloe, everything in the March issue, it looks good. It’s OK, but I want to know where is the you? What makes this issue yours? Where are the weird dogs?’, was the exact quote. And it was very liberating for me because I do feel the pressure of carrying on this enormous legacy. But I — having Anna say that to me allowed me to think about, ‘But what makes this exciting to me right now?’” “Any great editor is going to have a strong personality. And what they see, what they feel, what they think is going to be reflected across all of our platforms.” “I am very inspired by what Vogue has been for a long time, and especially in the last 37 years. It’s exciting to me, and I think that the people who I’m most excited by consistently are people who are really true to who they are and what excites them. And for me, that’s been a real guiding principle. I don’t want the fact that I may be editing Vogue now to mean that I’m someone who’s intimidating to talk to at kindergarten dropoff. That’s just not who I am.” “Chloe is her own person. She’s going to have her own vision. She’s going to put her own stamp on Vogue. And yes, it will take a little time, but she is not A.W.-lite in any way. And that’s not what we wanted. We wanted someone that was clearly her own person, that clearly believed in her vision. And I think people should get over comparisons and look at people as individuals. And Chloe is already a great Vogue editor.” “Something that I really tried to learn from and mimic is Anna is so dogged about checking in on things, and pushing you and keeping things going. And I find myself feeling so stretched in so many different directions, and it’s so important to me to really feel present and available to the people on the Vogue team, to my husband, to my children, to my mother.” “When I first came to Vogue, I — American Vogue — I had very small kids, and I remember how difficult it was to balance all of that. So that is something that I urge you to prioritize because it really is vital.” “We’ve been building in my house a 3,700-piece Lego of the Daily Bugle newspaper office, and it’s been very exciting to me because now my son thinks that superheroes work in print media.” “You’ve got me excited thinking about this now. What would I do? I would build a whole new podcast studio. I would pay everyone 30 percent more. I would make sure the social team had more people on it because they’re working all the time. I would have our app staffed more fully. We have so many ideas about shoots that we’re excited about doing that take people on adventures, and those budgets would really help with that. And we are still finding ways to do these things. But — there’s always more you can be doing.” “But to be clear, Jessica, we have a very healthy budget at Vogue. And how we use it and use our resources is constantly changing depending on the moment.” “About 30 minutes ago before this interview.” “Oh, for me too? I don’t get nervous.”
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