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17th Dec 2022 - Tonight, Artstation mailed me about changing its policy, in response to the NoAI protests going on these days in the art community worldwide.

“First, we have introduced a “NoAI” tag. When you tag your projects using the “NoAI” tag […] This will mark the project so that AI systems know you explicitly disallow the use of the project and its contained content by AI systems.”

Let me explain why the NoAI tag solution is useless, extremely dangerous, and why we must fight for a YesAI tag instead.

Copyright and licensing are like sex: they’re all based on consent.
If you walk outside without a NoSex tag on your forehead, does it mean you can legally be raped?
No, right?
You don’t need a mark on you to tell others you’re not available for sex. They burden to ask, and you may consent by saying Yes.

Sex is ok only if the partner says Yes.
Licensing is ok only if the partner says Yes.
Commercial use is ok only if the partner says Yes.
AI use should be ok only if the user says Yes.

An everyday scenario – NON ARTISTS PLEASE READ THIS

It’s summer holiday, you’re having a great day with family and friends. You take pictures of your children playing half-naked in the fresh water, having so much fun!
You want to share this special moment of joy with faraway relatives and friends, so you post the picture on your social media account, then go on with your perfect day.
Meanwhile, a scraping software grasps your kids’ picture and feeds it to an AI. They become material for bullying them at school, or for deep fake photos, child p0rnography or worse.
Why?
Because in a moment of pure joy, you forgot to add that silly NoAI tag to your family picture.

The NoAI tag is dangerous, inapplicable and a fake solution.

Now, think of how many pictures and art we posted online, even before social networks even existed.
Think of all the pictures of you that have been posted online since the very day you’re born.
How can you possibly tag them all as NoAI?

The owners of social networks, AI platforms and art communities are all companies, mostly big companies with incredible financial power.
Introducing the NoAI tag they’re asking a titanic and impossible effort to us, the powerless part.

This way, these companies spend no effort and take zero responsibility.

But even the smallest site owner can easily implement a YesAI tag!
And if they all go for the YesAI tag, the consent issue would be automatically solved!

* The burden for users and common people is zero.
* If a user wants to tag something as YesAI, he/she can knowingly do so.
* All previous posted material is automatically denied/protected, because there’s no explicit consent / license permission for anything, including scraping or AI (ab)use.

Please, let me say it again: we don’t have to deny consent, we have to GIVE CONSENT INSTEAD.

If the NoAI tag becomes standard, all of us will face an unmanageable mess within a year: artists and non artists.

Final note:
I’m aware that there are other issues, like uploading someone else’s image with the YesAI tag. But this case is already addressed by the actual laws about identity theft and copyright theft.
The urgency for the YesAI tag is still there, as a mandatory first step to firmly establish our rights about consent.

We can’t let greedy companies overturn unbearable burdens on us, individual users, when they can invest very little in developing and cooperating to set a safe standard.

Fight for the YesAI tag!

How can you help establish the YesAI tag
* Share this manifest on your social media accounts. I grant you permission to translate it in your language and host the document somewhere else.
* Inform your followers, family, friends and coworkers about the problem.
* Ask for the YesAI tag when discussing or protesting against AIs.
* Ask for the YesAI tag to your countries’ art associations, privacy offices and government.

Thank you for your consent and support. 💖
Francesca Urbinati

DOCUMENT LINK: docs.google.com/document/d/1Wb…

Description
17th Dec 2022 - Tonight, Artstation mailed me about changing its policy, in response to the NoAI protests going on these days in the art community worldwide.

“First, we have introduced a “NoAI” tag. When you tag your projects using the “NoAI” tag […] This will mark the project so that AI systems know you explicitly disallow the use of the project and its contained content by AI systems.”

Let me explain why the NoAI tag solution is useless, extremely dangerous, and why we must fight for a YesAI tag instead.

Copyright and licensing are like sex: they’re all based on consent.
If you walk outside without a NoSex tag on your forehead, does it mean you can legally be raped?
No, right?
You don’t need a mark on you to tell others you’re not available for sex. They burden to ask, and you may consent by saying Yes.

Sex is ok only if the partner says Yes.
Licensing is ok only if the partner says Yes.
Commercial use is ok only if the partner says Yes.
AI use should be ok only if the user says Yes.

An everyday scenario – NON ARTISTS PLEASE READ THIS

It’s summer holiday, you’re having a great day with family and friends. You take pictures of your children playing half-naked in the fresh water, having so much fun!
You want to share this special moment of joy with faraway relatives and friends, so you post the picture on your social media account, then go on with your perfect day.
Meanwhile, a scraping software grasps your kids’ picture and feeds it to an AI. They become material for bullying them at school, or for deep fake photos, child p0rnography or worse.
Why?
Because in a moment of pure joy, you forgot to add that silly NoAI tag to your family picture.

The NoAI tag is dangerous, inapplicable and a fake solution.

Now, think of how many pictures and art we posted online, even before social networks even existed.
Think of all the pictures of you that have been posted online since the very day you’re born.
How can you possibly tag them all as NoAI?

The owners of social networks, AI platforms and art communities are all companies, mostly big companies with incredible financial power.
Introducing the NoAI tag they’re asking a titanic and impossible effort to us, the powerless part.

This way, these companies spend no effort and take zero responsibility.

But even the smallest site owner can easily implement a YesAI tag!
And if they all go for the YesAI tag, the consent issue would be automatically solved!

* The burden for users and common people is zero.
* If a user wants to tag something as YesAI, he/she can knowingly do so.
* All previous posted material is automatically denied/protected, because there’s no explicit consent / license permission for anything, including scraping or AI (ab)use.

Please, let me say it again: we don’t have to deny consent, we have to GIVE CONSENT INSTEAD.

If the NoAI tag becomes standard, all of us will face an unmanageable mess within a year: artists and non artists.

Final note:
I’m aware that there are other issues, like uploading someone else’s image with the YesAI tag. But this case is already addressed by the actual laws about identity theft and copyright theft.
The urgency for the YesAI tag is still there, as a mandatory first step to firmly establish our rights about consent.

We can’t let greedy companies overturn unbearable burdens on us, individual users, when they can invest very little in developing and cooperating to set a safe standard.

Fight for the YesAI tag!

How can you help establish the YesAI tag
* Share this manifest on your social media accounts. I grant you permission to translate it in your language and host the document somewhere else.
* Inform your followers, family, friends and coworkers about the problem.
* Ask for the YesAI tag when discussing or protesting against AIs.
* Ask for the YesAI tag to your countries’ art associations, privacy offices and government.

Thank you for your consent and support. 💖
Francesca Urbinati

DOCUMENT LINK: docs.google.com/document/d/1Wb…