{"id":3083,"date":"2026-07-10T17:23:41","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T12:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3083"},"modified":"2026-07-10T17:23:41","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T12:23:41","slug":"this-couple-is-launching-an-organization-to-protect-artists-in-the-ai-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=3083","title":{"rendered":"This couple is launching an organization to protect artists in the AI era"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-adroot=\"true\">\n<p>Want a surefire way to make AI image generators like DALL-E create captivating images? Prompt the system to mimic an artist.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s something the internet latched onto quickly, realizing the technique gives the best possible returns. By doing so, it\u2019s possible to time travel to see how, say, Donald Trump would be portrayed by <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/joel_cardwell\/status\/1544275756192526336\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">Picasso<\/a> or <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/crazy_dalle\/status\/1541754158327504898\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">Van Gogh<\/a> or even a <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cjones47\/status\/1535694897075867649\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">prehistoric cave painter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Such \u201cX in the style of Y\u201d prompts work so well in large part because the reams of data used to train AI like <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inputmag.com\/culture\/dall-e-mini-ai-weird-twitter-images-viral-art\" class=\"T3D\">DALL-E<\/a>, Midjourney, and WOMBO are pulled from the internet, which is often populated by copyrighted imagery. The legality of using that training data is <a href=\"https:\/\/valohai.com\/blog\/copyright-laws-and-machine-learning\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">contested in the European Union<\/a>; in the U.S., it\u2019s widely believed that a lot of it is permissible under fair-use doctrine.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s legal and what\u2019s moral are different questions \u2014 which is where artists Mat Dryhurst, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mathewdryhurst.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">an academic<\/a>, and Holly Herndon, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hollyherndon.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">a renowned musician<\/a>, come in. The married couple, based in Berlin, are AI veterans: Around 2016, they began training neural networks, later building such networks themselves. One project, <a href=\"https:\/\/holly.mirror.xyz\/54ds2IiOnvthjGFkokFCoaI4EabytH9xjAYy1irHy94\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">Holly+<\/a>, launched last year, allows anyone to upload a polyphonic track that can then be \u201csung\u201d by a deepfaked version of Herndon\u2019s voice, which is created using AI generative tools.<\/p>\n<div style=\"max-width:854px;\" class=\"sWr iGR vrU\">\n<div>\n<div>\n<p><noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"What if You Could Sing in Your Favorite Musician&amp;apos;s Voice? | Holly Herndon | TED\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5cbCYwgQkTE?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The pair are very considerate about what training data they use. \u201cWe ended up making the decision we would train our machine-learning systems on data that only came from us, or people who consented,\u201d says Dryhurst.<\/p>\n<p>In keeping with this mindset, Dryhurst and Herndon are developing a standard they\u2019re calling Source+, which is designed as a way of allowing artists to and opt into \u2014 or out of \u2014 allowing their work being used as training data for AI. (The standard will cover not just visual artists, but musicians and writers, too.) They hope that AI generator developers will recognize and respect the wishes of artists whose work could be used to train such generative tools.<\/p>\n<p>Source+ (now in beta) is a product of the organization <a href=\"https:\/\/spawning.ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">Spawning<\/a> \u2014 a partnership between the couple and Jordan Meyer and Patrick Hoepner, founders of the <a href=\"http:\/\/wolfbearstudio.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">WolfBear software studio<\/a>. Spawning, which officially launches today, also developed <a href=\"http:\/\/haveibeentrained.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">Have I Been Trained<\/a>, a site that lets artists see if their work is among the 5.8 billion images in <a href=\"https:\/\/laion.ai\/blog\/laion-5b\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\" class=\"T3D\">the Laion-5b dataset<\/a>, which is used to train the Stable Diffusion and Midjourney AI generators. The team plans to add more training datasets to pore through in the future.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sWr iGR CEt\">\n<figure class=\"Qf5 E1M\">\n<div style=\"padding-top:60.6635%;\" class=\"vmZ F8Y ap2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/39fe652c-5fe8-452c-b1e4-928df0962189-portrait1.png?w=375&amp;h=227&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/39fe652c-5fe8-452c-b1e4-928df0962189-portrait1.png?w=375&amp;h=227&amp;fit=max 375w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/39fe652c-5fe8-452c-b1e4-928df0962189-portrait1.png?w=375&amp;h=227&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2 750w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/39fe652c-5fe8-452c-b1e4-928df0962189-portrait1.png?w=760&amp;h=461&amp;fit=max 760w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/39fe652c-5fe8-452c-b1e4-928df0962189-portrait1.png?w=760&amp;h=461&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2 1520w\" sizes=\"(min-width:768px) 760px, 375px\" alt=\"Mat Dryhurst and Holly Herndon AI self-portraits\" class=\"uMj EdX\"\/><\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"TrI\">Dryhurst and Herndon created the self-portraits used in this piece using Stable Diffusion and OpenAI DALL-E 2.<cite class=\"hW6\">Herndon Dryhurst Studio<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The entire project is designed to empower artists, at no cost to them. \u201cThe benefit of working with us is that we can serve or retract your data to all services on request, as opposed to chasing individual organizations down,\u201d says Dryhurst.<\/p>\n<p>Dryhurst says Spawning has been in touch with the developers of some of the most popular AI tools and received sympathetic responses. \u201cI\u2019m very optimistic that if we can establish a verified database of opt-in, opt-out wishes from artists that we can honor those wishes,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s the basic foundation on which a lot of good can come from these tools.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3 data-md-text-align=\"center\">Project goals<\/h3>\n<p>Dryhurst and Herndon have picked now to launch their project \u2014 and to start the discussion about ownership of data that trains AI \u2014 because of the huge public reaction to generative tools in recent months. \u201cIncredible image-spawning systems like DALL-E have been helpful to bring this conversation mainstream, so now is a great time to intervene,\u201d says Herndon via email.<\/p>\n<p>Herndon adds, \u201cIt is also important to present a different narrative of how spawning is different to 20th century practices like sampling, in order to not derail a productive discussion about how we can deal with this new terrain fairly and with excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spawning and sampling, the artists argue, are two different things entirely. \u201cSpawning is a more reproductive process,\u201d says Dryhurst. Rather than taking an element and remixing it to create new art, spawning is creating new artworks from a training data corpus.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sWr iGR CEt\">\n<figure class=\"Qf5 E1M\">\n<div style=\"padding-top:50%;\" class=\"vmZ F8Y ap2\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/41d91ec5-7254-45d8-abb6-7866c95be00b-portrait4-2.jpeg?w=375&amp;h=188&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2\" srcset=\"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/41d91ec5-7254-45d8-abb6-7866c95be00b-portrait4-2.jpeg?w=375&amp;h=188&amp;fit=max 375w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/41d91ec5-7254-45d8-abb6-7866c95be00b-portrait4-2.jpeg?w=375&amp;h=188&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2 750w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/41d91ec5-7254-45d8-abb6-7866c95be00b-portrait4-2.jpeg?w=760&amp;h=380&amp;fit=max 760w, https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/41d91ec5-7254-45d8-abb6-7866c95be00b-portrait4-2.jpeg?w=760&amp;h=380&amp;fit=max&amp;dpr=2 1520w\" sizes=\"(min-width:768px) 760px, 375px\" alt=\"Mat Dryhurst and Holly Herndon AI self-portraits\" class=\"uMj EdX\"\/><\/div>\n<p><figcaption class=\"TrI\"><cite class=\"hW6\">Herndon Dryhurst Studio<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p>The project isn\u2019t aimed at stopping people putting, say, \u201cA McDonalds restaurant in the style of Rembrandt\u201d into DALL-E and gazing on the wonder produced. \u201cRembrandt is dead,\u201d Dryhurst says, \u201cand Rembrandt, you could argue, is so canonized that his work has surpassed the threshold of extreme consequence in generating in their image.\u201d He\u2019s more concerned about AI image generators impinging on the rights of living, mid-career artists who have developed a distinctive style of their own.<\/p>\n<p>What Dryhurst doesn\u2019t want to do is create a third-party rights police force.  \u201cWe\u2019re not looking to build tools for DMCA takedowns and copyright hell,\u201d he says. \u201cThat\u2019s not what we\u2019re going for, and I don\u2019t even think that would work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He also believes \u2014 contrary to what AI companies may fear \u2014 that artists will be more willing to accede to their work being used than you may think. \u201cI believe more will ultimately opt in than out, but first we have to establish a common respect,\u201d says Dryhurst. \u201cA lot of good will come from getting everyone on that same page.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want a surefire way to make AI image generators like DALL-E create captivating images? Prompt the system to mimic an artist. It\u2019s something the internet latched onto quickly, realizing the technique gives the best possible returns. By doing so, it\u2019s possible to time travel to see how, say, Donald Trump would be portrayed by Picasso&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/imgix.bustle.com\/uploads\/image\/2022\/9\/14\/1f8d4844-8766-497b-a3d7-99b5b1d74017-portrait2-social2.jpg?w=1200&h=630&fit=crop&crop=faces&fm=jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsweek-trending"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}