Rise Against the Machine
On AI and Why Data is Worth Protecting
No data, no artificial intelligence: GenAI systems require vast amounts of copyrighted material in order to function. The collateral damage is borne by creative people whose images, texts or other works are usually integrated into the training data of generative AI systems without their consent. This is where the work of Shawn Shan, who was named Innovator of the Year by the MIT Technology Review a few weeks ago, comes in. Shan's tools Glaze and Nightshade protect the work of artists from unwanted access and thus offer them a perspective in the age of AI. When data is unlawfully used to train AI, AI systems benefit at the expense of artists and cultural diversity. In the long term, this misuse of data threatens creative uniformity and the disappearance of originality. A plea for the protection of intellectual property in the era of generative AI - and why we should all take an interest in what happens to our data.