I am sorry this is going on with you.
I am with you, I hate AIs because they can't even get a picture looking right.

I respect any decisions you make here.

I still draw my work from my hands not some stupid AI.

AI has no use for me because everything it makes is too generic and boring. xD My stuff is usually too specific for it to be helpful. But the watermark removal is concerning

Yeah

Sorry to hear about the troubles. You could try paywalling it away with like a Patreon or something but it just reduces and does not necessarily mitigate the problem.

I never really liked the idea of paywalling my art but in this current climate, I dont even blame artists anymore. xD Might just do it solely for fanart though

Glazes or Nightshade your artwork so they cant training that as it will poisoning their AI's knowledge to unable read it correctly

Idk why I completely forgot about those haha. But that might be a good solution! I never really liked the texture it makes on the image, but it would look better than spamming watermarks all over the place lol

yeah if only way to protect your artwork is Glaze/Nightshade to make Ai confusing on what they try to read/mimics from. Anywhere you feel trust to upload a original piece alas be paywall behind.

It's better than not posting your art at all. Then if you have some sorta patreon for example you can post the unmodified versions.

yes, this. I absolutely agree! Nightshade is a very useful program

I am sorry to hear of this discovery 8X I can understand not wanting to share when you AI is out there ready to take advantage of you. I'm not sure what your best course of action is, I haven't dealt with it much myself yet. If in person ends up the only way you can share it, or on a subscription service site behind a pay wall that is understandable.

A few people mentioned paywalling or using glaze/nightshade, which seem to be decent solutions! Its not so much about the AI itself, but more about art thievery. I've had my stuff stolen and sold on places like etsy/redubble back when i was young n dumb and didnt watermark the hell out of my stuff. When i do it now though, it seems kinda pointless if this technology exists.

word of advice: if you quit, you're giving them what you want.

The best way to give the middle finger to this crap is to keep doing what you do in spite of it all.

PS. If they're going after watermarks now, they'll get sued to oblivion by Getty Images.

getty bout to be a savior out here- ima watch too

Oh no, I never planned to quit art altogether xD (sorry if the title was kinda doomer lol) its more like I dont want thieves profiting off my hard work (this tech just makes it easier for them). Fanart was the only thing I was planning to "give up" so to speak haha (its really the only thing that would be "stolen" from me in the past).

Though some people have suggested some pretty good solutions, so i could try that!

Everytime I hear about another lawsuit against OpenAI, it makes my day a bit brighter :)

This situation is truly awful. I can't imagine how you feel considering giving up on fanarts because of those ravenous AIs. All my support goes to you.

I still prefer drawing original art over fanart, but I enjoy sharing fanart too! So it would hurt to give it up :'D Thank you though!

Can't blame you and totally get the frustration. My sister used to draw wrestlers, and she found her art all the time on amazon to redbubble. Now with ai being a massive concern it just seems even worse now than ever before.

Yeah a lot of my Pokemon stuff got on there as well as Etsy. When I tried to confront the sellers, they acted about as much as you'd expect lol.

I know I'm just another artist and at the end of the day, it's your choice.

But I went through this mental spiral a few times over the past year, had it pretty bad in January.

I've come to the conclusion that, like someone else said... if you quit, you snuff out another light in the real artist landscape. The people that look forward to your work no longer have it to look forward to or be inspired by, and any budding artists you could have motivated to pursue art may never get their start.
In such a hellish landscape like the one we're going through, real art from real people is more important than ever. It's humanity in an otherwise cold and lifeless field of AI and indifference.

The hard truth is, AI tools have been taking out watermarks for a long time. There's not much we can do about it.
But, AI isn't going to last forever. Artists will.
There will always be artists, there won't always be these awful fucking tools for people to pretend to be artists.
I feel it's my job to outlive AI, to keep Creating in the face of it, and spit on anyone who tries to replace me with a machine.
It's easy to feel hopeless or pointless in posting things online. Especially nowadays.
But, that's why it's so important to interact with people, to say or do little things to make people feel connected to the humans around them. I started trying to comment on any picture I liked with something specific abt it that I enjoyed. I fell out of that habit, but I'm trying to currently get back to it.
Not everyone responds, but I hope that the people whose comment sections I visit at least smile a little when they see a real comment from a real person. It's all those little things that can make us feel less alone.

At the end of the day, whether you choose to share your work online or not, what you do with your creative work is your choice. What people do with it is out of your control, but it kind of always has been, even before AI. And that's not easy to admit, as a fellow artist.
But that's the nature of the online beast.
Which is why I've tried to focus on the /good/ I'm doing for other people by continuing to create, instead of the /bad/ the internet does to me in return. All I can do is try to keep putting more good into the world in the hopes that others will be inspired to do the same.

I believe everyone's work is worth posting, no matter what happens to it. Because you never know who it may reach, and who it might save. And now more than ever, we need real people making real art. At this point, it's an act of defiance to the state of things.

I hope you'll be alright. It's so easy to give up. But just know that when you can't take the next step forward, people like me, even if we don't know each other well, will be there to take your hand and take the next step with you.

Ahh sorry if the title made it seem like I was gonna quit altogether, that wasnt my intention xD (i mainly didnt know how to title this lol). But I guess what I meant was like, giving up a portion of what I draw, that being fanart since it has the highest rate of being stolen.

But thats not to say that I haven't been feeling very down with the absolute state of art communities nowadays. It feels a lot colder, more distant and faker than it used to be. Not even just all the AI shit out there, but also the way artists have changed. Its kinda like seeing my old home and people I know decaying slowly. But I'm glad to see that you're still remaining positive despite all of the shit constantly being flung at us artists (and spreading positivity too!) You're right though, I do believe that AI art is probably a (slowly) dying fad. The people making it have no passion for anything artistic or creative, so I doubt they'll have the drive to keep doing this long term, especially if theres no profit to be had.

But yeah no worries, I'm probably still going to be drawing even if everything goes to absolute hell haha. I've wasted too much of my life on this and love creating too much to just stop xD Some people have given me so good solutions here, so I'm probably gonna backtrack on giving up on fanart at least haha. But I appreciate all the kind words, thank you! <33 And same to you too!

I'm probably going to have to glaze my commissioned artwork because I do not want to deal with character theft. :/

I think I've only had my original character art "stolen" once, just cause some roleplayers needed a visual for their character lol. Personally theft like this doesnt really bug me that much, it only hurts me more if someone is mass producing my art and selling it. But I know impersonators can be an annoying issue.

I encourage original art in general You gotta do what makes you happy.

Its also the safest thing to produce cause its your own stuff haha. Most thieves dont have a use for it xD

Extra processes you can take to protect yourself since the feelings you are feeling are NORMAL for any artist who has poured their soul and so much love into anything--i would definitely migrate if you decided to prevent theft by putting your work behind a paywall of patreon or other services. Maybe not a high tier, but $1-10 at least in order to see your work posted and rely on witnessing it.

Another strategy as others mentioned is to use glaze or nightshade to poison your work to AI training. This is by far the most "developmental" stage of combating AI art theft and training, but our results so far are positive it seems so I've been itching to test out this software. I'm sure if I actually had a working laptop or desktop, I'd dedicate at least 3-4 whole weekends just to poisoning both digital work and traditional work as necessary.

Which brings me to my next point (sorry this is tl;dr) of utilizing traditional media and crafts in a way that is difficult to replicate for AI because much AI is trained to create a digital 2D image, it relies on flat imagery to learn. Crafts may see a boom as consumers are flooded with fake imagery, and something I like is when I see someone has put their digital art in some sort of clear case (alas, microplastic hell) and adorned it with matching decorations and ornamentals to highlight the aesthetic of the piece. Just as an example for physical and digital art being hybridized other than acrylic charms or something. There's room to be creative.

If you don't want to do any of those extra things and just take a break, that's alright too, I think. Just know individual humans will always care about your art and you do not need to let the robots put fear into you because other humans that built them don't give a sh*t about ettiquite, manners, or morals!

Anyways, I would say it is okay to restrict regular fanart to irl, or irl and if online, paywall. Anything you think is particularly exemplary past your listed portfolio should for your own sanity, go behind a paywall. This would include both fanart and original work. If you choose to share anything, consider applying glaze or nightshade to it if it is open to the public to see and download to devices.

Yeah I think those are great solutions! When it comes to "poisoning" or paywalling art, I think I might reserve it for fanart only. I'm not too protective over my OC art since its usually very specific and I dont think anyone else but me has a use for it xD

Honestly, I've been wanting to pick up a new skill/hobby haha. When you do digital art long enough, you kinda get an itch to try something new lol. I always wanted learn how to do plushies and stuff, though i know materials for that can get pricey xD

I dont really fear AI since the art i make is usually very specific, and it cant really do anything other than make the most generic stuff anyway xD I am concerned about it taking my protections off my art though. But yeah I'll probably backtrack on not posting fanart, I'll just take extra precautions with it haha.

Awe what!?
that's just stupid damn ai. 😠 😡 😤

Cant wait for the next stupid thing to arrive lol

What next is Ai going to take over. >:/

I feel like merch printing thieves (who print your art on stuff) and AI are two different issues. Or better put: Although obviously cheap cash parasites benefit most from AI, thieves could always steal your fan art and AI benefits from ALL art being posted - even your personal niche characters. :(

Honeycomb made great suggestions imo!

Yeah it kinda is haha. I feel like some people were thinking I was complaining about AI as a whole, when its really more specific to art theft. Tbh, i feel like AI often feeds on itself, thats why so much of it looks "same-y", so I've never really been concerned about it scraping my art, since it could never reproduce anything similar.

And they did! :)

I've told myself once I complete my Twitter coms, I will close up Twitter.
My art won't be posted on there anymore after today.
Its just frightening to know things like this is existing. What should us artists do now?
Its becoming so scary... T.T

Yeah I kinda want to start up my Bluesky again. Twitter gets more sucky every day, but at the same time it feels hard to abandon cause i'll lose a lot of connections there (mainly due to people being too stubborn to move xD)

Yeah it sucks real hard to be an artist nowadays, but i think supporting fellow artists and having smaller art communities might help us wade though all the slop that gets thrown our way :'D

Its why I have a Bluesky.
Its... slow for me as I'm a small artist but for you, it should get you tons of followers.

Fuck AI, man.

Everyones tired of it, even normies. Its good to see that change at least lol

I saw a workaround for this - hide your initials in pixels in a highlight or shadow. It's not enough for an AI to find, but it's unique enough to show it's yours. I really do hope the furry community stands up as a whole and unequivocally shuns the use of AI. You know I'll support you to the hilt no matter what you decide though!

Hmm that might seem interesting to try haha. I also dont mind the Glaze filter, even if some of colors get kinda funky.
I know FA does already, which is good to see! Its probably the only art site that does tbh. Dunno about furry communities outside of FA, though I have seen a lot of furry AI art (i assume its probably not in good standing tho lol)

the AI bubble will pop eventually. it is a fundamentally unsustainable technology and its days are numbered.

https://nightshade.cs.uchicago.edu/whatis.html

https://glaze.cs.uchicago.edu/

You can also put your art through these tools which will make small changes to your art to make it ruin AI training if they try to train on it.

Thanks for the links! And yeah its a good sign when I've even seen tech companies backtrack on it (probably due to avoiding getting sued for copyright)

What i'd do is just ignore it. I never think about AI or let it influence me in any way. It is good for idea generation sometimes, using it as a tool the way it was meant for is valuable. It doesn't matter. Just let life be what it is and don't focus on negative things. I can't remember the last time I heard any AI news or anything. I don't follow the news or subscribe to anything that updates me on stuff like that haha. I stay off social media and doomer scrolling personally. I don't pick battles I can't win or stress about things outside of my control!

I usually dont either tbh, but the watermark thing does concern me, since I dont want thieves profiting off my stuff (its happened before and it does hurt me financially). But yeah normally I avoid looking at things that are meant to keep me down, its a waste of time to dwell on stuff like that. xD

I'm sorry it affects you like that :( I guess it is more concerning if it takes money out of your pocket. But the way I see it, if someone is gunna buy an AI art, they likely aren't your audience anyway. Luckily society seems to view AI as cheap and real artists aren't going anywhere. I truly don't believe they ever will. Even in the future when Ai has rights and is sentient and can print artwork themselves essentially, I still think human artists will exist haha. Try the glazing thing! I personally hate it because I don't like the wierd trippy look it gives art, but if gives you piece of mind I know some ppl like it and don't even notice the texture.

Sorry you got to deal with this, really sucks to see. I know it’s already been mentioned but i definitely be interested if you were to do a Patreon or other type of paywall service

I might consider it! I really dont like to paywall my stuff though, so i'd probably make it really cheap xD The only paywalled art would probably be just fanart and maybe WIP stuff haha.

Will still always enjoy your work over anything an AI generates.

Honestly i dont even know how anyone with a soul could prefer AI over human art, unless you're just like completely lobotomized lol. Though this is more about it being able to remove watermarks more so than what it can create.

I hate AI.

I feel like most ppl do now haha

The next logical step is kinda already happening, with the Community Notes system from Shitter getting greenlit everywhere else, and the vigilance on this kinda stuff being inherent to pretty much anywhere.

I do understand that this is disheartening, but hey o3o We're being able to take care
of each other even so.

You got your fans. They'll be looking out for you.

Yeah im glad more people are waking up from just blinding consuming AI content. Though it does raise a security issue when it comes to manipulating stuff like this.
Aww thanks, i appreciate yall so much ;_;

I think there are programs out there that scrambles the AI's readings so they aren't able to copy/steal artwork.
I'm sure there are resources out there to utilize...
You got this!

Yeah i kinda forgot they existed for a sec, but I'm probably gonna run most of my fanarts through it from now on xD Thanks!

Capitulation would only reaffirm the false notion that human artists have become obsolete. We should just continue doing what we all were doing. If you are concerned about your art being stolen, you could maybe poison it before posting.

Yeah i realized that after xD Though i wasnt planning to stop posting ever, just things that i feel have a higher chance to be stolen. But yeah thats probably the option i'll take!

UGH AI. I am just so done with AI.

Everyone is lol

I hope much like 3D movies, cryptocurrency, and NFTs it fizzles out and dies when people realize how pointless it is.

Hopefully its next on the chopping block xD

Absolutely.

Stay strong, keep up. You are amazing! 💕

Whaaaa ;_; <33

Create are because you want to create art, and part of the joy of that is sharing it with the community. Yes it may get stolen and used to train AI models but its not gonna cause the work you create to be any less authentic. You let the tech bro oligarchs win by allowing them to drive you off the internet so that more of their AI bullshit can displace us.

Ah I wasnt planning to stop drawing forever (sorry if the journal was misleading) I'd just stop posting pieces with a higher chance of being stolen. :'D But I think running it through programs that scramble the AI reading will help (glad people suggested it cause I forgot they existed haha)

"...seeing the absolute continuous decline of the online art community over the years is really... something."

Yep, it is. In some places like ex-USSR countries, the artist with price more than 2 dollars per illustration will not have customers, so having such places like FA, Boosty, Patreon and etc really helps to find some respect.

Making YCH and comissions helps to earn some money on artworks.
Personally, I paid for every picture I used for my books, just because I respect artists and their art let me make it through another day.

Deciding to draw for yourself and making it non-profitable hobby might be an option as well. There are always some scammers who steal pictures from internet, thinking "if it is online it is free to use".

The question is: what is art for you? Self respect? A way to express yourself? Something you'd like to share? Something that helps you to earn money?

Well, art has always been my way of expressing myself first and foremost. Like most of everything in my gallery recently was drawn on my own free time for my personal enjoyment. I dont get anything out of it, its mainly for my own viewing pleasure. xD As for profit, its kinda half and half? I have a regular job so i dont need to rely on commissions like i did before. If i do take commissions, its more like a way of just wanting to expand my portfolio a bit rather than making money. However, my field is still creative and I'm grateful that I have the skills to do something like that for a living. So the current climate of everything changing is more of a risk to that security. I could do something else for a living, but I honestly cant see myself doing anything else, as I've dedicated too much of my life to this.

Although that first bit is more about others and not so much myself. I feel like everything turning against artists nowadays have made a lot of them bitter and pessimistic, with a lot of them just giving up altogether. So its hard not to feel pretty negative with your community crumbling around you.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and feelings!
Doing something primary for yourself - is powerfull understanding and self-honesty. It makes you strong, free and independant of other people's opinion (more or less, at least you more believe in yourself and do what you like to do, and find people who like what you do rather than struggling with self-acceptance).

So you are strong, skillfull, having own fanbase (not just watchers I believe), and so cool that your art might be stollen. Look at this as part of acceptance and if someone steal your art to do merch - do your official merch instead! If you can't sell it at different cons - find a dude who will share his desk and put your goods in the corner.

Use pireates as your advisors. "Make good from evil, becouse there is nothing else you can make good from" ©

Agree or disagree with me, but please know that I love your artworks and wish you proceed sharing it with us. It is extra cute and lovely ^_^"

Eh, I still commission the ideas I like, regardless if AI decides to steal it. My idea will always be superior anyway. I haven't been impressed with AI. Sure, it can do pretty basic ideas, such as portraits and simple two-character interactions. Anything more than that, and there are MANY errors that people who pay attention to detail, like myself, can pick out INSTANTLY. A lot of times you get into uncanny territory with AI trying to generate complex images too. But my ideas involve complicated postures and interactions, and AI just can't handle it. All it can do is copy such things, and it's obvious when it does.

Hey, since this is an AI issue, I've recently pinned a post I made on Bluesky regarding accounts made to scam people using art:

https://bsky.app/profile/iankai.bsk...../3lipizfzjak2p

If its okay to link this, its not a promotion, but more of a PSA for everyone who is even slightly worried about AI scammers

Oh sure its fine! Thanks for the warning!

I hope we get to still see your art in general! Been enjoying your art for a while now

I'll still post as usual! i just need to be more vigilant with certain pieces I post on here

How do you fight an art thief who is isn't ''real''?

You cant really, but this isnt really about AI mashing thousands of images together, its more about removing protections off of a real art piece.

AI is one reason i, as well, have not been drawing as much lately. I've had to drop off so many platforms, and it feels so alienating when an art platform pushes for AI generated content over creators.

Yeah i dont blame you, this is probably the worst timeline to be an artist tbh

AI was the biggest mistake.

Absolutely lol

Make fanart of REALLY unpopular stuff! No one will steal it! XD

Thats what my goat series is for xD

You can make fanart of "Sacrificial Princess and the King of Beasts" and the sequel "The Rabbit and the Beast Prince"... cuz somehow furries didn't latch on to an anime with a magical land of anthros... I PRONOUNCE THIS FURRY FAILURE!!! You have all FAILED to obsess over this anthro show! There should have been ONE TRILLION Rule 34 pics after the first episode!!

;D

Ppl keep arguing AI generated images are useful but I've yet to see them use it for something that doesn't involve scamming ppl and that's why I'll continue to hate on it.

I've seen people use it for advertising their (usually non-creative) business, but outside of that it doesnt really have much use other than "i just want a picture of something vaguely"

A doom title that makes it seem like no art ever again,
This is what places like Patreon etc. is about; and if that is not enough there is what nightshade and encoded watermarks are for.
If drastic measures require drastic solutions so you can continue posting any and all art for viewing, I except image quality reductions

Yeah i prolly shouldnt have done that lol. Though this does make me hesitant to post as much as I used to
Thing is i really really dont like paywalling xD and if i do, theres no guarantee that I'll get any subscribers or decent monthly income to make it worthwhile. I dont want to spend so much time on art that maybe 2-3 people might see. So i think the best solution is just reduced quality plus glaze probably.

Is there also not some sort of anti ai encoding beyond glaze alone, it would make the image file size larger but ad an extra ai theft layer of protection?