Live data from Hacker News

Stable Diffusion is a big deal

simonwillison.net

21–30 of 488 posts

Re: Stable Diffusion is a big deal

#21
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are really significant, novel copyright issues implicated by these large generative models trained on other people’s IP. If you take a step back, you can see that there are different ways to frame what is happening. One frame is: “Defendant built an algorithm that memorized features of Plaintiff’s IP. Defendant’s algorithm recombines parts of those features in order to produce works in the same domain that comp…

> “Defendant built an algorithm that memorized features of Plaintiff’s IP. Defendant’s algorithm recombines parts of those features in order to produce works in the same domain that compete with Plaintiff’s work, all without Plaintiff’s consent.” The fun part is, this is how human artists learn too.

They absolutely do. What they don’t do is mechanistically clone compressed mathematical representations of input data. The human part of the creative process could very well be a distinguishing feature, legally.

Re: Stable Diffusion is a big deal

#23
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people keep bringing up copyright anyway? It seems pretty clear that the images being generated by StableDiffusion are transformative so it's protected under Fair Use. Am I missing something here?

The new technology looks like it could threaten artists' livelihoods by replicating something about their work. The old legal framework for protecting artists' livelihoods from photocopiers etc was copyright. The goal of making sure artists can both make art and eat is still relevant, so people reach for the tool that used to make sure that was possible.

If it really does make it hard for artists to eat from selling art, that to me is just sour grapes. I mean there use to be 1000s or 10s of 1000s of liveries to lock up your horse. There's no goal to keep horse keepers so they can still keep horses and eat. Instead, their industry mostly disappeared. I'm not heartless but at the point their services are no longer needed that's just the way it is. Cloth weavers replaced by the loom.

I don't think SD will replace most top artists for now. It's hard for me to believe SD is going to come up with images like those from top concept artists. But I can imagine SD replacing lots of situations, like maybe stock photography, when you can just ask the AI to draw "people in front of whiteboard discussing sales chart"

Re: Stable Diffusion is a big deal

#24

After using SD heavily for a week, I half agree with this. It is incredibly disruptive, and it's wild how much it accelerates the creative process. I'll give you that. But two things I've noticed: First, artists will still have a massive advantage over non-artists with this tool. A photographer who intimately knows the different lenses and cameras and industry terms will get to a representation of their idea much fas…

Is it possible to provide another image as a prompt for SD? For example, could you provide a simple drawing of a house and expect it to render a house?

Re: Stable Diffusion is a big deal

#25
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do people keep bringing up copyright anyway? It seems pretty clear that the images being generated by StableDiffusion are transformative so it's protected under Fair Use. Am I missing something here?

The new technology looks like it could threaten artists' livelihoods by replicating something about their work. The old legal framework for protecting artists' livelihoods from photocopiers etc was copyright. The goal of making sure artists can both make art and eat is still relevant, so people reach for the tool that used to make sure that was possible.

We need a different tool than artificial scarcity. Both for copyrights and patents. Government funded prize systems and patronage systems with a lot of mechanisms for citizens to choose what to fund seems ideal.

Re: Stable Diffusion is a big deal

#26

Active discussion today about Stable Diffusion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32651556

There are a total of 4 posts related to StableDiffusion on the front page right now

I suspected there were more, but didn’t spot them at a glance.

Re: Stable Diffusion is a big deal

#27
One day, images generated with these AIs will become ubiquitous online, and new AIs training on data will wind up with feedback problems because they got trained on photos that are AI generated, possibly even ones they themselves generated!

This tech is a huge deal. Huge. Ubiquitous unique, beautiful art. Entire movies made by machines. Too many to even watch them all. Actor models that aren't real people owned by the thousands by people and corporation s.

Re: Stable Diffusion is a big deal

#28
These systems make for a good family game in our house. We take turns with prompts and have the laptop broadcasting to the TV. I imagine you could make a more formal party game from it - some sort of weird version of Pictionary perhaps?

Re: Stable Diffusion is a big deal

#29

One day, images generated with these AIs will become ubiquitous online, and new AIs training on data will wind up with feedback problems because they got trained on photos that are AI generated, possibly even ones they themselves generated! This tech is a huge deal. Huge. Ubiquitous unique, beautiful art. Entire movies made by machines. Too many to even watch them all. Actor models that aren't real people owned by th…

How many search results are forum posts with some asshole saying "let me google that for you" to the exact question you are asking? Haaaaaate that.

Re: Stable Diffusion is a big deal

#30
Why do Stable Diffusion images all sorta look the same. They look either deformed or like pastels . I tried it a few times on some free sites, and it was not accurate. I would put in 5 keywords and maybe it would get 2 of them right. These are common search terms.
Post reply on HN