Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’ve heard a lot of “data is the new oil” talk and the inevitability of google’s dominance yet I’m inclined to agree with you. Stable diffusion was a big wakeup call where it was clear how much value freedom and creativity really had. The ethics problem is an artifact of googles model of trying to keep their AI under lock and key and carefully controlled and opaque to outsiders in how the sausage gets made and what i…
I agree the ethicist types are very lame but if they were trying to be opaque and obscure how the sausage is made I don't think they would have released as many AI papers they have over past decade. It also seems to me that imagen is way better than stable diffusion. They're not aiming for a product that caters to AI creatives. They aiming for tools that would benefit a 3B+ userbase.
Good researchers won't work somewhere that doesn't allow the publishing of papers. And without good researchers, you won't be on the forefront of tech. Thats why nearly all tech companies publish.