19 May Channeling the (Al)gorithm: A Conversation with Jesse Damiani

Source Credit:  Content and images by HYPEBEAST.  Read the original article - https://hypebeast.com/2023/5/channeling-the-algorithm-jesse-damiani-ai-feature

Paintings to printing, photography to video, web to AI. Whether a skeptic or believer, communication always evolves from one medium to the next. Do you see AI as a threat to the creative industry? Why or why not?

The latent space of neural networks is an ongoing source of curiosity for me. The ways that information is compressed and relationships among data are represented determines what the ultimate outputs will be. Yet so much of this information remains behind a black box, left for us to poke and prod with prompts. In a very generalized way, human reality operates this way—through sensory perception, we “compress” information into formats that are “readable” to us in order to make sense of (and interact with) our environments.

I don’t want to get carried away with the metaphor, but for the images generated here, I wanted to take inspiration from Minne Atairu and use prompting as unveiling—to see what relationships and patterns might exist in Midjourney. I chose “Postreality” as my area of research, so I also tried prompts using that term. At first I tried using complex prompt schemas, but ultimately found that the most revealing conceptual moments came when I kept things simple, limiting my prompts to single terms, phrases, punctuation, and aspect ratios.

While, contrary to popular belief, AI isn’t necessarily a new technology, it still in many ways is in the ‘Wild Wild West’ phase in terms of regulation. Do you believe there should be regulations put in place to protect artists, consumers and intellectual property? What would your suggestions be?

Regulation is one of the most critical aspects of a functioning democracy, and the United States is sorely lacking in its regulation of technology. This has been the case for many years. Of course, these are extremely tricky arenas to regulate, often without precedents or clear pathways to follow. But it is urgent that we establish new standards as we enter the era of generative engines. I’m encouraged that organizations like Creative Commons and EQTY Lab are taking a leading role in this new context, and recent cases are setting the initial standards and norms for how intellectual property will function in the era of AI.

We’ve already witnessed over the past 15 years how the tech giants, locked in an arms race with each other, are largely incapable of self-regulating to mitigate the harmful aspects of their products. It’s one of these wicked systems-level problems where it’s impossible to hold any of those companies or individuals accountable—which is why sensible regulation is so critical. If properly established and evenly enforced, new policies could both level the playing field and give corporations more space to build safety into their offerings.

Source Credit:  Content and images by HYPEBEAST.  Read the original article - https://hypebeast.com/2023/5/channeling-the-algorithm-jesse-damiani-ai-feature