Apple Faces Criticism from Artists and Creators for Silence on AI Data Collection

TapTechNews July 3rd news, most creative people or artists are usually loyal users of Apple. Steve Jobs once positioned the company as the intersection of technology and liberal arts. And according to the report of foreign media Engadget today, many photographers, concept artists and sculptors said in interviews that they felt frustrated with Apple's silence on how to collect data for AI models.

Jon Lam, a video game artist and creator rights activist from Vancouver, Canada, said, I hope Apple can explain to the public in a more transparent way how they collect training data. I think their statement came at a bad time.

Andrew Leung, a Los Angeles-based artist who has worked on films such as Black Panther, The Lion King, and Mulan, said that for a company like Apple, it is also a problem to only provide users with the opt-out option without the consent of users. We never asked to be involved.

Andrew Leung even said directly: I want to point out that when they use the term 'publicly available', it doesn't meet the requirements at all. It doesn't automatically translate into fair use.

The founder and editor-in-chief of the Apple fan blog MacStories, Federico Viticci, also said, Apple has tarnished the otherwise compelling features (some of which I really wanted to try) with some industry-standard practices, which is disappointing.

Adam Beane, a Los Angeles-based sculptor who has created a portrait of Steve Jobs for Esquire (TapTechNews note: who claims to have been using Apple products for 25 years), also does not hesitate to express his disappointment with Apple. Apple's reluctance to disclose the source of its AI training data disappoints me greatly. I am getting more and more angry with Apple. You have to be knowledgeable enough, smart enough to know how to opt out of Apple's AI, and then you have to believe that Apple 'will respect your wishes'. Besides, the only opt-out option I can see is to further train their AI with your data.

San Francisco-based illustrator Karla Ortiz also said, Most importantly, we know that for generative AI to function properly, it must rely on massive infringement and overuse of private and intellectual property rights. All (generative) AI companies are like this, when Apple imposed this technology on us, it is important to remember that they are no exception.