With the power of AI, it’s now possible to replicate distinctive art styles in minutes — an innovation that is leaving traditional artists in the lurch as their art is taken to train AI models that then steal job opportunities from them.
But what if you could stop AI models from being able to replicate your art style?
Researchers at the University of Chicago have made a tool they say will do just that, a filter that, once applied to an image, means that image can’t be read and reproduced by AI tools that scrape art online.
AI art can be produced instantaneously, but only because AI draws data from thousands of art pieces across the internet that took human artists weeks to months to create.
The creators say Glaze will allow artists to protect their distinct art style from being absorbed into the pool of data that AI art tools draw on.
“Artists really need this tool; the emotional impact and financial impact of this technology on them is really quite real,” Ben Zhao, Neubauer Professor of computer science at the University of Chicago, said in a February press release. “We talked to teachers who were seeing students drop out of their class because they thought there was no hope for the industry, and professional artists who are seeing their style ripped off left and right.”
The project involved surveying more than 1,100 professional artists, according to the release. The tool was tested on 195 historical artists, as well as four currently working artists, before a focus group evaluated Glaze’s accuracy in disrupting AI imitation.
More than 90 per cent of artists surveyed said they were willing to use the tool when posting their art.
Glaze is the second project by the University of Chicago’s SAND Lab which brings protection to images posted online. SAND Lab previously created a tool to shield personal photos so that they couldn’t be used to train facial recognition software back in 2020. But when they began to apply the same concept to art, a few problems arose immediately.
Photos of human faces can be boiled down to a few distinct features, but art is much more complex, with an artistic style defined by numerous things, including brushstrokes, colour palettes, light and shadow as well as texture and positioning.
In order to confuse the AI tools and ensure they would not be able to read the artistic style and replicate it, researchers needed to isolate which parts of a piece of art were being highlighted as the key style indicators by AI art tools.
“We don’t need to change all the information in the picture to protect artists, we only need to change the style features,” Shawn Shan, a UChicago computer sciences graduate student who co-authored the study, said in the press release. “So we had to devise a way where you basically separate out the stylistic features from the image from the object, and only try to disrupt the style feature using the cloak.”
To do this, researchers used a “fight fire with fire” approach. Glaze works by using AI to identify style features that change when an image is run through a filter to turn it into a new art style—such as cubism or watercolour—and then taking those features and adjusting them just enough to trick other AI tools.
They target the “Achilles’ heel for AI models” which is “a phenomenon called adversarial examples– small tweaks in inputs that can produce massive differences in how AI models classify the input,” according to the website.
Basically, Glaze changes these key elements on a piece of art ever so slightly, while leaving the original art almost identical to the naked eye, so other AI tools won’t be able to recognize, and thus replicate, the original art’s individual style.
“We’re letting the model teach us which portions of an image pertain the most to style, and then we’re using that information to come back to attack the model and mislead it into recognizing a different style from what the art actually uses,” Zhao said.
If an AI tool built to replicate the style of art pieces tries to replicate an art piece with Glaze on it, it will read that artists’ piece as having a different style, such as Vincent Van Gogh’s art style, and will produce an imitation that uses that style instead.
Although many AI art tools have already had the chance to learn from thousands of uncloaked images online, introducing more cloaked images online using Glaze will chip away at their effectiveness in imitation, researchers say.
In order to use it, artists can download Glaze onto their computer and run it on images that they hope to cloak from AI. They can also customize how many modifications Glaze introduces, with low modifications appearing almost invisible but offering less protection from AI, while larger modifications might be more visible but offer much more protection.
“A majority of the artists we talked to had already taken actions against these models,” Shan said. “They started to take down their art or to only upload low resolution images, and these measures are bad for their career because that’s how they get jobs. With Glaze, the more you perturb the image, the better the protection. And when we asked artists what they were comfortable with, quite a few chose the highest level. They’re willing to tolerate large perturbations because of the devastating consequences if their styles are stolen.”
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
In a case that has sent shockwaves through the Vancouver Island art community, a local art dealer has been charged with one count of fraud over $5,000. Calvin Lucyshyn, the former operator of the now-closed Winchester Galleries in Oak Bay, faces the charge after police seized hundreds of artworks, valued in the tens of millions of dollars, from various storage sites in the Greater Victoria area.
Alleged Fraud Scheme
Police allege that Lucyshyn had been taking valuable art from members of the public under the guise of appraising or consigning the pieces for sale, only to cut off all communication with the owners. This investigation began in April 2022, when police received a complaint from an individual who had provided four paintings to Lucyshyn, including three works by renowned British Columbia artist Emily Carr, and had not received any updates on their sale.
Further investigation by the Saanich Police Department revealed that this was not an isolated incident. Detectives found other alleged victims who had similar experiences with Winchester Galleries, leading police to execute search warrants at three separate storage locations across Greater Victoria.
Massive Seizure of Artworks
In what has become one of the largest art fraud investigations in recent Canadian history, authorities seized approximately 1,100 pieces of art, including more than 600 pieces from a storage site in Saanich, over 300 in Langford, and more than 100 in Oak Bay. Some of the more valuable pieces, according to police, were estimated to be worth $85,000 each.
Lucyshyn was arrested on April 21, 2022, but was later released from custody. In May 2024, a fraud charge was formally laid against him.
Artwork Returned, but Some Remain Unclaimed
In a statement released on Monday, the Saanich Police Department confirmed that 1,050 of the seized artworks have been returned to their rightful owners. However, several pieces remain unclaimed, and police continue their efforts to track down the owners of these works.
Court Proceedings Ongoing
The criminal charge against Lucyshyn has not yet been tested in court, and he has publicly stated his intention to defend himself against any pending allegations. His next court appearance is scheduled for September 10, 2024.
Impact on the Local Art Community
The news of Lucyshyn’s alleged fraud has deeply affected Vancouver Island’s art community, particularly collectors, galleries, and artists who may have been impacted by the gallery’s operations. With high-value pieces from artists like Emily Carr involved, the case underscores the vulnerabilities that can exist in art transactions.
For many art collectors, the investigation has raised concerns about the potential for fraud in the art world, particularly when it comes to dealing with private galleries and dealers. The seizure of such a vast collection of artworks has also led to questions about the management and oversight of valuable art pieces, as well as the importance of transparency and trust in the industry.
As the case continues to unfold in court, it will likely serve as a cautionary tale for collectors and galleries alike, highlighting the need for due diligence in the sale and appraisal of high-value artworks.
While much of the seized artwork has been returned, the full scale of the alleged fraud is still being unraveled. Lucyshyn’s upcoming court appearances will be closely watched, not only by the legal community but also by the wider art world, as it navigates the fallout from one of Canada’s most significant art fraud cases in recent memory.
Art collectors and individuals who believe they may have been affected by this case are encouraged to contact the Saanich Police Department to inquire about any unclaimed pieces. Additionally, the case serves as a reminder for anyone involved in high-value art transactions to work with reputable dealers and to keep thorough documentation of all transactions.
As with any investment, whether in art or other ventures, it is crucial to be cautious and informed. Art fraud can devastate personal collections and finances, but by taking steps to verify authenticity, provenance, and the reputation of dealers, collectors can help safeguard their valuable pieces.
