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Artists throughout China are currently participating in a boycott against one of the nation’s largest social media platforms, citing grievances related to its AI image generation tool.
The dispute originated in August when an artist known as Snow Fish accused the privately-owned social media platform Xiaohongshu of utilizing her artwork to train its AI tool, Trik AI, without obtaining her consent or notifying her.
Trik AI is specifically designed for creating digital art that emulates the style of traditional Chinese paintings. It is currently in the testing phase and has not been officially released.
Artists throughout China are currently participating in a boycott against one of the nation’s largest social media platforms, citing grievances related to its AI image generation tool.
The dispute originated in August when an artist known as Snow Fish accused the privately-owned social media platform Xiaohongshu of utilizing her artwork to train its AI tool, Trik AI, without obtaining her consent or notifying her.
Trik AI is specifically designed for creating digital art that emulates the style of traditional Chinese paintings. It is currently in the testing phase and has not been officially released.
Artists throughout China are currently participating in a boycott against one of the nation’s largest social media platforms, citing grievances related to its AI image generation tool.
The dispute originated in August when an artist known as Snow Fish accused the privately-owned social media platform Xiaohongshu of utilizing her artwork to train its AI tool, Trik AI, without obtaining her consent or notifying her.
Trik AI is specifically designed for creating digital art that emulates the style of traditional Chinese paintings. It is currently in the testing phase and has not been officially released.
Artists throughout China are currently participating in a boycott against one of the nation’s largest social media platforms, citing grievances related to its AI image generation tool.
The dispute originated in August when an artist known as Snow Fish accused the privately-owned social media platform Xiaohongshu of utilizing her artwork to train its AI tool, Trik AI, without obtaining her consent or notifying her.
Trik AI is specifically designed for creating digital art that emulates the style of traditional Chinese paintings. It is currently in the testing phase and has not been officially released.
Artists throughout China are currently participating in a boycott against one of the nation’s largest social media platforms, citing grievances related to its AI image generation tool.
The dispute originated in August when an artist known as Snow Fish accused the privately-owned social media platform Xiaohongshu of utilizing her artwork to train its AI tool, Trik AI, without obtaining her consent or notifying her.
Trik AI is specifically designed for creating digital art that emulates the style of traditional Chinese paintings. It is currently in the testing phase and has not been officially released.
Artists across China are boycotting one of the country’s biggest social media platforms over complaints about its AI image generation tool.
The controversy began in August when an illustrator who goes by the name Snow Fish accused the privately owned social media site Xiaohongshu of using her work to train its AI tool, Trik AI, without her knowledge or permission.
Trik AI specializes in generating digital art in the style of traditional Chinese paintings; it is still undergoing testing and has not yet been formally launched.
Snow Fish, whose identity CNN is safeguarding by referring to her Xiaohongshu username for privacy considerations, disclosed that she initially learned of the matter when acquaintances forwarded her posts of artwork from the platform that bore a remarkable resemblance to her distinctive style: characterized by broad, sweeping brushstrokes, vivid bursts of red and orange hues, and portrayals of natural landscapes.
A digital artwork created by the Chinese artist Snow Fish.
“Why is it, Trik AI, that your AI-generated images bear such a striking resemblance to my original pieces?” Snow Fish inquired in a post that swiftly spread across her followers and the artist community online.
This controversy unfolded just a few weeks after China introduced regulations for generative AI, making it one of the early governments to establish rules for this technology. This move comes as countries globally grapple with the potential consequences of AI on employment, national security, and intellectual property.
Captured by the artist Snow Fish, here are screenshots featuring AI-generated artworks on Xiaohongshu.
Trik AI and Xiaohongshu, the latter boasting 260 million monthly active users, have not disclosed the materials utilized to train their program and have remained silent regarding the accusations. Despite several requests from CNN for a response, the companies have not provided any comments.
However, Snow Fish reported that an individual operating the official Trik AI account had privately apologized to her, acknowledging the use of her artwork to train the program and agreeing to remove the disputed posts. CNN has verified these messages.
Nonetheless, Snow Fish is seeking a public apology. This controversy has ignited online protests within the Chinese internet community against the development and utilization of AI-generated images, with numerous other artists alleging that their work was also used without their knowledge.
Hundreds of artists have shared banners on Xiaohongshu bearing the message “No to AI-generated images,” while a related hashtag on the Chinese platform Weibo, similar to Twitter, has garnered more than 35 million views.
This boycott in China is unfolding at a time when discussions about AI’s role in the arts and entertainment industry are taking place worldwide. These discussions include the United States, where labor disputes involving writers and actors have led to significant disruptions in film and television production recently. Among the issues raised in these disputes is the studios’ use of AI technology.
Artists are raising their voices and expressing their concerns.
Numerous artists participating in the Xiaohongshu boycott have advocated for more robust regulations to safeguard their creative works online, mirroring the concerns expressed by artists globally who are anxious about their livelihoods.
These anxieties have intensified as the competition to advance AI technologies escalates, with new tools being developed and deployed at a pace that often outstrips government regulation efforts. This includes a wide range of AI applications, from chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT to Google’s Bard.
China’s tech giants are also rapidly advancing their own generative artificial intelligence systems. Examples include Baidu’s ERNIE Bot, which was launched in March, and SenseTime’s chatbot SenseChat.
In addition to Trik AI, Xiaohongshu has introduced a new feature called “Ci Ke,” which enables users to share content using AI-generated images.
For artists like Snow Fish, the issue isn’t the technology behind AI itself; it’s the way these tools utilize their work without obtaining permission or giving credit.
Many AI models are trained using the artwork of human artists by quietly scraping images from the internet without seeking consent or providing compensation.
Snow Fish noted that these grievances had been quietly circulating within the artist community for some time, with individuals privately sharing their concerns rather than openly protesting.
“It’s a turning point this time,” she remarked. “If the issue is resolved without any significant attention, people will remain silent, and those AI developers will continue to infringe upon our rights.”
Another Chinese illustrator, identified by his last name Zhang for privacy reasons, has joined the boycott in solidarity. Zhang expressed his frustration, saying, “They’re shameless. They didn’t put in any effort themselves; they simply took portions of other artists’ work and claimed it as their own. Is that acceptable?”
He went on to predict that in the future, AI-generated images will be devalued in people’s eyes, akin to plastic bags. He believes they will become as widespread as plastic pollution. Zhang also criticized tech leaders and AI developers, suggesting they prioritize their own profits over artists’ rights.
Tianxiang He, an associate professor of law at City University of Hong Kong, pointed out that the utilization of AI-generated images raises broader inquiries within the artistic community about defining what constitutes “authentic” art and how to maintain its “spiritual value.”
Similar boycott movements have emerged in different parts of the world against widely-used AI image generation tools like Stable Diffusion, which was released last year by the London-based company Stability AI, and Midjourney, based in California.
Stable Diffusion is currently entangled in a legal dispute with stock image giant Getty Images, with allegations of copyright infringement at the center of the lawsuit.
There is a growing race to establish regulations for AI technologies.
Despite the rapid pace of development in AI image generation tools, there is currently no global consensus on how to regulate the training methods used in these technologies, according to He.
He also noted that many of these tools are created by tech giants that possess extensive databases, enabling them to undertake various actions without much concern for legal protections.
In the case of Trik AI, which relies on a smaller database, the similarities between its AI-generated content and artists’ original works are more conspicuous, making a potential legal case more straightforward, he explained.
He added that detecting cases of copyright infringement becomes more challenging when a larger and more diverse database is used, as it can obscure the origins of the AI-generated content.
Governments worldwide are currently wrestling with the task of establishing international standards for the diverse field of technology. The European Union took the lead by introducing regulations in June that delineate how companies can utilize artificial intelligence (AI), while the United States is still in the process of discussions with Capitol Hill lawmakers and technology firms to craft legislation in this regard.
China also moved early in regulating AI, enacting new rules in August. However, the final version of these regulations toned down some of the language present in earlier drafts. According to experts, major powers like China may prioritize centralizing control over technology giants and outpacing global competition in the tech sector, rather than focusing on safeguarding individual rights.
A Hong Kong-based law professor noted that these regulations represent a broad and overarching regulatory framework, lacking specific mechanisms to oversee data mining activities. He pointed out that China appears cautious about definitively endorsing or prohibiting data mining practices, as such a law could pose risks in an emerging market, especially given the backdrop of a sluggish national economy.
