It's a little heartbreaking because arguably, OpenAI tried to do the responsible thing here: come up with a sustainable business model to make AI-generated images profitable while respecting trademarks and controlling for some objectionable content. Very corporate; very above-the-board.
Emad Mostaque, a millionaire hedge-fund manager with money to burn, spent approximately $600,000 to train a model and dumped it out for public consumption: no account for how it will be used, no concern about any sociopolitical consequences, damn the torpedoes and straight ahead. He basically burned down a potential industry space and hugely complicated an ongoing conversation on how these tools will interact with / disrupt the lives and livelihoods of artists... But he also basically changed the world overnight. Hashtag-squad-goals, am I right?
There's a lesson to be learned here. I haven't decided what it is yet. Though I note that it's a lesson that probably applies to few people who don't have $600,000 to set aflame.
> dumped it out for public consumption: no account for how it will be used, no concern about any sociopolitical consequences
I hadn't heard the story of how stable diffusion was created. Sounds like the guy is a true hero from your description. And only for $600k? Imagine if he decided to "burn" the rest of his millions on similar initiatives.
Emad Mostaque, a millionaire hedge-fund manager with money to burn, spent approximately $600,000 to train a model and dumped it out for public consumption: no account for how it will be used, no concern about any sociopolitical consequences, damn the torpedoes and straight ahead. He basically burned down a potential industry space and hugely complicated an ongoing conversation on how these tools will interact with / disrupt the lives and livelihoods of artists... But he also basically changed the world overnight. Hashtag-squad-goals, am I right?
There's a lesson to be learned here. I haven't decided what it is yet. Though I note that it's a lesson that probably applies to few people who don't have $600,000 to set aflame.