https://voshart.com/BIO the artist appears to be pretty socially conscious based on his other work.
Your comment frustrates me greatly because you are correct that people may internalize ML-generated images, and that's a real risk. ML already propagates racial bias within our prison system, as I'm sure you're aware. But Voshart's model isn't making decisions about employment or imprisonment, no, he's literally making art.
Art needs to be allowed uncomfortable racial and ethnographic territory. If not art, what do you think should occupy that space? Art is supposed to be the domain where we get to try out all these ideas and give the public exposure to what things like ML-generated images can be.
But mostly, I hope when the author reads your comment, he doesn't feel discouraged that doing anything in public might risk his career. Or that someone thinking about publishing their own art doesn't look at it and go "hmm, too risky maybe, I better not". The chilling effects that comments like yours have is much more damaging than any racial bias you might be trying to raise awareness about.
I remember when the conscious thing to do was to uplift the art of the unseen people in our world. I wish we could go back to that.
Parent comment seemed like a discussion, not an attack. He started with, this is really cool. What is art for if not to provoke emotion and discussion?
It gets into confusing territory when we talk about who is being "silenced" in a simple conversation where folks disagree, but I think the best outcome is that we sell to understand each other's points first, and then share our own. I hope I've demonstrated that here.
Your comment frustrates me greatly because you are correct that people may internalize ML-generated images, and that's a real risk. ML already propagates racial bias within our prison system, as I'm sure you're aware. But Voshart's model isn't making decisions about employment or imprisonment, no, he's literally making art.
Art needs to be allowed uncomfortable racial and ethnographic territory. If not art, what do you think should occupy that space? Art is supposed to be the domain where we get to try out all these ideas and give the public exposure to what things like ML-generated images can be.
If this art made you feel something racial, try to do something positive with that. Maybe get involved solving some of the real life ML deployments that are already causing problems: https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/01/21/137783/algorithm...
But mostly, I hope when the author reads your comment, he doesn't feel discouraged that doing anything in public might risk his career. Or that someone thinking about publishing their own art doesn't look at it and go "hmm, too risky maybe, I better not". The chilling effects that comments like yours have is much more damaging than any racial bias you might be trying to raise awareness about.
I remember when the conscious thing to do was to uplift the art of the unseen people in our world. I wish we could go back to that.