the idea that you can watermark your art with an invisible micro-pattern that breaks the evil AI machine and protect your God-given copyright law is absolutely laughable on every level. just apply two pixels of gaussian blur?
the "arms race" was over years ago. the databases were built years ago, and laws and ideology that allowed it to happen are hundreds of years old. watermarks will not save you. laws will not save you. technology will not save you. reblogging that tumblr post will not save you
i do not say this to scare people, or to make them feel hopeless; what is hopeless is watching people start cheering for the idea that banging their head into a wall will solve things. here are two pixels of gaussian blur applied to a photo of mine, enough to smudge over any secret invisible pixel pattern
Nightshade, Glaze, these AI-cleansing tinctures of health being promoted, this will keep you complacent, it will keep your worldview warped, believing that society doesn't need fundamental change, that we (actual humans, as opposed to corporations) can have rights by having the right morals, reblogging the right posts, watching the right shows, funding the right research. this is not because of computers. this is about the boots you thank when they step on you, and the ones you strap on yourself
capitalists hold power, but it doesn't have to be like this!
those university students in Chicago, probably quite skilled researchers! but they cannot comprehend that not only is their approach useless for protecting every "Artistic Soul" that already existed in the public, but that it relies on enforcing copyright and property laws. and the reason this happened in the first place is that the rulers of the Internet do not need to follow those laws. it is liberal naivety at best, and a dangerous scam at worst