Just realized Midjourney is training on art I didn't opt into

I found my old digital sketches in a training dataset someone shared on Twitter last week, and I never signed any agreement for that. How are we supposed to protect our work when companies just scrape everything without asking first?

2 comments

2 Comments

skyler_mitchell7d ago

So I was talking to my buddy who does freelance illustration and he was saying he found some of his old DeviantArt stuff in a training set too. Makes you wonder why companies think they can just grab anything posted online and call it fair game. Feels like there's no real way to keep your work safe when even watermarks get scrubbed off.

skylercooper7d ago

Yeah that's really rough. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to see your own work just get scooped up without any warning or permission. It feels like companies treat the internet as this big free buffet where they can take whatever they want without asking. The watermark thing especially bugs me because it shows they know they're doing something kind of shady. I feel like the whole system is broken when someone has to actively hunt down their stolen work instead of having to opt in first. Just really sucks for artists out there trying to make a living.