Best Practices for Using AI-Generated Images

AI Image Generation: A Double-Edged Sword

The Rise of Text-to-Image Generators

I've always wanted to express the ideas conjured up in my mind through painting, sketching, and drawing, but I struggle to even create a straight line. The ongoing buzz around artificial image-generating tools piqued my curiosity, and I too took the plunge by providing prompts on Perchance and OpenArt. Just visualize the image you desire, key in the description, and instantly see multiple images emerge on your screen. Midjourney, DALL-E-2, NightCafe, Jasper Art, and Fotor too, belong to the family of text-to-image generators. I found these platforms to be a boon.

Benefits of AI-generated Image

AI-generated images offer several advantages:

• Cost and Time Efficiency: Many platforms offer images without the hassle of signing up. Making it cost-efficient and a huge time saver too. • High Quality: The quality of the images downloaded are top-class. • Multiple Use: AI-generated images come in handy when working on blogs, articles, and other writings.

Reality Check:

After downloading a bunch of images, I asked myself, “Am I using the work of a professional without their permission? Are these images the result of algorithms scouring the internet?” Reading up a bit more to gain clarity on this topic revealed that in many cases, text prompts mostly match the images without giving any credit to their creators.

Ethical and Legal Concerns Surrounding AI Art

My initial idea was that computer engineers use software to train AI to actually produce irresistible pieces of art, music, and other creative works. It did not occur to me that AI image generators might pull up works of professionals. Keen on checking my knowledge, I delved deeper and the it opened up the proverbial floodgate of questions: • Copyright Issues: What if AI generators have picked images from the websites of professionals without any means to inform us that we are using them without permission? • Potential Legal Issues: What if we have to face repercussions for using copyrighted materials? • Originality and Ownership: What if we are unable to differentiate between images generated by AI and humans?

Ownership and Ethical Considerations

The question we should ask ourselves before using the AI images is, who owns it? Just as I was unaware and would have used those images out of ignorance, many may already believe, “These images are computer-generated, so I won't face any consequences.” Using copyrighted works of other professionals without proper attributions is a no-no, I would use the same principle to AI-generated images too.

Responsible Use of AI-Generated Images

I am not saying we should refrain from using AI-generated images. Having this option is good because it has many advantages and hopefully in the near future, this tool will be able to inform us if images generated are recreations of work by professionals or 100 percent AI-generated art. Responsible Use of AI-Generated Images is the keyword here. To make things easier for contributors, some websites, including Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), recommend you cite AI-generated images by including both the name of the tool and the company that created it.

Final Words:

While enjoying seeing your prompts get converted into images in an instant, treading this world a bit more carefully is the demand of the hour. Why? Because of ownership and ethical considerations