An "Opt In" Solution to Paying Human Artists in an Increasingly Generative AI World
LA-Based Lore Machine Points the Way for Artists Getting Paid for Training AI "Creators" - Working with Them, Not Against Them
AI’s impact on human creativity and the Arts continues to boggle the mind – not the least of which is the issue of AI “scraping” copyrighted works on a mass scale in order to “train” their natural language models. Is this infringement, and is the AI’s end result a derivative work that requires artist licensing? Or is it instead a “fair use” that requires no payment, because arguably the copying is “de minimis” and the AI generates something transformational (which is the relevant copyright test)?
Either way, artists and creators justifiably feel threatened both from an economic and moral/philosophical standpoint. Their creative livelihoods are in the crosshairs. Grammy and Golden Globe-winning musician and composer Alex Ebert, who doubles as lead of indie band Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, puts it this way. Text-prompted AI film scoring directly threatens his craft. And, in his view, AI-driven “democratization that leads to homogenization.”
So what can we do about it?
Well, here’s a start. LA-based Lore Machine – from the mind of founder Thobey Campion who previously served as head of publishing at Vice Media – is a generative AI company that converts textual IP into a library of multi-media assets that Lore Machine calls “Generative StoryScapes.” Think of those as being graphic novels (although Campion hates that term). The relevant text-based ingredient is the treasure trove of scripts, lyrics and novels that, in Campion’s words, are “collecting dust inside the film studios, record labels and publishing houses of the world.”
Lore Machine’s AI identifies plot points in those forgotten works and generates a library of visuals to create something entirely new. Its AI also adds AI-powered narration, animation, sound design and other interactive elements. Campion tells me to think of it “like a set of Legos” that can be assembled in myriad rich media formats, some which we may not even know yet. All of this, in Campion’s view, leads to a great “unlock” of new value to creators.
Campion’s “special sauce” is that he works with creators, not against them. “We say let’s start with formal partnerships with studios, labels, publishing houses, and use AI tools to create generative formats,” he tells me. And all of Lore Machine’s visuals are derived from training its AI on the works of visual artists who opt-in to become partners - partners who seek to get their work out there and monetized.
In this regard, Lore Machine’s vision is analogous to other content marketplaces – seeking out new opportunities for artists confronted by tech-impacted livelihood realities. Airbit - which was just recently acquired by music creation platform BandLab – offers a catalog of over one million beats from music artists and creators around the world. Airbit says it now boasts over 800,000 users who have purchased more than two million beats – users who can then integrate those purchased beats into their own original creative works. For Airbit and others like it, everyone wins. Beatmakers find new audiences and new creative reach that they can monetize. And Airbit users can now access a vast source of beats that have been fully cleared of legal licensing complexity for an affordable price.
Another important aspect of Lore Machine’s “opt in” approach to training its AI is the “control” it gives to the ultimate AI outputs. Lore Machine curates the artists and partners with which it works. Its data set is not the Internet’s Wild West, with all the good and particularly “bad” that comes with it. The critical importance of this type of quality control can’t be understated. The lack of basic safeguards came to light a couple weeks ago in a very big way when Microsoft’s new darling Bing expressed its undying love to The New York Times reporter Kevin Roose in a very dark and disturbing way. Forget AI guardrails. Bing went off the rails!
Lore Machine’s approach all sounds well and good – and it is promising to hear about AI entrepreneurs like Campion fully embrace the mind-numbing real-world threats that AI poses to all artists right now. Unlike many others now looking to capitalize on AI, Campion is deeply thoughtful about it all and isn’t just out to make a quick buck. And apart from the “great unlock” of value in now-dormant works, he is genuinely excited about the new breed of artists who use AI to “create amazing new art that we can never imagine.”
But I ask him whether the sheer flood of AI works will inundate and devalue human art. With all earnestness, he echoes Ebert’s point and tells me, “I happen to believe that the only good shit will be done by human artists. Everything else will fall into this morass of mediocrity.”
For his part, Ebert concedes the possibility of bold new AI-driven art frontiers that we can’t even fathom. But he bemoans what he calls society’s “death drive compulsion toward the singularity.” Yes, there may be some good outcomes. “Or,” he says, “we all turn into bots.”
Separately, a couple weeks ago, I hosted and moderated an expert round table discussion about AI’s impact on human creativity, entertainment and the Arts. My guests included Alex Ebert, together with leading tech experts and influencers - with frequently strong, diverging perspectives. It is a fascinating and candid discuss that I urge you to check out via this link.