... but there's plenty of incoming fire from all sides.
Please realize this article reflects my personal opinion. Nothing more. Nothing less either. I invite disagreement, but I have no tolerance for drive by trolling and ragebaiting.
Trying to be thoughtful and nuanced in diffusionspace has to be one of the most maddening things I've ever done in life.
On one end there's the largely ignorant anti-crowd mindlessly repeating their apocalyptic mantra's they don't even understand the words of, nor do they accept clarification for fear of betraying their tribal loyalty -- often resorting to conflating different issues like water use, power (both electrical and social) displacement or some form of simplified hatred of corporations.
To this group, I am "one of them" and I must be burned at the stake for trying to understand.
On the other far end are the "all information is free"/"lol artists just git gud" groups, in various flavors; neither caring for, nor understanding, not having any regret for violating data integrity social contracts - to them it means that if you post it, that means it's fair game to be used.
To this group, I am "not one of ours" and I get ostracized or ridiculed for trying to be reasonable.
Neither endpoint position is tenable. Neither position invites discussion or nuance -- if I want to move between people at or near these positions I need to don the required acolyte robes and join their choir -- and not deviate from the song.
Mostly I'm curious to see if there's other people finding themselves at a similar position .. because then at least I'll feel less lonely while taking fire from both sides -- it's begun to bug me enough I'm now sitting here writing this. I don't care if you think I'm wrong, or that my position is laughable "because you do thing X therefore Y" ... I need to express my nuance and thoughts going forward.
Yes. I understand diffusion is inherently parasitic. I do not deny this. Yes, it bothers me.
As much as I like the technology and the entire process and system fascinates me, I'm positive that as a community (both diffusion people and artists) we have to find a mutually acceptable way forward before (government) regulation or corporations force one on both of us, because we'll all end up losing if they do - and I don't know which will be worse. Government may be easier to evade, but will likely be more hamfisted and definitely more stupid -- corporate control will be more insidious but ultimately just as destructive, especially when they can (and will) bend government enforcement to their will.
And no don't ask me how to move forward either. I do not know. I've tried. I've run over the problem in my head for hours and there wasn't a single solution I could come up with I couldn't easily shoot down with a basic understanding of human nature.
Please don't let the technology turn consumptive.
This is my greatest fear, when rather than try to bridge the (admittedly large) gap towards the art community, the technology starts to actively promote mimicry and replacement.
This is where my personal boundaries are and where I have to make choices.
I outright reject LoRA/models trained to do specific artist mimicry. That's my choice.
I'm not crusading against it, I'm not leaving negative feedback on a creator/download page -- I just won't go there. Period.
I also think that those specific endeavours are what's stoking the fears of a lot of people, especially when you consider the timescales involved -- an artist may take 30-60 hours for one piece of art; in the same time someone can mass download all their existing pieces, train a LoRA on it and get an enormous quantity of "nearly just as good but recognizable" slop. (and yes I consciously used "slop" there).
At some point, people will stop posting in anything but carefully walled, curated gardens - or stop posting AT ALL because the willingness/enthusiasm to share has been overriden by the (justified) fear of theft. At that point everyone loses. Then all we have left is synthetic training data (slop feeding slop for smoother slop) .. and then what ? We converge on ultra smooth blandness ? Yay ?
So where do I stand ?
My journey in diffusion began in the SD1.5 era out of indulgence. If you laughed/snickered look in the mirror. So did yours. Don't deny it. It's fine.
I am still concerned about data origin but I also understand given current structuring, there was little other recourse but go this route.
By the same token, so much of our daily life relies on technology and items manufactured in places where life is worth (nearly) nothing, made from materials mined in often terrible conditions. But nobody thinks about that or protests that on a daily basis. And before you excuse diffusion the same way: we can and should do better on both and it speaks volumes about us as people if we know and choose not to -- and I honestly think that it's easier to do so with diffusion than manufacturing.
This is why I abjectly refuse the "art" label for both myself and what I do, and I opted for "craft"
Out of respect for the shoulders of actual artists I get to stand on (and am thankful for), while also acknowledging that it does take real effort and knowledge to do what I do -- hence: "diffusion crafter"
So why/how did I end up working with diffusion despite my reservations ?
Because I used to be able to draw. Not very well, but passable. Then I made the mistake of asking an artist I hugely respected (and followed) for feedback. He and his entourage tore me to shreds to the point I ended up deleting all my posts and digital files and burning all my sketches out of shame, embarassment and dejection. This was well over 15 years ago right now. I still can't put pencil to paper trying to draw figures without mentally blocking. But I can write. I always was a better writer. I can describe, my systems brain lets me decompose, structure and order things. That made diffusion a nearly perfect fit for me to regain my "visual voice" even if it's constrained by model selection and all of diffusion's other limitations.
I apologize if this turned out rather rambly and strange, but I needed to get this off my mind and out into the world, to whom it may concern.
Thank you for reading, take care out there.