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Is This The End Of Games Workshop IP Lawsuits?
August 15, 2022 by warzan
You will have to forgive the slight clickbait of the title as this thesis applies across the board when it comes to companies. But, as one of the staunchest defenders of their Intellectual Property, I think the topic of this potential existential risk will apply rapidly to behemoths such as Games Workshop, who are of course on the defence once again this time with Cults3D over STLs.
So what is this risk that could be so disruptive you ask? Simply put, I believe we are in one of the industries that will be at the vanguard of the huge changes ushered in by the latest crop of AI systems. And I believe one of the first casualties will be pretty much the entire concept of Intellectual Property and Copyright; as it applies to our industry at least.
Let me give you the scenario that is rapidly unfolding. We are, I would say, only twenty-four months away from a time when you can sit down at your computer at home and describe an idea in text format and the resulting AI system will in fact "sculpt" that idea into a 3D object in probably under ten minutes per iteration. That model will be yours and unique to you. Current legal trends will not allow AI to own IP but we will see where that goes. Either way, it doesn't matter.
Will you own the Intellectual Property of it - honestly who knows; but will Intellectual Property even matter then the way it does now? We are talking about a world where creative assets are generated in seconds and within a short period, there could be exponentially more uncopyrighted material of equal or higher quality available to us to use than all of the human creations from the beginning of civilization.
Why would anyone realistically steal an image, graphic or 3D model, when the systems are there to create them so rapidly? They only need your ability to describe what you are thinking of.
Testing The Waters...
The results of these systems will improve at rates we will struggle to comprehend, let me give you an example.
This image was rendered on 23rd of July 2022...
This is the same AI’s attempt twenty days later on the 12th of August 2022...
From this, we can already see significant improvement in its final render quality but AI is not only about placing the coloured pixels in an image, it also has to understand what it's being asked for.
On the 21st of July I asked the AI to create a picture of a Satan-type character in front of a 17th-Century church (for a project related to my English Civil War era Witch Hunter Army) - oh and by the WAY AI I would like it in the style of the Master Painter, Caravaggio!
The result…
Erm, let's just say it wasn’t going to make it into my Army book, and I can't imagine Caravaggio would have been too worried about his virtual competition. However, twenty-two days later I thought I would give it another spin to see what might happen.
Heads up! Our boy Caravaggio may well have sat up in his chair had he known a machine made of sand and iron just created this…
So my point is, the systems are saying to our industry…
With every passing second, they are learning and iterating and the researchers behind them are tuning and fine-tuning the final product.
If you want to see where we are in the 3D model space I highly recommend viewing this and subscribing to the 2 Minute Papers YouTube Channel:
Two Minute Papers
We can't stop it, the box is now open.
Where Do Things Go From Here?
How will this affect our industry and hobby? When the practical value of IP is literally falling apart before our very eyes and the only value will be in its rarity of origination? For example - we can all own a version of the Mona Lisa but only one will have any attributable value.
The Mona Lisa is one thing. I am not so certain we are going to be so worried about Marines from Space, Spaceships, Dragons and Orcs!
What will a future look like where one person working quietly at home can produce a gaming world with all the high-resolution fidelity that was the staple of the behemoths with art and design budgets of £100,000? In addition, doing it rapidly and continuously for as long as they choose to!
Is it just the tip of the iceberg? Down the road, technology will create Animations, Movies and VR worlds. The smarts of AI will find their way into our 3D printers so printing becomes easier, faster and with fewer failures.
The future is indeed fascinating...
"Why would anyone realistically steal an image, graphic or 3D model, when the systems are there to create them so rapidly?"
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"Is it just the tip of the iceberg? Down the road, technology will create Animations, Movies and VR worlds..."
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I like that second Satan a good deal. I think that’s good enough to go in a professional RPG product. I don’t know how these AI image makers and 3D model makers work in terms of where they get their reference material from and how small the scale of those references are, or even for that matter if the AI is referencing anything, though i would think it must be, directly or indirectly. Assuming the AI is referencing various things, if i were wanting to protect IP from AI 3D model makers and prints then i think i would attempt… Read more »
But will a phrase be enough. If you have an image of a Space Marine but it isn’t linked to the phrase “Space Marine” but “super human”.
I wasn’t proposing using phrases alone, but phrases and images (and i’d add sculpts and 3D models and 3D realisations, etc.), which would mean the image of a(n official GW) Space Marine would also be something i would seek to (extent the) protect(ion of).
A very interesting article. I would love to see this article revisited in 6 or 12 months. If AI can create what is in my mind and it can be refined then what nightmares will be let free from the deep recesses of our subconscious.
In 6 to 12 months an AI will have created a virtual @warzan… that is scary 🙂
To quote Twitter: “To replace (CG) Artists with robots, clients will have to accurately describe what they want. Artists are still safe.” 😉
AI art is nice for abstract stuff but it’s not my cup of tea. We’ll see how that develops.
I was absolutely in agreement until @warzan challenged this idea and pointed out that there’s a world of difference between instructing an architect to draw exactly what you want and asking an artist to create a piece of art (within parameters). I’ve completely flipped on this – I was dead against it, because AI couldn’t create exactly what I thought I wanted. But seen in terms of art, comparing it to music, it would take me forever and a day to get a bunch of musicians together and describe how to play an album-perfect version of a song. But with… Read more »
An interesting piece @warzan. You’re spot on that the improvement in the quality of the pieces the AI produce is only going to get more & more impressive. There is an interesting argument I’ve noticed brewing though on the interwebs – not of big, corporate IP holders C&D-ing AI-generated artwork, but rather artists with concerns that the AI is potentially plagiarising their original works. It may not be intentional that the AI’s generating these pieces are doing this, but it’s something to consider.
There are sites like ‘Fiverr’ where you can hire an actual human artist to make something creative for you. It’s a race to the bottom … because inevitably this will bring in people who simply translate your ideas into commands for “AI” generators. The one thing these “AI” machines can’t replace are the dozens of focus groups and other mechanics that big corpses like to use when testing ‘new’ things. Heck … 90% of all art in the industry has been designed to death. I often wonder if GW isn’t secretly using ‘AI’ to design there models given how standardised… Read more »
Hmm, right now I’m not sure what to think. Is it too early or is this just the beginning? Will it be a mostly niche toy like the Boston Dynamics Robot or will it take over like the iPhone?
It’s certainly something to watch.
Since corporations now can own IPs – entities which are not persons, which did not originate the IPs (only persons can), IP-laws need to be completely and utterly obliterated.
Also, once the AI-created content will makeits way into the general populace, it will be 99,9% porn. No matter how sophisticated the technology, we are primates, and the majority of humans are not very evolved.
Sounds very like the problems that the AI had in the film bicentennial man had.?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z5YMEwX2-88
I hope they are using the three law’s? the way things are changing they will be needing them soon.
Here’s a fun thing to do: Copy a paragraph from a scientific paper into the text field and see what the AI creates. Or a poem. So many things to try out and experiment with… It’s fascinating.
To be honest I am not very excited about this. The idea of everyone creating their own thing is a two edged sword. When a company designs a game and puts it on the market with all the relative support, it becomes a focus point for a community to develop around and grow. Some games and companies gain traction and grow and others die out. This is the normal cycle of things and is to be expected. We have all gotten use to this reality. If everyone started making their own games, would communities grow, stagnate, or dwindle? It is… Read more »
With all technology I present to the “Amazon Digital white book reader” and a book. Or even more basic a Pen or Pencil with paper. I have a 3D printer and have my own 3d models but!! Tech will never replace what we all learn from. In my design course a college, we were not allowed to even touch computers unless we had about 4 or 5 designs scamp out or at least a layout paper book with designs for the final (then and only then, we were allowed on the computer) Tech does not replace fundamentals it will be… Read more »
And my art lecturer and Graphic design lecturer also said, whatever, ever or how original you think it is. Someone somewhere has designed it before. This AI is not original it uses algorithmic filters similar to filters on gallery apps on phones. That image would need to have come from somewhere. I’m not scared or amazed by tech. There is always the power cut. Mobile companies always say, don’t rely on your mobile as a phone book keep a paper one, and its so true. Yes you may say I have been bit of a Monk but really. Ask yourself… Read more »
While you’ve convinced me, @warzan , that AI art is the shizzle, this – as both a video game programmer, and a tabletop rpg player – gets me more excited: AI speech.
No, not horrible robotic text-to-speech (seriously, even the very best of that stuff, with emphasis, stress and emotioin markers, sounds flat and lifeless) but what is being dubbed “speech-to-speech”.
Lay down your best, ropey, character acting.
Then make someone else say the actual words!
https://www.respeecher.com/voice-cloning-video-demos?hsLang=en
(the singing example is particularly impressive, but having access to so many virtual voice actors for character parts is really exciting).
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Well, as artistic expression goes, its certainly a step up from an unmade bed, half a cow in formaldehyde or a crucifix in a jar of urine! Whether 3d printing combined with AI will truly rewrite the games industry … I am still skeptical. 2d home printing hasn’t killed off the book industry,neither did the kindle. Spotify hasn’t even killed off the Vinyl record either. But there has been significant change in the underlying literary and music publishing industries. I’m watching the success (or otherwise) of Privateer Press’s foray into commercial 3d printing with interest at the moment.
How do we know Warren has not just been replaced with an AI writer that wrote this ? The AI looks at the most popular games system, looks at popular headlines creates the clickbate title. Puts together the basic outline of the report from information it has gathered on the subject. Googled a few pictures to throw into the mix. Add a sprinkle of subjective lines to get people thinking then post ? It is perhaps not beyond the bounds of AI to write news or the games reviews. How crazy would it be for an AI to play a… Read more »
I feel the AI point here in the argument is a moot point.
It doesn’t matter “how” you arrive at an image or sculpt, what matters is the end result and “if” that resembles an image sculpt that someone has claimed IP on.
@warzan Did you generate these with Craiyon? If so, I really need to take a look at my input for the images, because there is a definite difference in quality between your images and mine…
To me, it feels like the death of creativity. These AI systems are referencing existing images and products to generate their content. For example, you said ‘do it in the style of Caravaggio’, and it referenced online images of Caravaggio’s work. But as more and more content is generated by AIs, and less and less by humans, the images being referenced will often end up being AI generated composites themselves; we’ll begin to lose all the fresh takes and styles humans would offer, and only get art derived from what was available when the AI took over and the humans… Read more »
> We are, I would say, only twenty-four months away from a time when you can sit down at your computer at home and describe an idea in text format and the resulting AI system will in fact “sculpt” that idea into a 3D object in probably under ten minutes per iteration. You can already use AI to write stories. : https://sassbook.com/ai-story-writer This should sound familiar: “It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of… Read more »
> We are, I would say, only twenty-four months away from a time when you can sit down at your computer at home and describe an idea in text format and the resulting AI system will in fact “sculpt” that idea into a 3D object Yahbut we can already do this with text. Behold, the Sass AI story generator. : https://sassbook.com/ai-story-writer “It is the 41st Millennium. For more than a hundred centuries the Emperor of Mankind has sat immobile on the Golden Throne of Earth. He is the master of mankind by the will of the gods and master of… Read more »