The Problem With AI Shaming

One of the hardest obstacles to overcome for any generative AI company is AI shaming. In the popular academic report, AI Shaming: The Silent Stigma, the phenomenon is defined as:

“AI shaming refers to the practice of criticizing or looking down on individuals or organizations for using AI to generate content or perform tasks.”

For all the AI capabilities in the hands of the public today, if that public finds out an artist or brand uses AI technology in their social media content, the comments usually get filled with people attacking them.

The "AI Shame question" is two-fold: Why do people care and how do AI companies get the public on their side so more people can use their AI systems without having to fear the mob.

Table of Contents

• What is AI Shaming?

• Why Do People AI Shame?

• What is the Problem with AI Shaming?

• Notable Artists and Brands That Were Targets of AI Shaming

• How do AI Tools Overcome AI Shaming?

What is AI Shaming?

AI Shaming is a phenomenon where companies or artists get targeted with criticism for the use of AI to create content in the form of text, visuals, or audio. Now, if an artist uses AI-generated music to create a song and then claims they created it, it’s much easier to understand why people take issue with it.

Using AI as a ghostwriter in many cases is still considered a form of plagiarism, maybe not as bad as fully stealing someone else’s work, but it’s still perceived as a way of either skirting the hard work expected of creatives or the cost of hiring one.

What is the Problem with AI Shaming?

The reason AI shaming is problematic is because its an impediment to free use of technology. People that engage in AI shaming want costs of labor to go toward a creative in need of money, but what if you’re a business person or artist that can’t afford to hire someone to create an image, audio, or piece of text for you?

Beyond shaming brands or influencers that want to leverage artificial intelligence, whether because it’s cheaper or because they see creative merit in AI, people that engage in AI shaming also limit the world’s creative expansion by restricting AI from pushing boundaries.

It very well might be likely that the impact of AI on creatives is to raise the floor for both bots and humans alike. The automation of some creative roles, shouldn’t mean the replacement of all of them. Not to mention, what if AI takes art to places humans simply would never be able to take it? I know AI art has personally inspired by own human creations.

All in all, restriction of any new technology is limiting to yourself. Misinformation that AI is simply harvesting other people’s creativity into their machine learning or that corporate giants like OpenAI stand to crush individual creativity are simply unfounded.

No one can quite put a finger on exactly how AI will change human creativity, so before we conclude it’s a net negative, we should let our creations mingle without being inhibited.

Why Do People AI Shame?

If you’re present on social media, I’m sure you’ve seen instances of AI shaming. Comment sections quickly fill with accusations that can range from "Karening" to actual threats.

Why though? Well, because AI shaming is an extrapolation of modern leftist theory adapted to tech.

Because Marxist theory places labor as the center of the universe, businesses that take it upon themselves to automate the labor of others are immediately demonized.

The solution most online Marxists have for repelling the automation of creative roles is to create a mob-reaction so strong, it forms a stigma around AI usage for any business hoping to leverage the new technology.

Because so many media outlets operate from an anti-capitalist perspective, you will see articles like this Wired piece about the supposed shamelessness of a piece of tech.

Luckily for most, leftism is losing popular steam, inversely from the rise of generative AI. It’s only a matter of time until the stigma fades and using AI content becomes a norm.

Notable Artists and Brands That Were Targets of AI Shaming

Before I go into every artist that used AI and got punished for doing so, let me begin by noting that false positives play a huge role in AI shaming and the creation of a climate of suspicion all over social media.

Here’s one example below of a painter that got accused of using AI wrongfully:

Even though she quickly refuted the accusation, lies travel fast and not it’s possible more people saw the misinformation than the fact-check.

As far as artists that were the targets of AI shaming, here are some noteworthy examples:

Christie’s AI art auction: This month, Christie announced it would auction off AI art and faced strong backlash from the art community for doing so. 3,000 artists signed a letter to cancel the event under the pretense that AI art fosters exploitation of real creatives that feed into AI’s machine learning.

Capitol records signed then fired FN Meka, a virtual rapper creating AI hip hop. Because of its AI origins, the rapper wasn't considered fit to represent the community his appearance was generated to imitate.

The Economist used an AI-generated magazine cover which led to severe backlash from artists claiming this practice could threaten their livelihoods.

Illenium used AI art to promote their San Francisco tour. Fans criticized the artist because AI risks replacing and exploiting other creatives.

Tedeschi Trucks Band published posters for their Red Rocks show that fans recognized AI anomalies in forcing the band to withdraw the posters and apologize.

William Shatner used AI for the album cover of his most recent release, fans noticed and the actor/musician faced backlash from fans with ethical concerns.

These are just some artists that were victims of AI shaming, the list of those wrongly accused is even longer.

Conclusion: How Companies Overcome AI Shaming?

Beyond using Undetectable AI software, companies and individuals simply need to wait out the current trend of AI shaming as its simply a symptom of a cultural and technological tide shifting. Once more AI generated content is out there and there are more AI users in the pool, shaming will be far less prevalent.

Ethical concerns raised by fearful creatives will subside as well as more social proof is disseminated that AI creates good content that people want and that their jobs are not at risk.