I agree that this kind of lazy meme content is what image generators should be used for. However, the issue is not the tool, but the materials that it’s made from. By using these generators created from morally and ethically dubious source material, we help corporations profit off of work that isn’t theirs.
You mean they didn’t pay Getty for their entire library?
I agree the corporations aren’t ethical. But neither are the corporations they scraped it from.
They aren’t just scraping Getty. They’re scraping your local wedding photographer’s website, your social media accounts, and the work of every small artist on the web.
If it was just big corps that they were scraping from, yeah, fuck 'em. But it’s the little guys who run their own business and are losing out that I care about. Hell, they probably pay Getty to use their content because Getty has the money to sue if they don’t. Just like they pay Reddit for the content the users make rather than just scraping it.
When it spits out copyrighted characters that they obviously didn’t pay licensing to use, it’s hilarious. It’s a lot less so when it spits out the work of award-winning photographers and artists.
