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For many artists, it’s an uncertain time to post art online. AI image generators are getting better at cheaply replicating a wider range of unique styles, and basically every popular platform is rushing to update their terms of service to gain permission to scrape as much data as possible for AI training.
There are defenses against AI training, such as Glaze, a tool that adds a small amount of human-imperceptible noise to images to prevent image generators from copying artists’ styles. But they offer no permanent solution at a time when tech companies seem determined to chase profits by building ever more sophisticated AI models that increasingly threaten to dilute artists’ brands and replace them in the marketplace.
In one notable example, the estate of Ansel Adams sued Adobe last month for selling AI images that stole the famed photographer’s style, Smithsonian reported . Adobe responded quickly, removing the AI copycats. But it’s not just famous artists who are at risk of being ripped off, and lesser-known artists may struggle to prove that AI models are referencing their work. In this largely lawless world, every image uploaded risks contributing to an artist’s downfall, potentially decreasing demand for their own work every time they promote new pieces online.
It’s no surprise that artists are increasingly seeking protections to mitigate or evade these AI risks. As tech companies update their products’ terms of service—such as when Meta suddenly announced last December that it was training AI on a billion Facebook and Instagram user photos—artists are feverishly scanning the landscape for new defenses. That’s why The Glaze Project, which has one of the few AI protections available today, recently reported a dramatic increase in requests for its free tools.
The Glaze Project’s tools are designed to prevent style imitation and even poison AI models to discourage data scraping without an artist’s permission or compensation. The tools are in greater demand now than ever. University of Chicago professor Ben Zhao, who created the tools, told Ars that the backlog of approving an “explosive” number of access requests is “bad.” And as he recently posted on X (formerly Twitter), an “explosion in demand” in June is only likely to continue as AI threats continue to evolve. For the foreseeable future, that means artists looking for protection against AI will have to wait.
Even if Zhao’s team did nothing more than approve requests for WebGlaze, the invite-only, web-based version of Glaze, “we probably still wouldn’t be able to sustain it,” Zhao said. He has warned artists on X to expect delays.
Artists’ woes are compounded as demand for Glaze grows. The tool has been attacked by security researchers who claimed that it was not only possible, but also easy, to bypass Glaze’s protections. For security researchers and some artists, this attack raises questions about whether Glaze can truly protect artists in these difficult times. But for the thousands of artists who have joined the Glaze queue, the long-term future looks so bleak that any promise of protection against counterfeiting seems worth the wait.
Attack on cracking Glaze sparks debate
Millions of people have already downloaded Glaze, and many artists wait weeks or even months for access to WebGlaze, usually submitting invite requests on social media. The Glaze Project checks each request to verify that each user is human and to ensure that malicious actors are not abusing the tools, so the process can take a while.
The team is currently struggling to approve hundreds of requests submitted daily via direct messages on Instagram and Twitter in the order they’re received, and artists requesting access are having to be patient through lengthy delays. Because these platforms’ inboxes aren’t designed to easily sort messages, any artist who follows up on a request is moved to the end of the queue as their message rises to the top of the inbox and Zhao’s largely volunteer team continues to approve requests from the bottom up.
“This is clearly a problem,” Zhao wrote on X, discouraging artists from sending follow-ups unless they’ve already received an invite. “We may need to change the way we send out invites and rethink the future of WebGlaze to keep it sustainable enough to support a large and growing user base.”
Interest in Glaze is also likely growing through word of mouth. Reid Southen, a freelance concept artist for major films, advocates for all artists to use Glaze. Reid told Ars that WebGlaze is “particularly fun” because it’s “available for free to people who don’t have the GPU power to run it on their home computer.”