William Overington

Well, in 1976 I wrote a Letter to the Editor of a trade newspaper about an invention of mine. One thing led to another. I was invited to be a joint author of a paper for an International Conference that I did not previously know existed. That 1976 letter is now referenced in The Oxford English Dictionary. To what the suggested art show may lead, if anything, cannot be predicted. But my suggestion that something good might happen as a result of the art show happening is not unrealistic. Many people grumble away opportunities. William

Yes. I first suggested the minimum viable, least expensive, possibility. If the Affinity team choose to improve on that, then good. William

Not entirely. I have seen posts from some other countries. Please tell me more. That would be for the Affinity team to choose. A village hall near Nottingham might be the least expensive. I don't know. But if the Affinity team wrote letters to quality newspapers with a colour tri-fold publicity leaflet for the art show and encloses a few free tickets (even though entry is free) then some people might come as part of their job so as to produce an article for the newspaper. A world tour of an exhibition is an idea that you have introduced, then commented upon. I have not suggested that. But who knows, someone may see this art show and one thing can lead to another. William

I was referring to articles in the media about the art show as free publicity. But you are right. Yet ... If the Affinity team want to do it then it can be straightforwardly done. William

publicly perform ? William

Is there any user of Affinity products who would like some of their work to be included in the art show if it takes place and is willing to say that, without obligation, in this thread please? If there is enthusiasm expressed that might help it happen. William

It may be that a " is typed but the software tries to put in an opening double quote character instead, and if there is no glyph for that character in the font, the .notdef character is displayed. William

Not necessarily a problem. My first novel is copyright, my copyright. I am in England. The novel is on the web, free to read, no registration requested or required. (Produced by using Serif PagePlus, as well as my writing) William

The free publicity for Affinity. Indeed they are. If they are asked by Affinity management who would like to have a go at it as well and some say "yes please" that could get it going. Just imagine if, say, The Guardian had an article about the art show, with a few photographs. William

Would it be possible for the Affinity team to run an art show please? Featuring work produced using Affinity products. Anything from one day only in a rented village hall upwards. Only with permission from the artists. The Affinity team to produce the prints and frame them. I am thinking of A3 size, but there could be larger wall posters if desired. Invite the trade press and art magazines and some quality newspapers, and open to the public for free. There could be a press release. There could be three videos made. One an advertisement that could be used on YouTube. One about 3 minutes as an overview available on YouTube. One a half hour or longer documentary available on YouTube. This could be a wonderful opportunity both for Affinity and for the artists. William Overington Friday 7 June 2024

I remember that in the CommunityPlus Forum that Serif used to have for its Plus Range products that there were wide-ranging licenses required but only for stuff uploaded to that forum, and I mused in a thread as to whether having acquired all those licenses that there should be an obligation to use them. Just imagine if that were the case here. One could write a play, then sit back and wait for its public performance. New theatres could be built to house those performances, actors would get more work, there could be new television channels devoted to public performances. One could write a screenplay and wait for the movie to be produced at no cost to oneself and wonder if it will win an Oscar. And suppose someone designs a starship ... William

Thinking about it, it is good that the training data is not the live internet. For example, if otherwise, if someone produced a picture of any sort, put it on the web purporting it to be by Leonardo da Vinci, then if someone else asked the AI to generate a picture in the style of Leonardo da Vinci, then the style of the false picture could be taken into account, leading to a wrong result. So tight regulation of the information that a generative AI system is trained upon is necessary and a good policy. William

The ordinary Bing Ask me anything search finds the thread in the Share your work forum but does not find the image file. William

From my experience, not just on this present topic, that does seem to be the case. Bing Chat AI can find something but not then apply it in producing a picture, getting the picture wrong. For example, it can describe a gibbous moon yet not produce a picture with a gibbous moon, producing a picture with a full moon. Finding information about the 1813 locomotive Puffing Billy but not being able to paint a picture with Puffing Billy in it, supplying a picture of a locomotive from about fifty years or more later. No, but it produced four abstract designs. I have no idea where they came from. A problem could be that the file name in the forum is not exactly the same as the file name that I uploaded. William

A search on Bing for the newly coined word has found the thread in the Affinity Share your work forum. It lists it as posted 38 minutes ago. William 23:32 UK time Wednesday 5 June 2024

The experiment is now running. Please see the Share your work forum. William

I am hoping to soon start a thread with a newly coined word as the title. This is an experiment in using Affinity products to produce pictures in a tightly defined style to observe if an AI system can find the pictures and analyse the style and produce pictures in the same style. Please place any comments about it in this thread and leave the other thread as a gallery of pictures. If anyone wants to contribute one or more pictures please send me a private message so that I can explain the style in a mail message so that it does not appear on the web, and allocate you some file names. William

The first stage is to observe if the AI can pick it up from the web when prompted. Then whether it can copy the style from the web. Getting an AI formally trained on it is a later stage if that can be arranged. I have just completed the first picture, and I am hoping to place it in Share your work soon. William

I am hoping to start my experiment soon. Thus far nobody has offered to participate nor expressed any interest in the possibility of participating. I suppose that the experiment may get shouted down, but I can have a try. The experiment may get nowhere, or may perhaps one day be regarded as good research. William

What I wrote, in response to the post from @Alfred is as follows. But that is using it. Not in the same way as if a cut and paste were being used as if the original work were a source of clip art, but nevertheless used. If the law is that permission is needed, due to be artist being alive or the work still in copyright, and that permission has not been obtained. It seems in some ways like the Jif Lemon case Reckitt & Colman Products Ltd v Borden Inc - Wikipedia William

Am I right that there are two broad possibilities in relation to this? Specific legislation. A court making a ruling based on existing law in a case that has been brought and got to court without an out=of-court settlement. William

So wondering if Bing finds threads here I put the name of a known thread of Share your work into the Bing search engine Lady reading haiku to an elephant and it found the thread. Also some images! But that thread has been there for a while. So I need to try with a more recent thread. William

It seems to me that we cannot be sure one way or the other unless the experiment is tried, and maybe not even then. If I coin a new word for the collection of images and each image includes the word within the file name, then a first test will be whether, given a prompt containing the new word, the AI finds the word with a web search and if so does it link that into producing a picture. In addition, I can try to contact the people who train the AI system to ask them to train the AI on those pictures. But with research one sometimes need to try an experiment and observe what happens. I have at times found that considering something that many others dismiss with a wave of the hand can lead to a new concept. William

And we’re discussing the use of others’ work without permission (or at least proper attribution) as the basis of finished pieces that we have produced for us. and we’re discussing the use of others’ work without permission as the basis of finished pieces that we have produced for us even if we acknowledge those others. William

Thank you. Further discussion welcome please. William