Do you (Serif) ever plan to incorporate AI models like Stable Diffusion into your Affinity software?

[Rogahar]

Today, Celsys (the developers of Clip Studio, another creative suite) announced that an upcoming update will incorporate 'an experimental AI feature based on the Stable Diffusion model.'

They claimed that they do not and will not share user data with the AI, but SD already has and uses a library of data sourced and scraped from artists across the web, without their consent or approval. As a result of this, they are 'getting they ass beat in the QRTs' and many users - myself included - are looking at competing products.

Does Serif already have such tools, or have any plans to incorporate similar features in the Affinity suite at any point in the future? I don't want to invest in a new product only for it to do the same shit I'm leaving Celsys/Clip over. Artistic integrity is a huge deal for many creatives, and having our and others' work sampled/scraped/stolen to amalgamate into some techbro's latest AI 'artwork' isn't something we want to be a part of in any way.

Apologies if this has already been clarified or answered elsewhere, and please link me to it if it has - I wasn't able to find it myself with the short time I had to search.

[debraspicher]

Hmm, I saw the same post as you today. I'm apparently not keeping up with the ethical issues you've described. I had no idea about the SD situation as far as data scraping 💢 I just know that increasingly more people clamor for AI features and know people have used them to create new works with prompts. Though, I think the AI features that are generally requested relating to image restoration, preexisting data the user possesses. I've not seen it suggested for creating brand new media or pulling from a library? I don't see Serif being the type of company to add anything like you've described here either. It doesn't sound like something they'd consider. I'm not a fan of AI, personally, except in limited usecases such as restoration. I just don't see the point otherwise. I'm not against people using it in their work. I just prefer a handmade feel is all. However, I do agree data scraping of any kind crosses major ethical lines.

[bayustudio]

Aaand they cancel it within less than a week after the announcement
https://www.clipstudio.net/en/news/202212/02_01/

Yeah the way AI image generator work is kinda exploiting artists and it was weird controversial addition considering their userbase.
but I'm glad celsys at least listen to them, (and also to prevent ruining their reputation even more with their subscription things)

This can be a good lesson for Serif too.

Better to implement AI for useful assistive things like selection, image enlargement, etc

[nitro912gr]

Sorry for bringing back that older topic but implementing Ai assistant tools could be a life changing thing. I mean it could make things like background removal or specific selection a painless activity in our workflow and let us focus on creating than doing little repeatable and soulless tasks like background removal.

It can also help by upscaling stupid little graphics that are sent from our clients and even making great image trace vectors. Or making object selection a reality, or improving the healing brush. or automatic levels between 2 layers or anyway just imagine all the tools that can do a little bit more than what they actually do now or that their auto part actually is working or going beyond what it can do now.

There are so many ways that can make use of AI without touching the copyright mess of image creation right now. I just imagine that I could give a command to Designer AI to populate the space withing a object with the letters from the text I provide. Telling it to use different fonts and sizes and rotations for each letter or something. That could be great!