Day: January 21, 2023

Countless artists have taken inspiration from "The Starry Night" since Vincent Van Gogh painted the swirling scene in 1889.

Now artificial intelligence systems are doing the same, training themselves on a vast collection of digitized artworks to produce new images you can conjure in seconds from a smartphone app.

The images generated by tools such as DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion can be weird and otherworldly but also increasingly realistic and customizable — ask for a "peacock owl in the style of Van Gogh" and they can churn out something that might look similar to what you imagined.

But while Van Gogh and other long-dead master painters aren't complaining, some living artists and photographers are starting to fight back against the AI software companies creating images derived from their works.

Two new lawsuits —- one this week from the Seattle-based photography giant Getty Images —- take aim at popular image-generating services for allegedly copying and processing millions of copyright-protected images without a license.

Getty said it has begun legal proceedings in the High Court of Justice in London against Stability AI — the maker of Stable Diffusion —- for infringing intellectual property rights to benefit the London-based startup's commercial interests.

Another lawsuit filed Friday in a U.S. federal court in San Francisco describes AI image-generators as "21st-century collage tools that violate the rights of millions of artists." The lawsuit, filed by three working artists on behalf of others like them, also names Stability AI as a defendant, along with San Francisco-based image-generator startup Midjourney, and the online gallery DeviantArt.

The lawsuit said AI-generated images "compete in the marketplace with the original images. Until now, when a purchaser seeks a new image 'in the style' of a given artist, they must pay to commission or license an original image from that artist."

Companies that provide image-generating services typically charge users a fee. After a free trial of Midjourney through the chatting app Discord, for instance, users must buy a subscription that starts at $10 per month or up to $600 a year for corporate memberships. The startup OpenAI also charges for use of its DALL-E image generator, and StabilityAI offers a paid service called DreamStudio.

Stability AI said in a statement that "Anyone that believes that this isn't fair use does not understand the technology and misunderstands the law."

In a December interview with The Associated Press, before the lawsuits were filed, Midjourney CEO David Holz described his image-making subscription service as "kind of like a search engine" pulling in a wide swath of images from across the internet. He compared copyright concerns about the technology with how such laws have adapted to human creativity.

"Can a person look at somebody else's picture and learn from it and make a similar picture?" Holz said. "Obviously, it's allowed for people and if it wasn't, then it would destroy the whole professional art industry, probably the nonprofessional industry too. To the extent that AIs are learning like people, it's sort of the same thing and if the images come out differently then it seems like it's fine."

The copyright disputes mark the beginning of a backlash against a new generation of impressive tools — some of them introduced just last year — that can generate new images, readable text and computer code on command.

They also raise broader concerns about the propensity of AI tools to amplify misinformation or cause other harm. For AI image generators, that includes the creation of nonconsensual sexual imagery.

Some systems produce photorealistic images that can be impossible to trace, making it difficult to tell the difference between what's real and what's AI. And while most have some safeguards in place to block offensive or harmful content, experts say it's not enough and fear it's only a matter of time until people utilize these tools to spread disinformation and further erode public trust.

"Once we lose this capability of telling what's real and what's fake, everything will suddenly become fake because you lose confidence of anything and everything," said Wael Abd-Almageed, a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Southern California.

As a test, The Associated Press submitted a text prompt on Stable Diffusion featuring the keywords "Ukraine war" and "Getty Images." The tool created photo-like images of soldiers in combat with warped faces and hands, pointing and carrying guns. Some of the images also featured the Getty watermark, but with garbled text.

AI can also get things wrong, like feet and fingers or details on ears that can sometimes give away that they're not real, but there's no set pattern to look out for. And those visual clues can also be edited. On Midjourney, for instance, users often post on the Discord chat asking for advice on how to fix distorted faces and hands.

With some generated images traveling on social networks and potentially going viral, they can be challenging to debunk since they can't be traced back to a specific tool or data source, according to Chirag Shah, a professor at the Information School at the University of Washington, who uses these tools for research.

"You could make some guesses if you have enough experience working with these tools," Shah said. "But beyond that, there is no easy or scientific way to really do this."

But for all the backlash, there are many people who embrace the new AI tools and the creativity they unleash. Searches on Midjourney, for instance, show curious users are using the tool as a hobby to create intricate landscapes, portraits and art.

There's plenty of room for fear, but "what can else can we do with them?" asked the artist Refik Anadol this week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he displayed an exhibit of his AI-generated work.

At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Anadol designed "Unsupervised," which draws from artworks in the museum's prestigious collection — including "The Starry Night" — and feeds them into a massive digital installation generating animations of mesmerizing colors and shapes in the museum lobby.

The installation is "constantly changing, evolving and dreaming 138,000 old artworks at MoMA's Archive," Anadol said. "From Van Gogh to Picasso to Kandinsky, incredible, inspiring artists who defined and pioneered different techniques exist in this artwork, in this AI dream world."

For painters like Erin Hanson, whose impressionist landscapes are so popular and easy to find online that she has seen their influence in AI-produced visuals, she is not worried about her own prolific output, which makes $3 million a year.

She does, however, worry about the art community as a whole.

"The original artist needs to be acknowledged in some way or compensated," Hanson said. "That's what copyright laws are all about. And if artists aren't acknowledged, then it's going to make it hard for artists to make a living in the future."

Source: Voice of America

The U.N.’s top human rights official, Volker Türk, appealed Friday for $452 million to fund the critical work of the high commissioner’s office in protecting and defending human rights throughout the world this year.

The high commissioner’s office is the guardian and defender of human rights. It is the global watchdog of abuse and violence. As such, it puts the spotlight on violators of human rights to pressure a change in bad behavior.

In his appeal to donors, human rights chief Volker Türk noted there can be no durable peace nor sustainable development without human rights. He said it was important to bring human rights to life in every part of the world to achieve stability and attain justice.

“We need to insist on action--globally, regionally, and domestically—so that we address inequalities, that we strengthen social protections, that we eliminate discrimination in whatever form, and other root causes of conflict, and that we address environmental crises and misery,” said Türk.

The high commissioner’s office has a difficult task. There are many egregious human rights crises that need to be addressed. They include Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the deadly protests in Iran, the continued internment of more than a million Muslim Uyghurs in so-called reeducation camps in China’s Xinjiang region, and the Islamist insurgency in Africa’s Sahel region.

Türk emphasized protecting human rights is essential in combatting these ills. He said human rights are at the core of the United Nations charter and guide the world body’s principles and purposes.

“We know that now more than ever, we need human rights to keep the world stable and provide us a roadmap for a better future as part of the UDHR (Universal Declaration of Human rights) 75 initiative and beyond,” said Türk.

This year is the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or UDHR. High Commissioner Türk said he plans to use the anniversary to bring the words of that seminal document to life.

He is urging donors to support his appeal for funding so his office can strengthen its ability to provide a better future for all.

Source: Voice of America

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen paid a solemn visit Saturday to the salmon-colored house on an island off Senegal that is one of the most recognized symbols of the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade that trapped tens of millions of Africans in bondage for generations.

Yellen, in Senegal as part of a 10-day trip aimed at rebuilding economic relationships between the U.S. and Africa, stood in the Gorée Island building known as the House of Slaves and peered out of the “Door of No Return,” from which enslaved people were shipped across the Atlantic.

She was guided on a tour through various corridors and tight quarters in the house, shaking her head in disgust at what she was told about the economics of how slaves were valued.

“Gorée and the trans-Atlantic slave trade are not just a part of African history. They are a part of American history as well,” Yellen said later in brief remarks during her visit.

“We know that the tragedy did not stop with the generation of humans taken from here," she added. "Even after slavery was abolished, Black Americans — many of whom can trace their descendance through ports like this across Africa — were denied the rights and freedoms promised to them under our Constitution.”

Later, in an interview with The Associated Press, Yellen said that while promoting diversity and racial equality is a key goal, “the administration has not embraced reparations as part of the answer.”

The economic benefits that major slave-trading nations, including the United States, reaped for hundreds of years on the backs of unpaid labor could amount to tens of trillions of dollars, according to research on the commerce.

And in the U.S., African slaves and their children contributed to the building of the nation's most storied institutions, including the White House and Capitol, according to the White House Historical Association.

Yellen acknowledged the ongoing ramifications of that brutal past in her public remarks.

“In both Africa and the United States, even as we have made tremendous strides, we are still living with the brutal consequences of the trans-Atlantic slave trade,” she said.

In a guest book at the house, she wrote that it served as "an important reminder that the histories of Africa and America are intimately connected. While I am pained by its past, I am also heartened by the vibrant community I have seen here. I take from this place the importance of redoubling our commitment to fight for our shared principles and values of freedom and human rights wherever they are threatened — in Africa, in the United States, and around the world.”

Yellen's trip to the island is one that many dignitaries have made, including former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton and South Africa's Nelson Mandela. Today, Gorée Island is designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Yellen's stop there during a trip meant to revitalize U.S.-African economic relations is one that evoked the massive costs of the slave trade. There has been a resurgence in interest in determining the true cost of slavery on the generations impacted.

The House Financial Services Committee in recent years has studied how U.S. banks and insurance companies profited from the practice of slavery before it was outlawed in 1865. There have also been hearings on the study and development of reparations proposals in the United States.

In the AP interview, Yellen said the administration was “working in many ways in communities of color and low-income communities to try to bring more capital to advance lending and other things,” she said. “It’s a critically important goal.”

Source: Voice of America

President Cyril Ramaphosa offers his congratulations to the Matric Class of 2022 for outstanding individual and collective performances in the face of challenges arising from two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Senior Certificate results announced by Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga on 19 January 2023 highlighted numerous advances in the basic education system, including:

An overall pass rate of 80.1 percent;

An increase of just under 9 percent, compared to 2021, in the number of learners qualifying for Bachelor studies;

A 77.2 percent pass rate among candidates from no-fee schools;

A 91.5 percent pass rate in independent schools;

Nearly two-thirds of distinctions have been achieved by female candidates, as evidence of growing gender equity in education, and

A 10 percent increase in the number of female candidates obtaining Bachelor passes.

President Ramaphosa said: “The Class of 2022 deserves the congratulations and respect of the nation for rising above the challenges of COVID-19, loadshedding and a period of unrest.

“We must all work together to build a society where learners are not measured only by their resilience in testing times but where they can fulfil their potential in conducive conditions.

“The Class of 2022 has through its commendable performance made our future more hopeful; a future in which this generation of young South Africans will take our country to new heights.

“As much as we celebrate individual achievement, the Class of 2022 also constitutes a pass for our education system; it vindicates the extensive and unwavering investment we have made in education during nearly 30 years of freedom.

“We owe the achievements of 2022 to the diligence of learners alongside the commitment and support of teachers, who also endured the challenges of the year, as well as education officials.

“For the relatively small proportion of unsuccessful candidates, this is not the end of the road; you can pick yourself up and take advantage of a number of options that will empower you to continue your journey to success.”

Source: Government of South Africa

President Cyril Ramaphosa has congratulated the Matric Class of 2022 for outstanding individual and collective performances in the face of challenges arising from two years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga on Thursday announced that the Matric Class of 2022 has scored a remarkable 80.1% pass rate, which marks the second highest since 2019.

President Ramaphosa said that the Class of 2022 deserves the congratulations and respect of the nation for rising above the challenges of COVID-19, load shedding and a period of unrest.

“We must all work together to build a society where learners are not measured only by their resilience in testing times but where they can fulfil their potential in conducive conditions.

“The Class of 2022 has through its commendable performance made our future more hopeful; a future in which this generation of young South Africans will take our country to new heights.

“As much as we celebrate individual achievement, the Class of 2022 also constitutes a pass for our education system; it vindicates the extensive and unwavering investment we have made in education during nearly 30 years of freedom,” the President said.

President Ramaphosa said that the country owes the achievements of 2022 to the diligence of learners alongside the commitment and support of teachers, who also endured the challenges of the year, as well as education officials.

“For the relatively small proportion of unsuccessful candidates, this is not the end of the road; you can pick yourself up and take advantage of a number of options that will empower you to continue your journey to success,” he said.

The National Senior Certificate results announced highlighted numerous advances in the basic education system, including:

An increase of just under 9%, compared to 2021, in the number of learners qualifying for Bachelor studies;

A 77.2% pass rate among candidates from no-fee schools;

A 91.5% pass rate in independent schools;

Nearly two-thirds of distinctions have been achieved by female candidates, as evidence of growing gender equity in education, and

A 10% increase in the number of female candidates obtaining Bachelor passes.

Source: South African Government News Agency

DWS consults the public in Mpumalanga on the Draft Policy on Water and Sanitation Services provision on Privately Owned Land

The Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS) continues with its national public consultations on the Draft Policy on Water and Sanitation Services provision on Privately Owned Land. DWS will be engaging Mpumalanga stakeholders and affected parties from Monday, 23 January 2023 until Friday, 27 January 2023 as part of its national public consultations.

The department will be engaging stakeholders in Mbombela on 23 January, Ermelo on 25 January and Middelburg on 27 January to solicit input from interested parties.

The purpose of the national consultations is to solicit input on the Draft Policy from various stakeholders and individuals who have interests in the provision of water and sanitation services to privately owned land across the country.

Privately-owned land is a land that is not owned, controlled, or leased by the state. This may include commercial farms, mine owned land, churches owned land, trust properties, game parks, sectional or residential complexes among others.

The draft policy seeks to explore ways to redress the provision of water services to residents on privately owned land by ensuring that there is access to a safe and potable water supply and sanitation, supported by appropriate health and hygiene practices for the people living on those lands that are currently out of municipal distributing network, using water services intermediaries’ mechanisms as enshrined in the Water Services Act, 1997 (Act No. 108 of 1997).

The draft framework is a culmination of a 2017 judgment on the case of Mshengu vs uMsunduzi, uMshwathi local municipalities, uMgungundlovu District Municipality and others, and the Department of Water and Sanitation as the sixth respondent, where the court judgment stated that failure by the Water Services Authorities (WSA) to provide farm occupiers and labour tenants with access to basic sanitation, sufficient water, and collection of refuse was inconsistent with the constitution.

This necessitated the Department to revive the draft policy to provide a framework on how to deal with the provision of water services to people living on privately owned land.

The public consultations which commenced in December last year will span for a period of 60 days, and interested parties are also welcome to submit written comments to wspolicy@dws.gov.za(link sends e-mail) or jalisal@dws.gov.za(link sends e-mail) by the 17 February 2023.

Source: Government of South Africa

The memorial service for the National Assembly’s founding Speaker, Dr Frene Ginwala, is expected to be held at the Johannesburg City Hall on Tuesday next week.

The anti-Apartheid struggle stalwart and member of the Order of Luthuli – one of South Africa’s highest honours – passed away at the age of 90 last week, following a stroke.

Meanwhile, Parliament has sent its condolences to Ginwala’s family following her passing.

Parliament Spokesperson Moloto Mothapo hailed her contribution to South Africa’s transition from an Apartheid state to the democratic dispensation.

“Dr Ginwala was among revered, courageous and selfless revolutionaries who dedicated their entire life to the attainment of the free society we live in today. As a torchbearer of our post-apartheid Parliament, Dr Ginwala was exceptional and instrumental in the formation of one of the most acclaimed democracies and one of the best constitutions in the world.

“With her deep political experience, global perspective, razor-sharp mind and intellectual rigour, she was instrumental in the democratic transformation of Parliament consistent with the new constitutional order, which included new systems and rules of the National Assembly.

“Together with the first generation of presiding officers of Parliament and Members, and under her astute leadership, she transformed Parliament from a bastion of colonial and apartheid oppression to a truly democratic and people-centred Parliament,” Mothapo said.

Mothapo emphasised that Ginwala’s decade of service as speaker “laid a firm foundation for a democratic legislative sector and fostered the principles of non-sexism, non-racialism and equality”.

“With her firm, erudite and no-nonsense leadership of the first democratic National Assembly, Dr Ginwala established solid and enduring oversight, law-making and participatory systems which Parliament is still pursuing today.

“Parliament's Presiding Officers, National Assembly (NA) Speaker, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, and National Council of Provinces (NCOP) Chairperson, Amos Masondo, extend their heartfelt condolences to the Ginwala family, friends, comrades and the people of South Africa on this sad loss,” he said.

Source: South African Government News Agency