World-leading photographers are boycotting social media to protect their work from AI

Since the emergence of AI generators, there have been more and more instances of artists' work being stolen, manipulated without consent, and used to train AI. This would be an illegal act if done by a human, but becomes a gray area when it comes to AI – not in the sense of morality, but rather due to the lack of legislation for actively monitoring AI scraping.

If you use any of the social media platforms that are frequented by photographers to display their work, you may be inadvertently allowing those platforms to scrape your content for AI training. Or, unfortunately and more likely, your images could be used by independent AI programs that are scraping all images online illegally.

To combat this, a new app named Overlai has been designed "to safeguard the integrity of visual content in an age of advancing AI technology" – and it has been backed by some of the best photographers in the world.

Essentially the app, which is also available as an Adobe plug-in, enables users to upload their images where they are then issued with C2PA and IPTC assertions and creator credentials.

I was made aware of this app through the Instagram of Paul Nicklen, a world-renowned wildlife and adventure photographer, who wrote a post explaining the importance of securing your work online before taking part in 'The Whiteout'. By my understanding, 'The Whiteout' is taking place on social media where many photographers are taking a stand against AI scraping and are boycotting the platforms.

Nicklen's post states the following: 

"Why I am supporting 'The Whiteout' strike and using Overlai:

My life’s work as a photographer is currently being used without consent by companies like OpenAI and Runway to train AI models, violating copyright and privacy laws. I am not willing to just hand over the last 30 years of hard work so giants can make an even bigger profit.

Overlai addresses this by protecting our work with C2PA and IPTC assertions and creator credentials.

I’m pausing my social media posting activity indefinitely to support this cause.

If you want to join me and participate in the social media strike, please head to the link in my bio or story to download “The Whiteout” reel and be part of #TheHumanMovement.

@overlai.app is coming to the App Store this month and it will be 100% free for “The Whiteout” strike participants and those who sign up for early access.

#IamNotAI #Overlai #ProtectedbyOverlai "

I think it should be noted that Nicklen is a co-founder of the app, but that does not take away from the work Overlai is trying to do. He is also one of many photographers taking part with others including Cristina Mittermeier, Pie Aerts, Daniel Kordan and Daisy Gilardini.

Nicklen has mentioned how Overlai intends to protect imagery by adding C2PA and IPTC assertions and creator credentials to your work, protecting them from AI use.

It states on the Overlai website that, "Overlai is an AI digital asset protection app and Adobe Plugin, that ensures the privacy of your media before you upload them to social media & anywhere online. Our app combines Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), decentralized storage and advanced watermarks to protect your photos from being stolen and added to AI datasets".

The Overlai app will be available for free from the App Store and Google Play later this month, and early access is available now via the Overlai website.

Greater protection of artwork is needed in today's age, and Overlai is certainly trying to play a part in fixing the issue. Only recently did I find out that my website platform Squarespace had turned on AI scraping as a default after a recent update. 

I know many creators who use this platform and were unaware of this action which ultimately enabled Squarespace to use AI training on their images and hid it in an update. Thankfully it can be turned off, but it's a lesson in being vigilant when accepting new terms and conditions!