A group that uses artificial intelligence to make sexual images was banned from the crowdfunding platforms Kickstarter and Patreon after receiving nearly $60,000 due to complaints from social media users.
Unstable Diffusion identifies itself as an online network of artists “committed to the creation and sharing of AI-generated NSFW”
Online organizations such as Stable Diffusion and Dance Diffusion promoted open source text-to-image generating systems, which are utilized by the group.
DALL-E, a system powered by artificial intelligence that generates digital graphics from word descriptions, dominated the internet in 2017.
“Unstable Diffusion is a group dedicated to spreading free and expressive AI usage, born from a grassroots community effort to reject the restrictive rules of corporate AI companies,” the group’s website states.
Unstable Diffusion has garnered a substantial fanbase on the social media application Discord.
Unstable Diffusion conducted a Kickstarter effort that raised over $56,000 last month.
However, the promotion was terminated after social media users criticized the suspected theft of copyrighted content.
The Patreon account for Unstable Diffusion, which generated approximately $2,500 each month from donations, was also closed.
The Post has reached out to Patreon for comment. A Kickstarter representative directed The Post to a blog post written by the company’s CEO.
Kickstarter CEO Everette Taylor wrote in a blog post, “Over the past few days, we’ve engaged our Community Advisory Council and read your feedback to us via our team and social media.”
“One thing is certain: Kickstarter must always be on the side of creative work and the people behind it. We’re here to promote the success of artistic endeavors.”
Taylor wrote, “This technology is extremely novel, and we do not have all the answers.”
“The decisions we make now may not be the ones we make in the future, so we would like this to be an ongoing dialogue with you all.”
Greg Rutkowski, the illustrator behind iconic franchises such as “Dungeons & Dragons” and “Magic: The Gathering,” was accused by Stable Diffusion users of theft.
The deployment of technology powered by artificial intelligence has sparked debate.
This week, the New York City Department of Education prohibited the usage of ChatGPT, an AI-powered “chat bot” that students allegedly used to cheat on exams.
»After raising nearly $60K on Kickstarter and Patreon, an AI porn organization was kicked off«