As you browse our website if you see the @ symbol at the end of the pattern title it means @ Original Artwork created using a combination of AI-assisted tools and human editing/design.
AI (Artificial Intelligence) Art is here to stay, many Artists we know are now using it for concept art ideas, even Art Licensing companies are now licensing it. We absolutely understand all of the objections to it, we of course educated ourselves before we made the decision to use it. It will never be our main source of images.
Just a bit of background on our business first. We are a small Australian family business with 3 of us working on the designs. We have always legally sourced our images from various places, whether it is public domain Artworks and photographs, paid stock image websites or licensed Artwork or Photographs, we always credit the image source on the website and patterns. We very much respect our Artists and we pay them high, 50% royalties, we also never ask for exclusive use for images. We feel it is the Artists work and they should feel free to license to as many companies as they like. Because of our high royalties and low prices we need the other image sources to help pay the bills which is why we do not just license Artwork only, we would not survive as a business, we also want to give our customers a lot of different choices in regards to pattern variety.
There are 2 main objections to AI Art. The first being how the AI programs scraped billions of images off the internet to teach the programs to learn how to draw. AI does not "memorize" and replicate existing art in a digital collage. Instead, it operates through probability distributions, a mathematical concept that allows for the generation of new data without directly copying from its training. The images used in it's training was done without the permission of the image copyright holders and some companies and Artists are currently suing these AI companies as they believe this is copyright infringement, the makers of the AI programs consider it to be fair use and I would assume they would have sought legal advice before they created these programs. This is all new technology and no one knows what the outcome will be, we will leave it up to courts to decide, it would be great if Artists are some way compensated, to me personally, morally it should have been from the beginning an opt in situation where only the images from people who gave permission were used, but here we are.
The second main objection, which is what we personally vehemently object to, is using an Artists name in the prompts. I think it is just horrible that I can enter a prompt saying in the style of a particular Artist or even put one of their images into Midjourney and it will create an Artwork that looks like it may be done by that Artist. I think this should be banned from all AI Art programs, this is what will be most hurtful to individual Artists, especially if they have a unique style.
We have a paid license with Midjourney and Dall-E to use the images commercially and the main reason we decided to make our own AI images is because we can guarantee any image created by us in Midjourney and Dall-E do not use any modern day Artists names or images within our prompts. We will also not be licensing many AI images but if we do we will be looking for images that also do not resemble or use modern day artists works in their prompts.
We always want the majority of our designs to still be licensed Artwork from real Artists as we want to continue to support them and their livelihoods. We are mostly using Ai just for some of our images that we are looking for and cannot find suitable Artwork to license or if we want something different and unusual then we will create it ourselves. We are creating AI Art that is generic and does not resemble any particular Artists works. The images we create will ONLY be used in our cross stitch designs. It takes quite a bit of work in the program to create good prompts and Images and then quite a bit of time to tidy the images and patterns. We have been using Midjourney for years and in that time the images have improved dramatically. There will become a time were you will not be able to tell the difference, it is even hard on licensing websites now to tell if it is AI or just digital Art, if they do not specify.
Ai Art is not able to be copyrighted at this stage, however our patterns and the cross stitch mockup pictures of them are copyrighted to Artecy Cross Stitch. You may find similar designs but you should not see the exact same images or patterns elsewhere, for the AI images we have created, as we never display the original AI images anywhere, we only ever display the cross stitch mockups.
Our hope is that real Art will become more valued and appreciated. We believe AI is currently a novelty and it will take some time to figure it all out but true Art and AI can coexist just like hand designed cross stitch patterns versus computer generated patterns exist. We are sure when cross stitch designing software came out many Designers would have been frustrated and still are that software can create patterns much quicker than by hand, but I know of many Designers that still hand design but instead of graph paper they have embraced the software and use it as a tool to speed up and modernize their process just as some Artists are now using AI to create concept Art ideas which they then paint or draw with their own style.
We decided when we started using AI back in 2022 to be upfront that the images were created using AI, especially due to the objection by some who do not wish to buy or use AI patterns. We personally do not consider it to be theft in the copyright sense as AI images are new images, they are not duplicates or copies of current copyrighted Artwork. For copyright infringement to occur the AI Art must be substantial similar to a specific copyrighted work.
We have also created a separate category on the website so you can see at a glance which patterns were created from AI Art. You can find this category here or look for AI patterns in the categories list.
We are leaving it up to stitchers to decide if they wish to purchase or use it, which is why we always will say when we use Ai Art in a pattern in the description on the website and also on the pattern covers themselves. Patterns created from AI generated Art may not be for you and that is ok. Please understand though many customers are requesting these patterns and it is a great tool for us to be able to provide customers with specific patterns they are look for, you can easily avoid them on our website and continue to purchase patterns we create from real Artists to keep supporting them.
Warning - There are also some scammers taking advantage of stitchers and producing very bad quality images which they then just put into a cross stitch designing program with no editing and so they are making bad quality patterns for sale, or they ask the AI programs to make an image that looks like it is a finished cross stitch, they post this image on facebook saying they stitched it and when someone asks where they got the pattern they just send you a link to a dodgy website or tell you to send them a personal message, they are Phishing to trick you into revealing sensitive data or to download malware, using fake links or attachments that lead to fraudulent sites or install malicious software, ultimately aiming for identity theft, financial loss, or network access.
Bad quality patterns created from software have always been around but AI is making it easier for people trying to make a quick buck. Always purchase patterns from reputable sources, never buy patterns through facebook personal messages or click on links to websites you do not know, first search that companies name to make sure they are a legitimate business, look for finishes and reviews to see if their patterns turn out like their mockups.
Thanks and Best Wishes
Tereena
Artecy Cross Stitch
