# AI Art is Theft: Labour, Extraction, and Exploitation, Or, On the Dangers of Stochastic Pollocks

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.06178 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.06178/

## Key facts

- Cited by 13 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 9 of its 119 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 10 Jan 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 9 of 9)

- [Learning Transferable Visual Models From Natural Language Supervision](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.00020/) (2021)
- [Hierarchical Text-Conditional Image Generation with CLIP Latents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.06125/) (2022)
- [A Style-Based Generator Architecture for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.04948/) (2018)
- [Zero-Shot Text-to-Image Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.12092/) (2021)
- [LAION-5B: An open large-scale dataset for training next generation image-text models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.08402/) (2022)
- [Energy and Policy Considerations for Deep Learning in NLP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1906.02243/) (2019)
- [Extracting Training Data from Diffusion Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.13188/) (2023)
- [Estimating the Carbon Footprint of BLOOM, a 176B Parameter Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.02001/) (2022)
- [Into the LAIONs Den: Investigating Hate in Multimodal Datasets](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.03449/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 13 of 13)

- [AI Safety Should Prioritize the Future of Work](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.13959/) (2025)
- [From tools to thieves: Measuring and understanding public perceptions of AI through crowdsourced metaphors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.18045/) (2025)
- [Un-Straightening Generative AI: How Queer Artists Surface and Challenge the Normativity of Generative AI Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.09805/) (2025)
- [Synthetic Lyrics Detection Across Languages and Genres](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.15231/) (2024)
- [Expertise elevates AI usage: experimental evidence comparing laypeople and professional artists](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.12374/) (2025)
- [Generative AI Training and Copyright Law](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.15858/) (2025)
- ["Unlimited Realm of Exploration and Experimentation": Methods and Motivations of AI-Generated Sexual Content Creators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.21028/) (2026)
- [What Does 'Human-Centred AI' Mean?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.19960/) (2025)
- [What if AI systems weren't chatbots?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.07896/) (2026)
- [Kaleidoscope Gallery: Exploring Ethics and Generative AI Through Art](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.14758/) (2025)
- [Relative Principals, Pluralistic Alignment, and the Structural Value Alignment Problem](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.20805/) (2026)
- [If These Walls Could Talk: Critical Play with Large Language Models in Museums](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.15565/) (2026)
- [From Forensics to Ecosystems: Rethinking Watermarks for Generative AI Oversight](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.07337/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Since the launch of applications such as DALL-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion, generative artificial intelligence has been controversial as a tool for creating artwork. While some have presented longtermist worries about these technologies as harbingers of fully automated futures to come, more pressing is the impact of generative AI on creative labour in the present. Already, business leaders have begun replacing human artistic labour with AI-generated images. In response, the artistic community has launched a protest movement, which argues that AI image generation is a kind of theft. This paper analyzes, substantiates, and critiques these arguments, concluding that AI image generators involve an unethical kind of labour theft. If correct, many other AI applications also rely upon theft.