The Atlantic [read free] – OpenAI has introduced a tool for artists to keep their images from training future AI programs. It may not make a difference. OpenAI is claiming to offer artists a way to prevent, or “opt out” of, their work being included among the millions of photos, paintings, and other images that AI programs like DALL-E 3 train on to eventually generate images of their own. But opting out is an onerous process, and may be too complex to meaningfully implement or enforce. The ability to withdraw one’s work might also be coming too late: Current AI models have already digested a massive amount of work, and even if a piece of art is kept away from future programs, it’s possible that current models will pass the data they’ve extracted from those images on to their successors. If opting out affords artists any protection, it might extend only to what they create from here on out; the work published online in all the time before 2023 could already be claimed by the machines.”