LogInWhile not against AI himself, Epic Games CEO disavowed AI developers who use art data without permission.
With Epic Games' acquisition of ArtStation, one of the biggest art-sharing and portfolio websites, the company got caught in the crossfire between AI adopters and AI haters, having to update ArtStation's Terms of Service in a way that wouldn't offend any of the sides, such as the recent introduction of the "NoAI" tag, which allows artists to mark whether they want their art to be used in AI training or not.
With ArtStation's position regarding generative AIs made clear, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney also spoke about the matter, saying that while he doesn't mind artificial intelligence in general, he is strongly against those AI developers that use art data without permission to train their models. Speaking with PC Gamer, Sweeney disavowed some AI companies for "scraping the web to find people's artwork" and using it for commercial purposes.
"They're scraping the web to find people's artwork and then using it, and not getting their explicit say-so on the thing," commented Sweeney. "And a company shouldn't do that sort of thing, right? Maybe that's in bounds for research, but when you're selling a commercial product that's used to generate commercial artwork, you shouldn't do that."
When asked about the company's take on the matter, the CEO noted that Epic Games' goal is to remain neutral and find a balance between protecting artists' work and letting creators engage with AI-powered technology.
"At Epic, we see ourselves as being on both sides," Sweeney told PC Gamer. "We're creatives ourselves. We have a lot of artists in the family. We're a tool company, too. We support a lot of game developers. Some of them will use AI, some of them will hate AI, and we want to be a trustable neutral intermediary that doesn't get in the way of industry development, but also isn't going off and hoovering up everybody's art data."
During the same interview, Sweeney also spoke about Epic Games' current plans and strategies, saying that the company remains committed to securing exclusivity deals for its Epic Games Store and announcing that developers can now self-publish their games on EGS.
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