Artificial Intelligence
Celebrated SA artist Blessing Ngobeni steps into the metaverse
Blessing Ngobeni, the world-renowned, multi-award-winning South African visual artist, has entered the metaverse with a ground-breaking collection that combines physical art pieces with non-fungible token (NFT) digital versions. This collection comprises eight art pieces that are available as pairs, with each set including a physical piece and a digital NFT.
Motivated by social injustices experienced by the majority of people in post-Apartheid South Africa, Ngobeni’s large-scale mixed media paintings are fiercely critical of the country’s political elite and the abuse of power. His exploration of NFTs follows the likes of Frank Miller, KAWS, Maylee Todd, LaTurbo Avedon, and Gary Vee, who have embraced the medium internationally, and Norman Catherine, who debuted his NFT collection in Africarare in 2021.
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The creative industries are fighting back against UK government proposals to let artificial intelligence companies use copyright-protected work without permission.
The latest protest is a silent album co-written by more than 1,000 musicians, including Kate Bush, and follows a statement signed by 48,000 creatives including Abba’s Björn Ulvaeus in which they warned of a “major, unjust threat” to artists’ livelihoods.
Artificial Intelligence
Kate Bush, New Order, & Damon Albarn Among 1,000 UK Artists Protesting Government’s AI Stance With A Silent Album
Last week, the UK government proposed a new policy that would allow tech companies to use copyrighted works to train their artificial intelligence algorithms. Under the proposal, artists and companies could opt out of having their material used for AI, but it would otherwise give the companies unfettered access to people’s creative work without having to license anything. The proposal has incited widespread anger in the UK’s arts communities, and now a team of 1,000 British musicians has released a silent protest album called Is This What We Want?
Writers, publishers, musicians, photographers, movie producers and newspapers have rejected the Labour government’s plan to create a copyright exemption to help artificial intelligence companies train their algorithms.
In a joint statement, bodies representing thousands of creatives dismissed the proposal made by ministers on Tuesday that would allow companies such as Open AI, Google and Meta to train their AI systems on published works unless their owners actively opt out.
