Artificial Intelligence and Quilts

The title of this week’s blog may confuse you just a bit.  I mean, as a whole, quilters are pretty “techy” people.  We can navigate websites, design software, Adobe, Photoshop, and a myriad of other computer programs.  On a personal level, we may use Word, live with an Alexi, consult Siri, and use navigation apps.  But AI?  Really?  Should quilters be wary of this kind-a-sorta-new technology or embrace it?  In all honesty, this isn’t a yes or no kind of question.  It’s more of a “Depends on the circumstances” sort of thing.  Let’s start first by defining exactly what AI is.

AI (artificial intelligence) is computer software that mimics how humans think, in order to perform such tasks as reasoning, learning, and analyzing information.  It allows a machine to display human-life capabilities such as planning and creativity.  Artificial Intelligence enables technical systems to perceive their environment, deal with what they perceive, solve problems and act to achieve a specific goal.  A machine with AI software can absorb hundreds of thousands of data bytes, sort them, and process them in all kinds of ways – much, much faster than humans can.  The goal for a machine with AI embedded in it is to recognize patterns, make decisions, and judge like humans.  Think you don’t already use AI in your life?  Think again.  Artificial Intelligence is already working in our taxi booking apps (such as Uber), voice assistance (such as Siri and Alexi), chatbots, Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, YouTube, personalized marketing, face recognition on some phones, social media algorithms, the texting section of your cell phone, fraud detection in banking, gaming platforms, navigation/GPS apps, fall and crash detection (often found on Apple watches), self-driving vehicles, speech recognition (found in the dictation part of your texting and memo apps on your cell phone as well as in many word processing programs), security software such as your Ring doorbell, email filtering, image generators, and weather prediction.  I’m sure I’ve missed some.  There are literally hundreds of applications/machines we use which employ AI. 

So how does AI work?  We’ve touched on it briefly.  A machine or software program which has AI can absorb the data thrown its way far faster than the smartest human ever could.  It may not know exactly what to do with this data, but it begins to sort it and store it.  Over time, when presented with an opportunity, it may helpfully suggest words or other things it thinks you need.  For instance, I live in Greensboro.  If I am entering shipping information on a website from my phone, as soon as I type Gree, AI automatically suggests filling in the rest of the blank with nsboro.  Binge watching YouTube?  Let’s say you’re looking up videos on the best way to bind a quilt.  After you’ve watched the first couple of videos, the AI in YouTube very helpfully suggests several more quilting videos, along with some videos by folks you may have watched in the past.  Artificial intelligence is eager to learn and remembers in perpetuity. 

On the whole, AI sounds like a useful tool.  I understand the fact that a machine or computer which has AI can make some folks uncomfortable.  The AI is trying to reason, plan, analyze and create – all very human characteristics.  They may be wary about an inanimate object becoming too human like.  While it’s great our word processing program wants to correct our spelling (jury is still out on the grammar thing – I’ve almost gotten in fights with Word over its bad grammar), is too much AI too much of a “good” thing when it comes to quilting?  First, let’s talk about exactly how “smart” artificial intelligence is.

It’s important to remember AI works from the data it can gather.  So to give AI a “test run” on how much data it had on quilts, I went online to DALL.E.  This is an AI image site.  You type in a prompt and AI will return a picture of what you request – at least what it thinks you requested. 

I gave it three chances.

The first quilt image I asked DALL.E to retrieve was a picture of a quilt made from 150 half-square triangles. 

Here’s DALLE’s result:

Not exact, but not too bad.

The second quilt image I requested was a New York Beauty.

DALL.E gave me this:

An interesting quilt for sure, but definitely not a New York Beauty.  And how does AI explain taxis and boats on the same thoroughfare? 

Finally – at least for this part of my experiment – I asked DALL.E to return a quilt designed by sherriquiltsalot.com.  I didn’t ask for Sherri Fields, because my blog and website are sherriquiltsalot.com.  I knew AI would mine what computer data was out there for that and there are certainly several years’ worth of blogs on WordPress.  After thinking for a while, DALL.E came up with this:

Gotta give credit where credit is due.  Those are my colors.  It has a pieced border and a floater.  Lots of clever piecing…but somebody…anybody… tell me my quilts aren’t quite that chaotic.  And there’s no applique, so there’s that little factor.

On a scale of one to ten, I’d give DALL.E a six.  Slightly above average, but needs work.

This part of my AI experiment was fun.  I got some laughs out of its attempt to come up with the quilt requested (you have to admit that DALL.E’s New York Beauty is something else).  However, what’s not so funny is this:  Remember AI is continually gathering data, sorting it, reasoning it out.  I plan to return to DALL.E in a month and request the same quilts to see if I get the same results.  If, in true AI fashion, it’s been gathering data, reasoning, and creating, I should get better results the second time.  We will definitely revisit and see.

What may not be so much fun – in fact it could be both scary and financially devastating – is if this AI begins to mimic quilt designers.  Quilt designers – the ones who make wonderful quilts and quilt patterns – put food on their table by selling their goods.  This usually includes their patterns. I did not request a quilt by Bonnie Hunter, Kim Diehl or any other well-known designer because I didn’t want to give DALL.E any more data than it already had.  Well-known designers already have enough information on their websites that the AI software could easily pick it up and design a quilt similar or just like the designers.

Which brings me to my next point.  When does this sort of AI infringe on copyrights?  Those of you who have read my blogs for years know I am fervently against copying patterns and giving those copies to your friends (go here https://sherriquiltsalot.com/2019/02/06/the-grumpy-quilter-or-copyright-policies-with-apologies-to-steve-bender/).  This robs designers of their well-earned money for designing all those beautiful patterns we like so much.  If AI can gather enough data on any designer to produce patterns identical to or pretty similar to existing quilt patterns, it has the potential of damaging the pattern market for both quilters and quilt designers.  I don’t know if AI can be charged with copyright infringement, but it does have the potential of making a huge, chaotic mess for the pattern market and the quilt designers’ well-being.  What, if any, do quilters and their quilting goods have to protect themselves from AI?

According to the Harvard Business Review, not much – at least right now.  The courts are still sorting things out.  Writers  Gil Appel, Juliana Neelbauer, and David A. Schweidel stated in the April 7, 2023 Harvard Business Review “Claims are already being litigated. In a case filed in late 2022, Andersen v. Stability AI et al., three artists formed a class to sue multiple generative AI platforms on the basis of the AI using their original works without license to train their AI in their styles, allowing users to generate works that may be insufficiently transformative from their existing, protected works, and, as a result, would be unauthorized derivative works. If a court finds that the AI’s works are unauthorized and derivative, substantial infringement penalties can apply.”

In other words, it may become possible for some big names (such as Getty Images, who has already started the ball rolling to protect themselves from AI), to force the courts to reach a decision concerning AI which would set precedence for smaller fish in the litigation sea like quilt designers.

This is it.  This is the dark side of the AI technology we need to be careful about.  However, like all technology – the internet, streaming entertainment, gaming – it is neutral.  AI in and of itself, is neither good nor bad.  It’s what people do with it that can make it inherently evil or inherently good. 

The good side to AI is that it is pretty creative.  If the quilts referenced above from DALL.E doesn’t prove it, let me tell you about the second part of my technology experiment.  I’ve been on a quest for an applique pattern with a cat ever since Felix was adopted.  I wanted a pattern with a black and white cat (he’s developed more white patches as he’s gotten older, so he’s no longer solid black) with some tulips and daisies.  I’ve searched but haven’t been able to find a pattern and had started drawing my own.  Just for giggles, I asked DALL.E to create an applique quilt of a black and white cat with daisies and tulips.  This is what it returned:

Not too bad.  It’s enough to give me inspiration to push forward with my quilt.  As much as I can determine, this is DALLE’s design and has not been pulled from other quilt designers.  Now, let me raise another question.  Let’s say I make this quilt and enter it in a quilt show.  Do I give DALL.E credit for the pattern?  I mean, the quilt isn’t completely all my work.  The pattern itself was imagined by AI.

See what a can of worms AI opens for quilters and other artists? 

This is definitely uncharted territory for quilters, artists, musicians, and product/software proprietary designers.  There are a lot of decisions which need to be made and not all of them legal.  There’s just as many ethical questions to be answered.  Again, technology in and of itself – including AI – is neither good nor bad. 

It’s what we do with it that matters.

Until Next Week, From My Studio too Yours,

Sherri and Felix

PS I did decide to ask DALL.E to create a Marie Webster design. Marie Webster was a well-known quilt designer in the 1930’s and her designs remain popular and the images of these quilts are all over the internet. Since Ms. Webster is deceased and her estate is no longer printing her patterns, I saw no harm in asking DALL.E to deliver one of her designs. This is what it returned:

Not exactly anywhere near a Marie Webster design. Again, I’ll check back with DALL.E in a month and see what happens.