Have I Been Trained? AI database search tool
admin
A tool where "artists can search these databases for links to their work and flag them for removal."
It's also a neat related-image inspiration resource; you can find other artists' work similar to yours, or to a piece you like.
Searching a piece from the 2020 Waywo:
They don't save any of the uploaded art, which is nice. I did notice however that it wouldn't work with the VPN I use.
Anyhow, is your stuff in here?
Replies
Can you vouch for this website and the people behind it?
A quick search reveals the registras of that website are hiding behind a mailbox location in the UK.
11 entries at the given registrars address (according to companieshousedata.co.uk) have gotten an Active - Proposal to Strike off*
17 companies are registered or "operating" at the address.
*
An active proposal to strike off means that the companies house branch of the government has received or formed a petition to have the companies' name and legal rights removed or “struck off” from the register of said companies house, essentially dissolving the company in its entirety.
https://who.is/whois/haveibeentrained.com
https://www.mailboxuk.com/contact
https://www.companieshousedata.co.uk/a/2896214
Don't know anything beyond what's on their about page, with a quick glance through the first person's Twitter posts. They seem legit enough there.
Not sure about the address being all that important. Most websites are run by individuals, and many don't want their home address and phone in the registrar lookup so paying a bit extra for the privacy. Sounds like what this is?
According to this Guardian article the search engine was set up by "Berlin-based artists Mat Dryhurst and Holly Herndon".
On the register page there is a link to https://spawning.ai/About and ther
> More questions?
> Feel free to hit up Spawning collaborators matdryhurst, hollyherndon, jordancmeyer or ExquisiteCorps5 on Twitter.
> If good questions are raised we will add them to the Q&A on this site.
with an according link to their twitter accounts.. (doesn't work with my badly inserted text here.. ).
So it matches @thomasp's findings.
Thanks to both of you!
Due to past bullshittery from some infamous tech-bro groups, I might be over cautious but tend to find stuff which is often overlooked;
Two additional things, the current company(AI- company) behind the website is situated in the US at this Address;
Spawning, Inc 5503 Oliver Ave South Minneapolis, MN 55419
Now lets use the info from the linked article from the Guardian which says the initiators are "Berlin-Based".
In German internet law it is mandatory to have an imprint/about page for all commercial websites operated by a German person or organization, even if the website is hosted in another country or has a .com domain. For personal, non-commercial websites such an imprint may not be needed.
For Website registrations you can as a German/Eu member hide the public viewable registration data with the usage of GDPR. I will use the GDPR again below for the last point about privacy breaches from this site.
To give another German based example; the Laion.ai organisation (one of those big AI data bases) https://laion.ai/impressum/ is based in Hamburg and they have an impressum even thou they are "non-profit".
Last point, the website haveibeentrained.com is using embedded webfonts from google servers, that in itself is also in violation to GDPR laws, so privacy according to EU laws is not guaranteed.
Thats where I now rest my case of doing research on this topic and site and wish to see either some needed correction from those "Berlin-Based" people or a better alternative to that initiative which respects the privacy of visitors in all cases.