Backpack is special
Backpack is the first marketplace ever to not only compensate artists who participate in the marketplace, but also for any AI that’s generated based on their original work. In a world where AI generated content will soon surpass that of what any human has made over the past few hundred years, Backpack provides the solution to a really simple question: How can we, right now and in the future, co-exist synergistically with AI?
A generative AI model is only as good as its training data
We are currently facing a complete transformation in how art is generated. Text-to-image, text-to-video, text-to-3D, and many other prompt-based models have allowed people that don’t know how to physically generate art to do so with text and their imagination. This is beautiful. What’s less beautiful is that these generative AI models were built by training neural networks with millions of images, videos, and music that came from the labor of a skilled artist. Big companies like OpenAI trained their models on the work of hundreds of thousands of artists without their permission and then used the models for commercial purposes. Although the courts may rule in favor of ‘fair use’ because the generated art is not an exact copy of an original work and does not constitute ‘copyright infringement’, this does not mean we should forget about the labor it took for artists to produce the work that allows these models to be so good. A model is only as good as its training data.
Because of this, we don’t think it’s fair for an artist who spent hours honing their craft and their style to be used in the training data without any compensation. This is why we started Backpack. We are artists, we appreciate and love AI. But, we also see the harm it can cause. At Backpack, we believe that all artists whose work is used in AI should be compensated. We believe that art is precious and that it should not lose its value just because it's easier to produce, and we believe that humans and machines can co-exist synergistically. Backpack is a marketplace for art that is made of artists, by artists, for all.
So, how exactly does the Backpack ethical AI marketplace work?
Backpack is essentially a “stock” platform. This means that just like Shutterstock, Getty Images, Pixabay, Pexels, Unsplash, Adobe Stock, Videvo, or Videezy, when you download a digital asset, you can use it for commercial purposes. However, instead of ‘stock images’ or ‘stock footage’ we provide ‘stock 3D models’ and other 3D-adjacent assets. What makes us different is our philosophy, our values, and our structure. We are made by artists who care about artists. In fact, we thought that even though there will be a generative AI aspect to this marketplace, we are a marketplace first, and generative AI company second. We then thought, why stop at compensating artists for the generative AI derivatives? Let’s go a step further and compensate everyone for contributing to the marketplace and enriching it with beautiful assets that others can use. This means that if you have a certain amount of assets in the marketplace, a portion of the revenue the marketplace makes will be shared with you just because you are part of the community. Let us clarify, this means that you can make money by just having assets in the marketplace (yes, even if they don’t “sell”). This is unheard of. Nobody does this. Does Amazon give part of its revenue back to producers at the end of a quarter? Does Adobe Stock do this? No. Nobody does this, because big companies are greedy. We are not.
We are starting a revolution in how humans and AI interact. We are creating a financial structure that makes everyone happy: A consumer gets a generous commercial license for the high quality 3D assets in the marketplace and an artist (the producer) gets compensated fairly for 1) their original work when its sold, 2) any generative AI derivative when its sold, and, 3) unlike any other marketplace to ever exist, for participating in the marketplace.
Welcome to Backpack and welcome to the future of ethical AI art. Join the movement and tell all the artists you know.
