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Are Luddaites defending the English Wikipedia?

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By Svampesky and Adam Cuerden

In response to the increased prevalence of generative artificial intelligence, some editors of the English Wikipedia have introduced measures to reduce its use within the encyclopedia. Using images generated from text-to-image models on articles is often discouraged, unless the context specifically relates to artificial intelligence. A hardline Luddaite approach has not been adopted by all Wikipedians and AI-generated images are used in some articles in non-AI contexts.

Paintings in medical articles

The image guidelines generally restrict the use of images that are solely for decorative purposes, as they do not contribute meaningful information or aid the reader in understanding the topic. Despite this restriction, it appears that paintings are permitted to be included in medical articles to display human-made artistic interpretations of medical themes. They offer historical and cultural perspectives related to medical topics.

WikiProject AI Cleanup

See also: Wikipedia:WikiProject AI Cleanup/AI images in non-AI contexts

WikiProject AI Cleanup searches for AI-generated images and evaluates their suitability for an article. If any images are deemed inappropriate, they may be removed to ensure that only relevant and suitable images are kept in articles.

  • Removed from Spicy Fifty, due to a "distracting error" (probably the weird pepper that floats and seems to clip the glass).
    Removed from Spicy Fifty, due to a "distracting error" (probably the weird pepper that floats and seems to clip the glass).
  • Removed from Shrinkage (accounting) as a real-life alternative could be used instead.
    Removed from Shrinkage (accounting) as a real-life alternative could be used instead.
  • Removed from Kemonā for being unnecessarily explicit.
    Removed from Kemonā for being unnecessarily explicit.
  • Removed from Pastoral science fiction for adding nothing and barely resembling a landscape.
    Removed from Pastoral science fiction for adding nothing and barely resembling a landscape.
  • Removed from Darul Uloom Deoband for bad anatomy and risk of being mistaken for a contemporary work (the college was founded in 1866).
    Removed from Darul Uloom Deoband for bad anatomy and risk of being mistaken for a contemporary work (the college was founded in 1866).
  • Removed from The Moon is made of green cheese because a historical illustration was already used in the article.
    Removed from The Moon is made of green cheese because a historical illustration was already used in the article.

Perhaps the removed "scientific" images are the worst ones, however, even if they only affected one article, Chemotactic drug-targeting:

  • This is supposedly an amoeba moving; it looks more like a sperm cell, if anything. Amoeboid movement and a flagellum are fundamentally different movement techniques, and this looks much more like the latter. Prompt apparently was "an ameba moving toward a food source through the process of chemotaxis". Chemotaxis is movement in response to chemicals in the surrounding environment and needs a lot more creativity to illustrate.
    This is supposedly an amoeba moving; it looks more like a sperm cell, if anything. Amoeboid movement and a flagellum are fundamentally different movement techniques, and this looks much more like the latter. Prompt apparently was "an ameba moving toward a food source through the process of chemotaxis". Chemotaxis is movement in response to chemicals in the surrounding environment and needs a lot more creativity to illustrate.
  • This image inaccurately shows a red tumour on a cell. Cancer cells don't get cancerous tumours on them, they form tumours in aggregate. This is probably based on a cross between a tumour and images of T lymphocytes attacking cancerous cells, but the combination created nonsense. The prompt was apparently a "cancer cell and its abnormal growth", but that's not meant to be growths on the cell itself.
    This image inaccurately shows a red tumour on a cell. Cancer cells don't get cancerous tumours on them, they form tumours in aggregate. This is probably based on a cross between a tumour and images of T lymphocytes attacking cancerous cells, but the combination created nonsense. The prompt was apparently a "cancer cell and its abnormal growth", but that's not meant to be growths on the cell itself.
  • Supposedly leukocytes, but leukocytes aren't crystal orbs with vaguely red-blood cell shapes around and inside them. This one is more subtly wrong (it knows there should be something inside, and there's usually some red blood cells mixed in with them in photos...), which arguably makes it more insidious. This just isn't as blatantly bad, making it easier to mistake it as a real image.
    Supposedly leukocytes, but leukocytes aren't crystal orbs with vaguely red-blood cell shapes around and inside them. This one is more subtly wrong (it knows there should be something inside, and there's usually some red blood cells mixed in with them in photos...), which arguably makes it more insidious. This just isn't as blatantly bad, making it easier to mistake it as a real image.

It may also be worth considering what kind of AI art is being left in articles by the WikiProject:

  • Advertisement for "Willy's Chocolate Experience", a disastrous event in Glasgow, Scotland that used AI for all its promotional material. Without cropping out the fake words. A pasadise of sweet teats, indeed!
    Advertisement for "Willy's Chocolate Experience", a disastrous event in Glasgow, Scotland that used AI for all its promotional material. Without cropping out the fake words. A pasadise of sweet teats, indeed!
  • These somewhat deformed buildings are apparently typical of ways the meme/hoax country of Listenbourg was depicted using... well, AI images.
    These somewhat deformed buildings are apparently typical of ways the meme/hoax country of Listenbourg was depicted using... well, AI images.

AI-generated images on Wikipedia articles in non-AI contexts

Note: The following section is accurate as of the day before publication.

Policies vary between different language versions of Wikipedia. Differences in opinion among Wikipedians have resulted in the inclusion of text-to-image model-generated images on several Wikipedias, including the English Wikipedia. Many Wikipedias use Wikidata to automatically display images, which takes place beyond the scope of local projects.

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Well, I liked the Lincoln/Anachronism image. Other than that I didn't see 1 AI image here that I liked or would have found useful in any encyclopedia. Smallbones(smalltalk) 21:16, 26 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like there's a disagreement to whether the image should be included at Twin paradox. ☆ Bri (talk) 21:38, 26 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

3 No discussion of diffusion engine-created images is complete without noting that the companies that own and control such programs rest their software on a foundation of unpaid labor: the unlicensed use of artists' creative work for training the software. The historical Luddites were smeared as technophobes as a way to deflect their concerns about labor expropriation by a wealthy class who held the means of production, and at least this 'Luddaite' thinks we as a project should stay far away from these images when there are still all too many unresolved issues around labor and licensing underlying much of the software involved. Hydrangeans (she/her | talk | edits) 22:25, 26 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Personally, I think the Willy's Chocolate Experience one is the only one that clearly belongs here, since part of that fiasco was that it used AI art and AI scripts for pretty much everything it did. Listenbourg seems to be an attempt to use AI to generate things similar to things seen elsewhere on the internet that were generated by AI, which feels a step too far, and the rest... I mean, there's moral reasons to object to AI, but perhaps a more convincing argument on Wikipedia is a variant of the problem with the scientific images I lambasted: It gives the illusion that thought was put into it. For example, does the illustration for Dagon really illustrate that short story? No, it doesn't illustrate anything that happens in it. Does the AI image of John F. Kennedy actually add anything? And so on. I'd rather have an illustration by a Wikipedian where we can presume that each element is at least using what the user knows about the subject, not just an attempt to generate an image. Adam Cuerden (talk)Has about 8.9% of all FPs. 00:43, 27 September 2024 (UTC)[reply]
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