Jason Antic

The code is part of my art. If there was a code of honor in art where plagiarists and copycats are called out, - like for example in stand-up comedy - I would share more. But since even curators and critics in this field get constantly fooled by charlatans I choose obscurity.

Sure, that's fair. But ask yourself: why do you care so much about plagiarists and copycats? They're irrelevant. Everyone knows you made the work first, just like everyone knows @citnaj made deoldify.

Well, you kind of prove my point, since I would say that #CycleGAN and #pix2pix were paving the way for neural colorization. But sure, deoldify perfected the method.https://twitter.com/quasimondo/status/866572291710300160?s=20 …

That's how science is done. If there were no CycleGAN or pix2pix, deoldify wouldn't exist (or whatever it was built on). Just like your neural moviemaker wouldn't exist if you didn't build off their work. Maybe you feel bad you're building off others' work. Maybe you don't.

I'm not taking offense to what he's saying personally :) Truth is I probably get way too much credit just because I have an ok PR effort going on here somehow whereas these others less so...

The more that you build things that stay closed, the more that academics will see this, worry about this, and close off their own work. Artbreeder almost didn't exist due to licensing restrictions. They had to actively ignore StyleGAN's license. We're headed for a closed world.

The justifications for closing it up are bogus. I think it's more comfortable to believe "Someone might take my code and sell it!" or "My code is part of my art!" than "I'm worried this will help someone do it better, and then I'll feel less special."

I can tell you this much: MyHeritage definitely doesn't want me to open source the code we just sold them. I know that for sure.