How artists can protect their work from AI | Dr. Heather Zheng | TEDxChicago

We are what we do — our identities are the sum of our knowledge, experiences and actions. In a world rapidly filled with AI generators, what does it take to protect our identity, and those of the generations to come? Heather Zheng, co-director of the SANDLAB at UChicago, presents bold ideas that empower individuals to restore control over their identity by changing how they share data online. Together with her partner, Ben Zhao, the two UChicago professors and their team have released Glaze and Nightshade, tools that disrupt generative AI from training on and mimicking artists without their consent.

Dr. Heather Zheng is the Neubauer Professor of Computer Science at University of Chicago and co-director of the SAND Lab (Security, Algorithms, Networking and Data) alongside Prof. Ben Y. Zhao. She received her PhD from University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to joining UChicago in 2017, she spent six years in industry labs (Bell-Labs and Microsoft Research Asia) and 12 years as a faculty at University of California, Santa Barbara.

Dr. Zheng was one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 in 2005, and her research on cognitive radios was featured by MIT Technology Review as one of the 10 Emerging Technologies in 2006. More recently, her work on protecting human creatives from unethical data exploration received the USENIX Internet Defense Prize, the Chicago Innovation Award, a special mention in TIME Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2023, and the Community Impact Award from the Concept Art Association in 2024.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx