If this is a danger from "snake oil" of this type, it'd be from the other side, where artists are intentionally tricked into believing that tools like this mean that AI isn't or won't be a threat to their copyrights in order to get them to stop opposing it so strongly, when in fact the tool does nothing to prevent their copyrights from being violated.
I don't think that's the intention of Nightshade, but I wouldn't put past someone to try it.
There's an academic paper being published.
Snake oil for the sake of getting published is a very real problem that does exist.
Religion is also deceptive and snake-oil even if it does not involve profit driven motivations.
Re:Nightshade v1.0 Released
by NoahKAndrews on Sunday January 21, 2024 @05:40PM
(#39083832)
It very often does involve such motivations, though I agree with your larger point.
This tool is free, and as far as I can tell it runs locally. If you're not selling anything, and there's no profit motive, then I don't think you can reasonably call it "snake oil".
At worst, it's a waste of time. But nobody's being deceived into purchasing it.