Computer science professor at the University of Chicago, Ben Zhao, created Nightshade, a tool to help defend artists from copyright infringement from GenAI companies that are scanninging their existing artwork. Clever in name, the tool has been purposely named Nightshade for its poisonous origins, a plant that was historically used to poison kings and emperors. Zhao’s digital Nightshade offers a future for artists to reclaim the ownership of their work from the artificial intelligence programs who use them.