CARA and my thoughts on AI
A little bit ranty for a Monday morning...
Does anyone remember VERO?
Some years ago, there was an attempted mass exodus from Instagram by artists looking for a platform that was better for sharing images, in the days when we were bound by low resolution squares. Coupled with some healthy disillusionment with what is now Meta, we were crying out for somewhere to share work that gave a good sense of community.
VERO is apparently still going, though I and many others abandoned ship in the early days of its boom, due to concerns about the origins of the app, and privacy.
Instagram has had us all in shackles for such a long time. I think that many artists who spent years building a following feel it is impossible to leave, given that we rely on the platform for exposure - such as it is. I found almost all of my artist friends on there, connected with my agent and launched my shop (I have a similar toxic bind to Etsy, but that’s another story). It feels scary to abandon a source of your livelihood.
Meta seems determined to alienate artists, though, so if drowning in ads and other content and an unforgiving algorithm wasn’t enough, they are now sneaking through a clause that essentially will allow them to use our images to train their AI systems. You can argue about tech progress as much as you like, but there’s no ethical way to farm the images not just of your casual users but professionals who use your platform for work. Many artists including myself have already had their work scraped into AI datasets (as you can check for yourself here), which feels as horrible as finding your work slapped on a t-shirt by some scammy shop somewhere.
To find out that I will be subject to the same violation by an app that I have spent years contributing to just feels awful. There’s an opt out option, of course, and I was quick to do so, but its buggy, difficult to find, and whilst my complaint was upheld, Meta reserves the right to dismiss the request. The idea of people’s personal photos being used in the same way is dystopian.
To clarify my stance on AI, I am not against it as a concept. AI is revolutionary in many industries, and has the potential to advance us as a society. I mostly try to squash my feelings of impending doom brought on by the countless cautionary tales I have watched/read, because it doesn’t seem to stop anyone in power and I don’t have much say in the inexorable march of “progress”. HAVING SAID THAT: generative AI has appeared on the scene with absolutely ZERO USEFUL REGULATION. Sorry for the caps, but I am mad about it.
Without regulation, AI systems have allowed training of images without any regard for IP, copyright or even source tracing. And AI art is everywhere. We are drowning in it. Go to Pinterest and type in anything and you will see countless AI images of “artwork” before you see something created by hand. Friends send me AI art, saying “you’ll like this" and being completely unaware or unbothered that its built from stolen images. Self-publishing authors use AI for their covers, sometimes unwittingly including a scrap of an artists signature by mistake.
I’ve had the argument put to me about how artists copy to learn, or I myself use inspiration from other art and media in my work - but if the distinction between inspiration/influence and the use of someone else’s actual art to build your “new” art isn’t clear, then I can’t help on that one. Regulate AI to protect artists in the same way that we have copyright/fair use and I might get on board. I’ve seen some amazing things done.
This leads me to CARA, an app blowing up at the moment because it offers what we want. To sign up, you confirm you will not be sharing AI. It is an AI free platform. It has parameters for you to tailor your newsfeed. So far, no ads. Built in portfolios. We are optimistic, but its definitely a case of wait and see!
If you join, do come follow me under the name thistlemoon
Thanks for indulging my rant. I hope for a world where art is still treasured and valued!
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