Jun 07, 2024 19:00:00

Anti-AI platform Cara sees 17-fold increase in user numbers in one week in response to Meta’s AI policies

Cara , a platform founded primarily by artists in reaction to Meta's initiative to use content as material for AI training, has seen its user base increase 17.5-fold, from 40,000 to 700,000, in the past week.

A social app for creatives, Cara grew from 40k to 650k users in a week because artists are fed up with Meta's AI policies | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2024/06/06/a-social-app-for-creatives-cara-grew-from-40k-to-650k-users-in-a-week-because-artists-are-fed-up-with-metas-ai-policies/

Cara is a site that describes itself as a 'social and portfolio platform for artists' and was founded at the end of 2022. One of the central figures is artist

Jingna Zhang , who filed a lawsuit in Luxembourg over a painting that was similar to her photographic work and won the second trial.

Photographer wins lawsuit over inverted painting that won an exhibition - GIGAZINE

The reason Zhang founded Cara comes as platform companies are increasingly amending their terms of service to allow posted content to be used to train AI.

Google announces that it will scrape everything published online for AI purposes - GIGAZINE

The terms and conditions state that X's data will be used for training AI development, and Elon Musk also comments - GIGAZINE

In an interview with the news site TechCrunch, Zhang pointed out that artists and technology (the side used for training) have completely different views on artists' work. 'On the technology side, because of the history of open source, I think people think that 'once something is out in the world, people can use it,'' he said, adding, 'For artists, their work is part of themselves and their identity. Even if it's their best friend, they don't want their work to be altered without permission. Even if there are slight differences in how we perceive things, I don't think people understand that our art is not a product.'

'I can't even begin to explain how dehumanizing it is to see my name used over 20,000 times on Midjourney,' Zhang wrote in an Instagram post. 'I just want consent for how my image and likeness are used. I just want copyright and creators to be respected.'

Zhang's Cara includes Glaze, a feature he developed in collaboration with the University of Chicago that protects content from AI training. Glaze adds a layer of protection to your work, protecting it from AI training.

'Glaze', a tool that makes invisible changes to original art to prevent AI from learning it, is released - GIGAZINE

One of the most recent factors behind the increase in Cara's user base is thought to be changes to the privacy policy that Meta is planning to make to its European operations .

Meta has revealed that it uses publicly posted content on Facebook and Instagram to train Meta AI , which was announced in September 2023.

In most European countries and regions, the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requires users' consent to the collection and retention of personal data. However, according to noyb, a non-profit organization that protects privacy, Meta has revised its privacy policy to use European users' content for AI training by June 26, 2024, unless users clearly opt out by indicating that they will not use their content for AI training.

noyb has raised concerns that once content is imported as training data, there is no way for users to delete it, and has called on EU authorities to intervene.

noyb urges 11 DPAs to immediately stop Meta's abuse of personal data for AI
https://noyb.eu/en/noyb-urges-11-dpas-immediately-stop-metas-abuse-personal-data-ai

Cara, which has seen a huge surge in users, is facing huge bills due to unexpected traffic. Zhang reports that spammers and bots are also coming in among users, making the situation very difficult.