Artists have finally had enough with Meta\u2019s predatory AI policies, but Meta\u2019s loss is Cara\u2019s gain. An artist-run, anti-AI social platform, Cara<\/a> has grown from 40,000 to 650,000 users within the last week, catapulting it to the top of the App Store charts.<\/p>\n Instagram is a necessity for many artists, who use the platform to promote their work and solicit paying clients. But Meta is using public posts to train its generative AI<\/a> systems, and only European users<\/a> can opt out, since they\u2019re protected by GDPR<\/a> laws. Generative AI has become so front-and-center on Meta\u2019s apps that artists reached their breaking point.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you put [AI] so much in their face, and then give them the option to opt out, but then increase the friction to opt out\u2026 I think that increases their anger level \u2014 like, okay now I\u2019ve really had enough,\u201d Jingna Zhang<\/a>, a renowned photographer and founder of Cara, told TechCrunch.<\/p>\n Cara, which has both a web and mobile app, is like a combination of Instagram and X, but built specifically for artists. On your profile, you can host a portfolio of work, but you can also post updates to your feed like any other microblogging site.<\/p>\n Zhang is perfectly positioned to helm an artist-centric social network, where they can post without the risk of becoming part of a training dataset for AI. Zhang has fought on behalf of artists, recently winning an appeal<\/a> in Luxembourg court over a painter who copied one of her photographs, which she shot for Harper\u2019s Bazaar Vietnam.<\/p>\n \u201cUsing a different medium was irrelevant. My work being \u2018available online\u2019 was irrelevant. Consent was necessary,\u201d Zhang wrote on X.<\/p>\n I won. I won my appeal.<\/p>\n The Luxembourg court has ruled that Jeff Dieschburg infringed upon my copyright when he used my work without consent.<\/p>\n Using a different medium was irrelevant. My work being ‘available online’ was irrelevant. Consent was necessary. 1\/ pic.twitter.com\/f9GrmUScCY<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Jingna Zhang @ cara.app\/zemotion (@zemotion) May 10, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n Zhang and three other artists are also suing Google<\/a> for allegedly using their copyrighted work to train Imagen, an AI image generator. She\u2019s also a plaintiff in a similar lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, DeviantArt and Runway AI.<\/p>\n \u201cWords can\u2019t describe how dehumanizing it is to see my name used 20,000+ times in MidJourney,\u201d she wrote in an Instagram post<\/a>. \u201cMy life\u2019s work and who I am\u2014reduced to meaningless fodder for a commercial image slot machine.\u201d<\/p>\n Artists are so resistant to AI because the training data behind many of these image generators includes their work without their consent<\/a>. These models amass such a large swath of artwork by scraping the internet for images, without regard for whether or not those images are copyrighted. It\u2019s a slap in the face for artists \u2013 not only are their jobs endangered by AI, but that same AI is often powered by their work.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen it comes to art, unfortunately, we just come from a fundamentally different perspective and point of view, because on the tech side, you have this strong history of open source, and people are just thinking like, well, you put it out there, so it\u2019s for people to use,\u201d Zhang said. \u201cFor artists, it\u2019s a part of ourselves and our identity. I would not want my best friend to make a manipulation of my work without asking me. There\u2019s a nuance to how we see things, but I don\u2019t think people understand that the art we do is not a product.\u201d<\/p>\n This commitment to protecting artists from copyright infringement extends to Cara, which partners with the University of Chicago\u2019s Glaze project<\/a>. By using Glaze, artists who post their work on Cara have an added layer of protection against being scraped for AI.<\/p>\n Other projects have also stepped up to defend artists. Spawning AI<\/a>, an artist-led company, has created an API that allows artists to remove their work<\/a> from popular datasets. But that opt-out only works if the companies that use those datasets honor artists\u2019 requests. So far, HuggingFace and Stability have agreed to respect Spawning\u2019s Do Not Train registry, but artists\u2019 work cannot be retroactively removed from models that have already been trained.<\/p>\n \u201cI think there is this clash between backgrounds and expectations on what we put on the internet,\u201d Zhang said. \u201cFor artists, we want to share our work with the world. We put it online, and we don\u2019t charge people to view this piece of work, but it doesn\u2019t mean that we give up our copyright, or any ownership of our work.\u201d<\/p>\n An avid Go player and fan, Zhang learned about the potential of AI eight years ago, when Google\u2019s AlphaGo<\/a> system defeated Lee Sedol, one of the best players in the world.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will never have the same experience as pre-AlphaGo,\u201d Zhang said. \u201cThe beauty and the mystery of Go was that you wanted to see how far and how interesting a human\u2019s play could be. Now, the highest achievement would be if you can defeat an AI.\u201d<\/p>\n But what\u2019s more depressing is that in a recent interview with Google, Sedol said that he might not have become a professional Go player if AlphaGo had existed in his youth.<\/p>\n In a blog post<\/a>, Zhang explained, \u201cLee Sedol made so much of Go history and was an icon of our time, a role model for me. So to see him say that if he were to choose again, he wouldn\u2019t become a pro\u2014because of AI. Words can\u2019t adequately describe how heartbroken I feel to hear this.\u201d<\/p>\n But because of Zhang\u2019s interest in Go, she had a head start in thinking about how AI would impact her career as an artist.<\/p>\n Cara isn\u2019t Zhang\u2019s first attempt at building an artist-friendly social network. But aside from the good timing, she thinks Cara has stood the best chance at longevity because she herself has grown as a founder. From managing an esports team to attending Stanford\u2019s Ignite program, she learned how to work in a group.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s experience and maturity. You get to learn from all of your previous experiences,\u201d she said. \u201cFor me, I was a national athlete for Singapore and then a photographer, and both times I have done really well in the specific fields I\u2019ve chosen, but they\u2019re very individually driven \u2014 you just have to be very, very good yourself. Let\u2019s say, my teamwork was not the best.\u201d<\/p>\n Now, Cara is having its breakthrough moment. But this explosion in popularity doesn\u2019t come without conflict.<\/p>\n Founded in late 2022, Cara is fully bootstrapped, and much of its engineering support comes from volunteers. Any company would struggle with an unexpected 1525% increase in users, let alone one that\u2019s operating with such a small team.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Zhang opened her email to find a horrible shock: her bill for using Vercel, a web hosting company, would cost $96,280 for the last week. After she posted on X<\/a> about the bill, Vercel\u2019s vice president of product Lee Robinson replied publicly, claiming that his team attempted to reach out ahead of time \u2013 but Zhang was so swamped by the platform\u2019s rapid growth that she missed Vercel\u2019s emails.<\/p>\n \u201cThe team and I are standing by, ready to work with you to ensure your app is running as efficiently as possible on our infra,\u201d Robinson wrote<\/a> to Zhang on X. But it\u2019s unclear how this issue will pan out, and if it could put Cara on life support.<\/p>\n Zhang told TechCrunch that she hasn\u2019t sought out venture funding because she doesn\u2019t want to have to answer to outside investors \u2013 and it can\u2019t be easy to find an angel investor who\u2019s committed to supporting the interests of artists.<\/p>\n The next few weeks could be make-or-break for Cara, but at least Zhang has a community of like-minded artists on her side.<\/p>\n \u201cBuilding a product is a bit like making art,\u201d she said. \u201cI think you just make something that you like as a person, and know not everyone will love it. But some people who have the same point of view, they would, and then you can grow your community from there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
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