Ugh, AI is still being annoying
As AI elbows its way onto social media, what do artists do next?
These past few weeks, I've been actively trying not to write about AI. After over-consuming AI article after AI article to write my upcoming YA book, I needed to get some distance and think about other things - mostly the work. Drawing and writing.
But, AI insists on being everywhere at the moment, including invading the drawing and writing space on Instagram, where I spend a lot of time (probably too much time). I can't escape it.
So here we go. I'm writing about AI again. Buckle up.
I don't know exactly what happened in the last week or so on the gram - but I began to notice posts and stories from artists upset about Meta's AI scraping art from the platform....well, AI is scraping EVERYTHING you post on the internet in general, but for artists, the instagram posts are their livelihood (we'll put aside its insatiable hoovering of our faces and identities, our families' faces, for now). We all knew AI was scraping whatever we shared on the internet, but who's AI and where I guess was obfuscated by general Silicon Valley shadiness and so the conversation was "we don't like this, in general!"
And artists have been fighting for their work. Lawsuits abounded and the call for governments to regulate AI had begun a while ago.
But I guess what's new in the last week or so is that Meta recently let users know they could opt out of this mass scraping if they wish.
Ok great. What a considerate move from a massive tech corporation. So refreshing. Opt out please. How do I do that? Many artists shared helpful step by steps in their stories, however, depending on where you are in the world, the process seemed to vary. One thing seemed universal though - wherever you were, you had to brace yourself for a lot of steps.
So, feeling a bit cheeky I asked Meta's AI (that had suddenly and without warning replaced the search function on the gram), how exactly, as a Canadian, I can opt out of letting AI scrape my images. First, I got an answer that, while polite, amounted to - if you don't like it you can always leave.
Fair enough, I thought. But still, if I can opt out I would like to. Proceed with your helpful advice-giving, robot scraper. The AI provided me with a list of steps. Great. Until I dug in. Each step, while fine on the surface, quickly revealed itself to be non-specific and vague when I tried to act on it. I was required to sift through paragraphs and paragraphs of information to find the next step. It didn’t take long to find that the next step the bot suggested was not there. Dead end, I was on my own. And there were mountains of text to sift through - privacy policy and data management and bla bla bla. Maybe the bot was mistaken, but either way, opting out was, for me, a very difficult process and I still have not managed to find the "switch" the bot assured me exists.
Meanwhile, more and more artists on my gram were posting about leaving the platform and going to something called Cara. I'd never heard of Cara but a quick search tells me its anti-AI in so far as generative AI exists at this current moment. It's also helmed by artists, who created it FOR artists. That sounds great. But I do remember a year or so ago when everyone decided that Artfol was the place to be. I don’t remember the catalyst for the dissent at that time but I suspect it had to do with the grams' punishing algorithm. Spoiler: Artfol did not take off as I’d hoped. I made an account. I haven't returned. So with a healthy skepticism, I let the Cara posts pass me by.
And then some of the bigger artists I follow dropped their Cara profile images, sharing that they will be joining Cara, some of them abandoning the gram altogether. These are artists I admire and look up to, artists that inspire me and push me to be better just by virtue of sharing their amazing work. Where they go - I know I wanna be. Also, these artists carry followings of 100k people plus. These artists, announcing their departure, were signaling that they are willing to start from scratch on a platform, where, for the moment.... no one is. No casual viewers anyway. All to say no to surrendering their work to the whims of the tech industry.
And then the flood. Black square after black square. Fast and furious and in numbers i am genuinely shaken by. Is this happening? Are we actually making a go of a new space?
Rock and roll.
Yeah. People are over social media and algorithms - done with chasing likes and endlessly pumping out reels and performing for “lives” and posting posting posting posting posting all to reach 5% of followers. Is it any wonder people are fed up? After all, what's the upside to continuing in a space that DEMANDS your constant, tireless attention and upkeep, taking you away from the art itself, if you aren’t reaching anyone with that effort anyway?
But will I go to Cara? I've been very torn. While I take issue with Meta (and the rest of the tech barons) incessantly "moving fast and breaking things" and being oh so "disruptive" like a sugared-up toddler who's missed nap time, I don’t know that another platform is the answer I am looking for. The social media we've all grown up with....it’s not working like it used to. It feels like users are maturing beyond the internet they've been presented with and having thoughts about how their individual internet experience should be.
I do think regulation is long overdue, and I've said as much before. But I do think the law works slowly. So we could be waiting for regulations for a long time.
But while I wait, I will be sticking to what works for me - and doing my best to ignore the pressures of platforms. These are tools to use, to support my work. If they don’t do that any more, I’ll go to the ones that do. “Adapt or die” the tech bros sneer from the comment sections of AI critical posts. So, on that note….
I’m not leaving the gram, but I’ll see what Cara has to offer. Why not? After all, it may not have an audience, but it definitely has a community.
Doodle
The final piece I did for Mermay! Double trouble. There’s definitely a story brewing for these two.
What I’m Working On
Mermay is over! But I still am working the mini mermaid comic I started, so once that’s ready, I will share here first! Other than that, I’m hard at work making plans for June and all the content coming at you this month. June always feels like the start of summer for me, so be ready for sunny warm illustrations.
If you missed the first WIP Corner in the Authorstrator chat you can still check it out here! I’ll be hosting another one later in the month, so get your WIPs and updates ready!
Chapter Fifteen of Lava Cat Cruise Ship dropped on Friday! If you haven’t checked out the horror-comedy creature feature of my heart, you can start reading at chapter 1 here!
Also, Paid Subscribers have access to the downloadable ebooks for Lava Cat Cruise Ship AND Zombie Shark Highway, as well as exclusive behind the scenes posts like this most recent post about writing outlines, as well as digital downloads of select illustrations (summer phone wallpaper for paid subscribers is coming soon). Thank you so much for all your support!
What I’m Reading
As I was putting the finishing touches on this newsletter this morning, my inbox began filling up with some great posts that were related to the subject matter.
is on the creativity optimism train and I have to agree! Loved this post. discusses AI content and what audiences want. discusses Cara and leaving Instagram behind.And that’s it from me!
Til’ next time,
I feel sad for the people using these not as exploration or playing around but as a money printer. There will be a moment very very soon in which they will have the sour realization that whatever they do it doesnt belong to them.
If someone uses public domain art, anybody else can use it in the same way they did. And if they use stolen art well guess what? Anybody else can reuse it and print it, their rule.
This because the person that won that contest with the space opera drawing which is nothing but a Klimt opera painting (yes the circular door is there but way better) they were asked about the prompt they used, but they said thats their own because it took them so much time to do. But is not theirs, anybody can look into the promot and generate a similar idea, or just redo the one they did with their same image because its the game they are playing.
As an artist there is nothing worst that going at a canvas for hours and getting something you know you can do better.
As a prompter, there is nothing, they did nothing, just pulled the lever on a slotmachine. And if they pulled it for hours just so someone else grabbed their result and remixed it well, they end up with what yhey brought, nothing.
Brilliant Meghan. I don't venture onto Insta very often these days and haven't posted anything there since February. I've just buried myself in Substack and having fun writing and drawing and creating here and doing what I love, instead of what I think others might love, or even worse, what an algorithm might love. I'm completely and utterly fed up of the AI generated images that are spewing forth on Pinterest - they make me feel slightly nauseous - there's something always slightly off in them - too shiny and 'perfect', oddly distorted, too many fingers and toes, weird postures and odd angles when you look more closely.. I am not a working illustrator anymore (not that I was for very long anyway) so I don't worry about my livelihood, but I do hate the idea of my art being scraped for AI to butcher and distort and turn into something nightmarish..