well, here we are. you probably have heard of what's going on, it's been everywhere today. but if not, scratch updated their ToS recently, and with new online guidelines for minors, everyone was urged to read the new ToS. did i read it when i was asked? no. but, i had to go back and look through it when i found out that scratch can now use our projects to train ai models. is this a horrible mistake considering that creativity is what scratch stands for? yes. am i surprised they're doing this? no. ai is the future of technology. this is where the industry is heading, whether we like it or not. i think it is obvious that scratch is struggling. with merch, their new paid membership program, etc. with literally every corporation turning to ai, eventually good ol' scratchy's gotta hop on the bandwagon too. the platform is not how it used to be back when many of us joined, and will continue to change, probably for the worse. my request isn't for scratch to not use AI at all. they're going to, they want to, they've been interested in it for a long time now. my request is that all scratchers have the ability to choose whether or not their content is allowed to be used to train ai models or given to third parties for the same purpose. i am a very casual artist. i do not draw very often, and have no interest in art being a part of my future / career. however, i know many people who are passionate about their art, and many people want to pursue art as part of a career. so my heart goes out to anyone who is affected by this on a bigger scale than i. feel free to discuss this topic in the comments!! i'm interested in how yall are responding to this issue.
