Hello. If you know me, you know that I’m a semi-popular artist and creator on scratch. If you don’t know me, my name is Quills; I’ve been scratching since my early elementary days. This iconic account? yeah, it’s not the first. I have been here for years. Years that I have spent loving and enjoying my life on this site. While my popularity was granted by my silly little wolf comic, I learnt there is still so much that the community has to offer itself. It wasn’t just a coding website; it was a place to share stories, and grow as an artist. Different communities that made parts of a whole. It felt safe for both myself and for others; I liked scratch because of the secluded environment that was offered by the people who made it safe. But now it’s growing more and more obvious that the site is going downhill. The problems that arise are being fixed sloppily and of course, continue on. When was the last time we saw top loved? Two- or maybe three months ago? This is not the scratch that I grew up with. Over the times, it’s changed vastly. And while you could say that I may be blinded by childhood nostalgia; I say this loud and clear. Scratch is turning anyone in here from individual people to clogs in the corporate machine that is artificial intelligence. What is artificial intelligence, you may ask? I’m not going to baby you about it. And I’m not giving you the definition of it exactly. All you need to know is that AI is a thief. And the terms of service that all scratchers were forced to sign if they wanted to continue using scratch had one statement that made me sick. We would be voluntarily allowing our work to be signed off into the world of AI. Don’t believe me? Please, look here. https://mitscratch.freshdesk.com/en/support/solutions/articles/4000219182-scratch-terms-of-service As a popular scratch creator; I take my job to follow the rules as best as I can. I am an example, and I know that with that responsibility, my voice itself has power. So listen to me well. These policies are not optional; it was forced if anyone wanted to continue using scratch, and it was declared in the t.o.s. that we would be agreeing to have our code, etc. marked and used for AI training. This does not inspire creativity. Let me be clear right now. I am not supportive or even remotely interested in AI. It is destroying our environment and it makes me upset. Furious, to an extent. It drains our oceans. It melts the icecaps. It causes irreversible damage to our ecosystem and our earth; I have seen families having to boil their water because a data center was built right besides their town. I have seen reports that the Great Barrier reef is bleaching increasingly quickly and we may not have many years to enjoy the splendor. Icecaps melting faster. And so much suffering. And for what? So we can create stupid videos of dogs spitting out water like a hose? So we can get an easy A on our assignments? We are human, and human things are being taken away from us, right now, because of a policy that most kids *on this site* (intended for kids as young as 8 years old if we aren’t counting Scratch.jr) can’t read. So now, our art is all at risk. I am.. particularly fearful of my own art being used to feed this violent machine- and we can’t do anything else about it. And I’m not staying silent about this issue- but I have to make my choice now- although it’s one I’m sick just trying to think about. Many scratchers are voluntarily leaving scratch and removing their works- and normally, I would join them. But here’s the thing. It’s no secret that I desperately want to leave this site. Willow Walkers has been around for over four years now; and I’m ready to see it reach its end. My plan was staying on this site until I finish the comic, and after a lot of thinking, I am still staying true to my original choice. Use the Willow Walkers artstyle for the machine, I really don’t care. Well, maybe I do, but clearly, just like ANY OTHER CORPORATE SLOP COMPANY, you won’t ever listen to what you community has to say about updates that I KNOW the old team would despise. You’re bleeding ink through the pages, and it doesn’t take much more than a second to see that your priorities were never about protecting the user. I have left. So many sites. Just wanting to protect my art from AI. And I’m glad I was already preparing for leave because now I have a plan. To reduce my art being fed into AI, any project that is not WW related will be deleted (unless it is for an active rp; it will begrudgingly be left standing for rp purposes.) I am not contributing to this site anymore than I was planning to. WW is only being continued here because I feel I have a duty to complete it in a space where the audience can still reach it; not everyone has the privilege and freedom of jumping ship. But the moment it’s over— I’m done. We’re done. And I would encourage anyone to start doing the same. Protect your art and keep your works private, somehow. +
Do not let them think that we will be complicit to policies that we had no choice but to agree to. It’s practically a crime to include no option to avoid ai training; especially on a children’s website. Get loud. Get mad. Make sure they know that in a second, they will lose their reputation because they are making bad choices. Show that we will not back down and let it fade away. AI is shortening out lifespans. AI is killing our Earth. Our home. And I have never wanted to contribute to the growth of the stupid thing. Never. But the more we try to make AI feel like a good thing, and the more it is regularized- the more we push ourselves into a deeper environmental and political hole. I have been using AI on my school assignments not because I want to cheat; it’s a part of the assignments itself. People are being lied to about the change that AI is making. Its splash in the world is only leaving devastation. …Scratch, I really thought you were going to be better than this. Turns out that once again, I have to be proven wrong. Well, that’s all. Tldr I’m staying for only WW and deleting anything else that I currently don’t need. Thanks for reading this long, if you cared to do so. See you for chapter 59. Bye. -Quills, the lemon queen Edit: yes. I am aware that gen ai is not the ai they plan to use here. I was influenced by the misinformation- but the fact is; it is still ai. It is still taking away tasks that humans can do. We are helping nothing.
