This is just my viewpoint on this, but there are some other projects explaining it well: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1269751874/ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1269859033/ https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1269935785/ In case you don't know, Scratch updated their Terms of Service yesterday, and required Scratchers under a certain age to verify their age or location and/or provide a parent's email in order to continue using the site (or at least all of the Scratch 3.0 pages, including projects, studios, the home page, and messages, but not including profiles, "my stuff," etc.). The age verification isn't necessarily a bad thing, as it's important for Scratch to be able to protect its users, and asking for a specific state is important because different states have different laws regarding children being on social media. It made me a little uncomfortable that it was asking me for a specific location and my parent's email, but I can see the reasons for doing it. This new pop-up also required everyone to click a checkbox saying that they have read and agreed to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Considering how long the ToS is, it makes sense that people didn't read through it all before clicking the box. However, as some people have pointed out, "User Content" can now be used to train AI models. For context, "User Content" includes anything we say or post on Scratch, including audio, art, text, and code. The ToS states that if we agree to the ToS (by just continuing to use the site), Scratch is allowed to use our Content for various things like marketing and (the concerning bit) AI training. In the past, adding a generative AI feature to Scratch has been proposed, although that has not been implemented due to complications, and I'm pretty sure the Scratch Team has stated they will not use it in the future. This change in the ToS does not mean that generative AI will be available in projects now. However, it DOES mean that they could maybe use our work to help AI "learn" in a way that we have no control over First of all, in case some of you aren't convinced, AI "art" is not something that should be used, especially not on places like Scratch where creativity is encouraged. On a commercial scale, using AI can take away actual jobs from real artists (or other creative jobs) that put effort into their work. AI can also be an issue in the sense that it is trained off of the work of those real artists, often without consent. People's art can be copied or plagiarized, and they won't be able to do anything about it. This is what can happen on Scratch. Any art or other content made on here could potentially be fed to AIs for training, and people's work can get copied or stolen. Not only that, but it shows the direction that Scratch is moving in, by supporting AI. Even if they don't implement it into projects directly, they are encouraging the continuation of AIs that can harm the livelihoods of real people. BUT The worst part, in my opinion, is the lack of consent. Sure, everyone's /technically/ agreeing that their art can be stolen by clicking that small box, but who would expect everyone to read through the whole ToS to find a few sentences about AI? And, once the ToS is agreed to, there's no way to opt out of AI training. In order to use the site AT ALL (besides profile comments), you have to agree to it. There's no way to be on Scratch and NOT let your work be stolen.
TLDR: Scratch Foundation now has the right to use any of our work, shared or unshared, in order to train AI models. By continuing to use Scratch (and therefore agreeing to their Terms of Service), you are letting your work be stolen and copied off of. This doesn't necessarily mean that it WILL happen, or that it will have an immediate impact on us, so it is probably okay to keep using Scratch. As pointed out here ( https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1270196442 ), overreacting only makes the situation worse. As for me, I will not be unsharing any of my current art at the moment, as I don't think unsharing will make a difference. I will still likely be active here, since Scratch is one of the few sites available on my school computer. Hopefully, the Scratch Foundation will change something after seeing the backlash from the community, and this will be temporary. I will probably not post as much, if any, art right now (there goes my plans of posting a massive sketch dump of all the hk art from this year). I do have another site I'm on, and might become more active there? It would take some adjustment, though. Please correct me if you think I said anything untrue or if you have more information on what exactly the new ToS means! I made a quick and somewhat low-effort pfp that I'm using right now in protest of the direction Scratch is going in. Hopefully, I won't have to use it for long. Click the space key to see it (I didn't want it to be the thumbnail, since I feel like that would make the project seem angrier than I meant it to be)
