idk how many people will see this project but i'm basically gonna explain what has changes about the scratch terms of service and why i am NOT a fan. so if you go to 'announcements' on the scratch discussion forum you an see a post explaining the changes to the scratch terms of service. i recommend you give it a read through yourself cuz theres a few other updates, but I'll be focusing on the AI in this project. here are some important parts ive copy pasted from the forum post: "We’re now exploring new AI-powered tools designed to support this community with even more ways of creating." "Occasionally, we may share anonymized and aggregated information with trusted partners to help us discover what helps you use Scratch better." And some more information from the link in the forum post: "As we begin to explore how we might use AI as a creative tool we’ve developed a set of “Guiding Stars” and “Lines in the Sand.”" The" guiding stars" thing is described as this: "Our “Guiding Stars” shape the design of AI features" "introducing generative AI tools for kids that amplify their creativity rather than replacing it. By centering young people’s decisions in how they engage with AI, we put kids in control every step of the way. " "Our use of AI will embrace human creativity, imagination, and connection, enabling young people to solve problems, design projects, and create new possibilities." and the "lines in the sand" is described as this: "boundaries we set for the responsible use of AI in Scratch" "developing our own strategies for guaranteeing that the tools we provide are safe and age-appropriate" " As we iteratively develop and refine new tools, we’re integrating feedback and ideas from young people and educators." anyways those are some important things i picked out. it might not sound too bad at first, like theyre gonna use AI to "support this community with even more ways of creating." and that the "use of AI will embrace human creativity, imagination, and connection" ... BUT WHAT???? AI shouldn't be something used to help people be creative and create things,and it certainly doesnt understand creativity, imagination and connection the same way humans do. the scratch team also put on their forum post that "We’re committed to being thoughtful and transparent as we make these changes." but I've been looking through all of the changes and from what I can see, it doesnt mention if the AI will need permission first to be trained on scratchers projects, which is the biggest concern of mine. They've said that "Occasionally, we may share anonymized and aggregated information with trusted partners", but it doesnt specify if they can only do this if given permission... it's possible that I've missed something so if I have and someone can clarify in the comments please do. Also, it might have been mentioned in the terms of service, but its all worded all complicated so I might just not understand lol. Anyways, if it DOES mean that AI can be trained on our projects even if we don't give permission...THATS NOT GOOD!!! Think of all of the game creators and the artists and animators and writers and every other type of scratcher who have worked hard on THEIR OWN using their OWN CREATIVITY AND KNOWLEDGE to make these things without AI. All of your hard work is going to be used to train an AI on how to make the same things, which takes away the creative and imaginative human aspect of expressing yourself through scratch projects. I know this might seem a bit random coming from a scratcher who only makes aesthetic projects (I do it cuz its more low maintennance than something like coding, as I have other stuff I'm busy with but I still wanna interact with the scratch community). But outside of scratch I am an artist. I've done GCSE art and am currently working on A level art, and I very much enjoy creating things. AI is definatley a threat to creators. Scratch has said that the use of AI will be optional, but people will most likely want to use it, meaning AI will undoubtedly make it's way into the creative scratch community. I honestly don't know why scratch have decided they want to impliment an AI since this entire website is for CREATING PROJECTS, the large majority of people who create things DO NOT LIKE AI. People need to learn things by themself, not get an AI to do everything for you. Getting things wrong and learning to adapt is a part of the learning process. I've already seen a lot of other scratchers deleting all of their projects as they're scared that it will be used to train this AI, which I totally understand. So, I am going to be leaving scratch and deleting most of my projects. Because I make aesthetic sets I'll leave up the ones that people have favorited cuz they might wanna stay on scratch. If you are gonna stay but are still against the AI, I reccommend changing your pfp to something anti AI and saying what you think in your profile description.
This was not written by me, it was written by @cosmiq-star who left scratch because of this! I agree with them, but i wont be leaving. RAISE AWARENESS SO SCRATCH REMOVES ITS AI!!!
