[1/28/26 UPDATE] Resources On The Scratch AI Situation

Instructions

Wow ok this was not the project I was planning on making as my first project in over 2 months over here but we're rolling with it ig!!!! If you're unaware of the situation going on right now or just want to be on the same page, then here's a summary of what's been happening these last few days. On January 22nd 2026, Scratch made a change to their Terms Of Service and Privacy Policy. There were several changes made, however the most prominent, and the one you've likely heard the most about, is the change regarding Generative AI ('Gen AI' or 'AI' as I'll refer to it). This change states that Scratch has the rights to use your projects and data for AI purposes, whether it be now or in the future. From what I'm able to gather, these exact purposes are related to the CLA (mentioned in one of the later links) and personalization, such as a potential algorithm feature. These are their current plans, however the TOS change still means that they're able to use our data for AI-related ventures down the line. As you've likely seen firsthand already, this has caused a MASSIVE uproar in the Scratch community, and for good reason too. Historically, whenever a platform or corporation announces that they have plans to implement AI features, it receives massive backlash. Generative AI is extremely harmful in several aspects, whether it be environmentally, psychologically, economically, what have you. It takes jobs away from people who need them. It harms the economy as we're seeing with the recent spike in RAM prices. It's caused mental and even physical harm to vulnerable people that were already going through hardships. It uses up an insane amount of water, which also harms us economically as it raises *OUR* water bills. I could go on and on, but you get the point and can do the research for yourself (which I urge you to do). Back to Scratch though. This has caused a great amount of agitation and panic, which in turn caused a lot of contradicting stories to be told. Some people are saying that your projects are being fed into a commercial AI image generator as we speak, meanwhile other people are saying that it's only the code being fed into AI (which is.. still not good and I feel like we're REALLY glossing over how this harms coders + it reminds me of how people tend to disregard the harm that Gen AI has towards musicians, but I digress), and that's not even to mention the fact that some people are having Scratch ask them for their state and a parental email while others aren't. It's a mess to figure out the truth and what's actually happening, something I can attest to myself. I have plans to make an essay on this situation (as expected for me and these type of situations), however I want to wait and see how things play out. Spreading misinformation in an already extremely chaotic and panicked situation is the absolute last thing I want to do, and it's only been a few days since the TOS change was made public. The changes won't go into effect until February 21st from what I understand, and I want to see how the upcoming boycott goes too. Also I really do not feel like cramming an entire essay in the span of 2 days again haha So in the meantime, I've decided to make a project to act as a sort of masterlist for resources on the situation. I have personally read through each of these links myself, and I would *highly* recommend you and anyone else to read through them yourself as to form your own opinion and understanding on what's happening. Comments will not be on for this project as I want it to serve as just a resource directory, however if you have any extra links you believe I should add, then please contact me on my hiatus alt. Just know though that I will not be adding projects that regurgitate things already stated here or provide provably false information, which is why I haven't included certain projects or posts here. I won't name the alt here as I'd prefer it not to get super big, but you can easily find it. [ RESOURCES ] DISCLAIMERS: - All links provided are here solely due to their researchable value and so everybody can try to get on the same page. They do not always reflect my personal opinions unless stated otherwise. - I am in the PST (GMT-8) timezone. Due to this, all dates are according to the such. * = Highly recommended reading Official ST / Scratch Articles & Posts: https://mitscratch.freshdesk.com/en/support/solutions/articles/4000219182-scratch-terms-of-service ^^^ TOS https://mitscratch.freshdesk.com/en/support/solutions/articles/4000219339-privacy-policy ^^^ Privacy Policy https://www.scratchfoundation.org/ai / * ^^^ Response to the backlash (Jan.24 2026) * ^^^ On adding AI Image Generation to Scratch (Aug.6 2024) [ CONT IN N&C ]