Cri8ive leaves X

Starting from November 2024, Cri8ive will no longer be active on X (formerly Twitter). This choice was caused by X's new policy in terms of user-subitted contents and Artificial Intelligence training.

Why have I closed my X account?

The latest update to the site's Terms of Services reads as follows:

By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce, process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display, upload, download, and distribute such Content in any and all media or distribution methods now known or later developed, for any purpose. [...] This license [...] includes the right for us to (i) analyze text and other information you provide and to otherwise provide, promote, and improve the Services, including, for example, for use with and training of our machine learning and artificial intelligence models, whether generative or another type [...]

In a nutshell, X is claiming the exclusive right to reproduce, alter and edit all kinds of user-submitted contents, including the usage of said contents for the purpose of training its generative Artificial Intelligence. Users don't have access to any form of opt-out option, unless they remove all material posted on the platform prior to the enforcement of the new TOS on Nvember 15th, 2024.

You can find out more details about this matter and all the legal and ethical intricacies involved on Social Media Today.

As X users are automatically forced to accept the new terms of regulations, there was only one way out; removing all contents posted on the platform and permanently closing my account, much as I already did with Deviantart (where I have a now-inactive account with some older artworks that you may also find on the official Cri8ive Art profiles).

Cri8ive's stance against Artificial Intelligence

As stated on the homepage, Cri8ive does not use any kind of Artificial Intelligence in its projects. Likewise, I do not accept work requests pased on contents AI generated contents.

My main gripe regarding Artificial Intelligence - and particularly generative AI - is its current lack of ethical regulations. As it stands now, Artificial Intelligence exploits the work of creatives without giving credit where it's due, and without consent. These contents (images, texts and videos found online) are then modified inappropriately to match the user-generated prompts.

There are three ways in which Artificial Intelligence is harmful for creatives. For once, it exploits and alters copyright-protected material without attributing any ownership, thus infringing the current regulations in terms of copyright and trademark. Secondly, no fee or royalties are contributed to the original authors, representing a financial liability. Additionally, more and more people are relying on these mediocre, poorly-executed but free-of-charges outputs in stead of the paid work of ilustrators, graphic designers, artists and copywriters.

Obviously the problem does not lay with the technology itself, but rather with its ruthless abuse at the hand of developers. As long as AI is presented as a quick and free alternative to the work of professionals (whose labour is nonetheless exploited illicitly to generate "AI contents"), its use can not and will not be ethical.

A workaround that is currently being discussed is training AI exlcusively on copyright-free contents. Alternatively, there should be standard sets of parameters that take into account any eventual commercial licences such as CreativeCommons. In fact, this is the key difference between AI-generated contents and stock material used by softwares or platforms. Stock contents are distributed with speific licenses; creators are paid for their service and may choose whether or not to revert the rights. Where a license is present, credit is given to the original author. I feel this is the only way for AI to go before it can be ever used ethically.