*looks inside the official DeviantArt discord I'm part of* ru roh.

If you guys want the long and short of it, here ya go;

1: the automatic "Opt In" feature has nothing to do with "DreamUp". basically, AI generators have been using DeviantArt as a mine for its images without dA's permission. They have put an "opt in" option on all pictures on their site for these external AI sites. The setting is automatically set to "opt in" because that is literally the default as its always been. Automatic Opt-out is coming, they just need to tinker with it a little.

2: DreamUp is deviantArts Ai art generating program that only sources from deviantArt images that have the "opt in" feature turned on. However, the opt in feature is not directly tied to DreamUp in any way. DreamUp is just a new AI program that actually credits artists as its sources. It's a model dA has implemented to try and set a precedent as to how other AI art programs should work.

3: the people running the dA twitter are shit at communication and there are several mods crying in the discord because they TOLD THEM NOT TO WORD IT THIS WAY. and they ignored them and now there's a shit show.

the only reason I am not showing discord screenshots to back me up is because that is rude and the people in the channel did not consent to that sort of thing.

Reblogging to add;

You have ALWAYS been "opt in" to AI art generators... Without you or dA's permission.

dA is now giving you an option to turn it OFF.

But to put it as automatic off will take time to implement.

But that's that on that.

Do me a favour and reblog this post because as Pratchett said:

"a lie can run around the world before the truth can get its boots on"

and people LOVE to be outraged by things and believe everything is worse than it truly is.

I just saw the announcement post in the Deviantart site, and I got so confused because the post literally says they’re NOT using your art. People are freaking out everywhere, and it’s making me second guess myself.

Thank you for clarifying.

No worries.

The people on the discord were all very ??????? for a while there too.

Also I feel so bad for the mod who had very very VERY specifically told the PR team NOT to announce this this way because it would cause a shitstorm and who was going full Homestuck in the channel.

"I TOLD YOU ABOUT THE WORDING BRO. I TOLD YOU."

@velvety-vixen I actually specifically brought this up (I mentioned Qinni as she was my first thought) and they made an immediate note of it and are working on some way to address this. it was an important talking point in the discussion 👍 I brought it up very early when I was still fuming about this decision and a LOT of people echoed this concern, so I can promise it wasn't just hand-waved away and was taken as a serious concern.

I hope they DO find a way to automatically opt out deceased artists somehow as I imagine that would be tricky since it would have to involve verifying the account holder as truly deceased etc etc.

anyway my point is this was actually a point I myself was pretty emphatic about because I kept thinking about Qinni.