“We’re not going to be introducing any generative AI into our products.”
Clear Cut
Acclaimed iPad digital painting app Procreate is declining to incorporate generative AI into its platform — and its CEO isn’t mincing words.
“I fucking hate generative AI,” Procreate CEO James Cuda said in a brief company video, posted yesterday to Procreate’s official X-formerly-Twitter account.
“I don’t like what’s happening in the industry, and I don’t like what it’s doing to artists,” Cuda continued. “We’re not going to be introducing any generative AI into our products.”
Procreate’s AI dissension separates it from other design and graphics companies, like Adobe and Figma, that have chosen to embrace generative AI tools. And based on the responses online? The company’s hardline turn away from broader industry trends is resonating with its artist-driven user base.
“This is leadership,” one commenter reponded. “This is an innovator.”
“It’s amazing to see a company actually respecting its user base,” added another. “Incredible stuff.”
“Procreate I could kiss you,” wrote another.
Ethical Lines
Procreate doubles down on its anti-AI position on its website, where, on a dedicated AI webpage it declares that “AI is not our future.”
“Creativity is made, not generated. Generative AI is ripping the humanity out of things. Built on a foundation of theft, the technology is steering us toward a barren future,” the page continues. “We’re here for the humans.”
On the one hand, there could definitely be some preemptive legal benefits to side-stepping generative AI for now. Just last week, a group of artists were awarded a victory in a lawsuit filed against the AI image-generating companies Stability AI and Midjourney, with a judge ruling that the suit — in which the artists argue that Stability and Midjourney used stolen, copyrighted artwork to train an AI model that ultimately threatens their jobs — would be allowed to continue, albeit with a few claims dismissed.
But possible legal messiness aside, it feels notable that in an industry where humans are losing jobs to generative AI programs, Procreate appears to be drawing a sharply ethical line in the sand. Or, at the very least, just listening to their customers — who shockingly might not want to see their life’s work swallowed up into an AI dataset for commercial purposes.
“Now THIS is how a company for artists supports artists!” one happy artist wrote in response to the company’s video. “By respecting and empowering them, NOT by taking advantage of them!”
More on AI and artists: New Tool Lets Artists “Poison” Their Work to Mess Up AI Trained on It
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