You should definitely delete your Twitter (READ MORE)

[KennethLopezJr921]

This is not a question, this is a warning. If you're still using twitter, deactivate or delete your account right now or at least consider doing so. Why? Its because of this new feature: https://x.com/setermd/status/2003790488336499114?s=46

As this tweet says, this features allows anyone to edit your image with generative ai. And I dont think I need to explain why this is a bad thing for artists.

For me personally, this isnt too surprising, since twitter is run by tech bro, and tech bros generally are very supportive of generative ai in spite of the damages this useless tech poses to everything, from creative jobs to the economy. At best, most tech bros dont understand the value artists have at worst, hold genuine hatred towards people with any form of creative talent seeing them as a privileged class who oppress those who cant draw or write. I believe there is a lot of value in learning how to write and draw, in ways thats hard to describe but it goes against what ai stands for. Tech Bros dont want you to think for yourself, or be creative or do anything, unless it involves typing a prompt into chat gpt. I could go on, but I dont want to turn this into a soap box.

I know plenty of artists have already deleted their twitters but I know not all of them have, and its not like I don't understand now. Artists have an audience and a platform there already, and trying to move all of that to another site would be incredibly difficult. Which is why Im asking those of you who do still use twitter to think about it. But personally, I do not want my art to be fed by the ai machine and I dont think you'd guys want that happening with your work too.

[VibrantFox]

I've already made my tweets about it. I'm not deleting my account because that's a several years archive of a large body of my work and I'm not getting rid of the one record of it that I have especially for older work I may or may not have original files for due to data losses or whatever else has happened to some of my physical drives

What I am reccomending people do is start restricting or locking their accounts and checking what interaction settings they do have control over to at least protect themselves to some degree along with the usual advice to keep using things like glaze and nightshade when posting and if that's too beefy for their machines then to consider alternatives like artshield which i've been using a hell of a lot more recently

if anything the modification of my work isnt the thing that's a big delbreaker for me coz that something that's been going on long before the existence of ai slop it's just more rampant now and in a new form. my dealbreaker with twitter is the big ass supercomputer in mephis pumping out methane in a predominately black community and i donnt like the idea of passively supporting someone committing environmental racism.

the only reason why i had been active there is because i was finally finally starting to connect with community that i'd been craving and working to build back for years so its a massive freaking rug pull to keep having to go through this bs over and over and over and over again and this is as someone who was in the trenches of deviantart ages ago so i'm more than sick and tired of this ceasless ass cycle of starting over.

but again my big thing is i'm NOT deleting the one archive i have of my work to prove my ownership over these ai a-holes but i will be moving the majority of my activity elsewhere which i've already been slowly doing. i've set my links in most of my bios anyways to direct people to the other places i'm online but i'm not jumping into any crazy ass doom mongering especially when it comes to the whole having proof of your body of work coz things like upload dates do play into that alongside original files so yeah....thats like the mass summary of my opinions on the whole damn ordeal....

[KennethLopezJr921]

I think thats fair. Ive only had my twitter since 2021 and m:cry_01:ost of the stuff I posted there were things I already had up on my other accounts. So deleting it wasnt too big of a problem since it was just one of my many art platforms. Even though I've never liked twitter, even before Elon took over, I really hate this is even a thing in the first place. Like its not out of left field but it sucks either way

[VibrantFox]

That's honestly fair which is why I wont judge folks who make that decision. I've had my account since 2017 so prior to the buyout bs but I've still got a huge backlog of art there that isn't really up elswhere save for a few sites. Stil even then I'd contemplated leaving (not deleting tho) but since it was only matters of ownership then I was willing to stick it out since "I was here first" but when it got into all the ai nonsense my activity started to waver more drastically so I've just bounced between locking my account and getting more heavy handed with watermarking when i did post

I am still super pissed at the timing of it all because I really have been connecting with a lot more people and hell just had like a handful of folks i look up to start following me among others who had in the past so it's like frustrating having to uproot for the umpteenth time when I'm finally building bridges. So if anything the frustration has that kid who's been moving towns a ton vibe to it where I've got to keep starting over. The only comfort being that I've been doing well on bsky and starting to get back into a rhythm of being more active and been having a lot of fun on tumblr posting whatever between sideblogs so it sucks but it's not all bad. I'm just hoping people actually like...move to these places as well so I dont have to keep losing touch with folks which is like the big thing nagging me out of it all

Edit: i felt like I had to add the statement but ironically the art theft/editing isn't even my biggest concern but instead people with photos of themselves their pets or whatever else. Revenge porn is already a known thing, doctored videos have been rampant and there's been tons of cases about voices and likenesses being taken so as much as I want to protect my work I'm more worried for the safety of others now being put at risk. Like the art stuff is bad too we've more than seen its impact but I can't shake thinking about that more

[ShidoDraws]

Prior to Elon Musk, I used to upload frequently on the site, but since the buyout I've been pretty minimal with uploading on social media in general. It wasn't a direct response to him perse, I just had a gut feeling that the Internet in general was not going in a direction most of us would like. Right now I'm just more preparing for impact, you can still have connections with people through the internet, in my situation, I'd like to minimize my existence on social media. Companies already control our incomes, we shouldn't let them have control of our autonomy as well.

[wolflu66]

Regarding AI generation, I'm more concerned about artists' opportunities and livelihoods being threatened, which is already a very common situation.

Especially when even a company as big as Coca-Cola isn't willing to spend a bit more money to hire professionals to make their advertising videos. (By the way, the Intermarché wolf made by human artists was amazing uwu)

[Aeneas1]

Well I have some good news for you: I DON’T have a Twitter account and never even bothered to set one up, so I think I am fine.