Fed Up With Meta’s AI Policies, 420K Users Shift To Cara App

Date: June 07, 2024

Meta’s AI policies have become unfavorable enough for artists, resulting in over 420k users shifting to an anti-AI social app, Cara.

The ethical war between the artist community and the tech giant Meta has grown to reach its peak now. From legal lawsuits on Meta’s AI policies to losing the battles multiple times, the frustration has grown beyond comprehensible. Due to this, an anti-AI social app has gained rapid popularity, growing from 40k downloads to 650k downloads in just a week. 

The maker of this app and artist Jingna Zhang told a media house about the reason behind this surge, “When you put [AI] so much in their face, and then give them the option to opt out, but then increase the friction to opt out… I think that increases their anger level — like, okay now I’ve really had enough.”

Meta uses public posts to train its generative AI models, which it claims are for the benefit of the end users. However, the artist community has been facing not just a loss of opportunity, credit, and risk of manipulation but also financial damage. Jingna Zhang has recently won an appeal on an artwork copyright infringement online on a social media platform. 

The policies around AI have not been favorable for the artist, causing serious damage to her revenues and creative motivation. The appeal was recently won in court, increasing awareness in the community about the AI tech giants’ lack of inclusivity, according to her. 

Cara, Zhang’s app that recently gained popularity for its anti-AI social platform is a mix of Instagram and X. but specifically for artists and original human-produced artworks. The timing couldn’t have been better for the app and the artist’s appeal to benefit her business, as its not her first trial at building such an app.

Many artists are collectively suing Google for using their content and workpieces without consent to train its AI LLM models. While some are seeking monetary compensation for the damage caused, a big chunk seeks new AI regulations that protect independent artists and their originality from being a product of generative AI.