Tumblr User Content to Fuel AI? Artists Worry About Work Without Permission

QUICK ZAPS

Tumblr's parent company Automattic may be striking deals to share user data from the blogging site with AI companies like OpenAI and Midjourney. A new report says these deals could be finalized very soon. It would allow the AI firms to use content from Tumblr posts dating back to 2014 to help train their image-generating algorithms. 

While using publicly shared internet data for AI training is common, some artists aren't happy about their creative works being included without permission. There are also questions about what kind of data may have been initially collected by Automattic, as the report mentions some private posts were scraped by mistake. Automattic plans to let Tumblr users opt-out of data sharing starting this week, but it's unclear what's already been provided to the AI companies. 

Monetizing Tumblr has been a challenge since Automattic acquired it in 2019. Deals like this could bring in new revenue, but risk upsetting Tumblr's creative community if they don't feel properly respected. Only time will tell how any agreements are structured and whether they satisfy users while still advancing new AI technologies.