Do not add AI art to Scratch

ProjectFactory

READ THE ENTIRE POST BEFORE REPLYING!

The Scratch Team has recently announced that they are considering adding AI image generation to Scratch. Source
Here's the tweet an official ST member posted regarding AI art: (ty @busybuddie1234)

This might sound like something great, but here's why I oppose it: It goes against imagination, the first part of Scratch's “Imagine, Program, Share” motto.

If AI image generation was added to Scratch, then some users might become over reliant on AI to make art for them. Not only does that neglect the use of their imagination, but if enough people use AI art, then a lot of content would likely look the same. Heck, it would probably be boring as well.

There also has been a blog post which lists some cons:
- Monetary cost (Development is hard, y'know?)
- Inappropriate content
- Copyright issues
- Gender & racial bias
- Weirdness (AI isn't good with text or faces yet)
These issues alone outweigh the benefits (expressiveness, convenience, and creative material & feedback).
In a future update to this post, I'll go in depth about this but I just wanted to mention the blog post ASAP since I haven't seen it before

Some counterpoints:

What if you don't know how to draw something? You could always look up a tutorial or use a reference image?

Doesn't using other people's assets/images from the web also neglect the use of people's imagination? I'll be honest here: at the moment, I don't have a good counterpoint for this yet. I'll leave this one up for debate.

{I'll update this post if necessary}

Last edited by ProjectFactory (Aug. 27, 2023 00:05:45)

NotK3ndricAlt

What does the post say? Twitter (X) is blocked for me.

busybuddie1234

NotK3ndricAlt wrote:
What does the post say? Twitter (X) is blocked for me.

NotK3ndricAlt

busybuddie1234 wrote:
NotK3ndricAlt wrote:
What does the post say? Twitter (X) is blocked for me.

No support. Great when you don't know how to draw something.

canarycat2000

NotK3ndricAlt wrote:
Twitter (X) is blocked for me.

Same for me.

Also, is that meant to be an ST member?

If so, I get the concern behind adding AI to what's meant to be a site to teach kids how to code and draw.

If not, then please don't stir fear over rumors.

ProjectFactory

canarycat2000 wrote:
NotK3ndricAlt wrote:
Twitter (X) is blocked for me.
Also, is that meant to be an ST member?

The official Scratch Twitter Twitter, not X account did retweet Retweet, not repost the original tweet tweet, not post.

Last edited by ProjectFactory (Aug. 25, 2023 20:29:14)

busybuddie1234

ProjectFactory wrote:
canarycat2000 wrote:
NotK3ndricAlt wrote:
Twitter (X) is blocked for me.
Also, is that meant to be an ST member?
The official Scratch Twitter Twitter, not X account did retweet Retweet, not repost the original tweet tweet, not post.

i already posted that

ProjectFactory

busybuddie1234 wrote:
ProjectFactory wrote:
canarycat2000 wrote:
NotK3ndricAlt wrote:
Twitter (X) is blocked for me.
Also, is that meant to be an ST member?
The official Scratch Twitter Twitter, not X account did retweet Retweet, not repost the original tweet tweet, not post.
i already posted that

oh shoot i just noticed
the person i quoted was asking about the validity of my source. i showed proof that the post was a retweet.

Scratch--TheCat

No support for this reason:

NotK3ndricAlt wrote:
-snip-
No support. Great when you don't know how to draw something.

Zydrolic

Alrighty, let me set this straight: I don't neccasarily care about the AI, but I doubt it's an “awesome” idea to implement — Theres ALOT of Scratch users, we are basically just a small percentage. I don't think the implementation of AI will be “great” or “epic” or “an unironic bruh epic moment” or “rad” or whatever 2010's word of “cool”. Moreso, a semi-version of that.

ProjectFactory wrote:
(#1)
Doesn't using other people's assets/images from the web also neglect the use of people's imagination? I'll be honest here: at the moment, I don't have a good counterpoint for this yet. I'll leave this one up for debate.

Honestly, there is not much neglection of imagination just by using assets from the web.

As a person who is in a community, even if it's quite a big [[Dumpster Fire]] 99.999% of the time around in the community i am in, theres actually alot of good creativity, just based off of a game's characters, assets. Just because you use something from the internet doesnt mean you neglected everything about creativity — Infact, you can build off of it. I don't think “neglect” is a good fit for the wording, as you don't fully ignore creativity by using IExistHelloHowAreYou012345678910's stickman disco room template (and this is just an ironic example). Usage of a single asset isn't neccasarily neglect.

EDIT: Anyways, back on point — I believe there's not much of an issue aside from Scratch's servers suddenly turning into flames quite possibly due to usercount, we are merely portions, but it depends how they execute it. Honestly, it really depends on if they reveal more about it, I might change how I think of it. But at the same time I am afraid and paranoid of it, so for now…
Small-Semi-Support if that exists

Last edited by Zydrolic (Aug. 25, 2023 21:04:00)

Roblox888i

Image blocked.

Zydrolic

Roblox888i wrote:
(#11)
Image blocked.

I have screenshotted the screenshot for you

EDIT: Censored a bit of it.

Last edited by Zydrolic (Aug. 25, 2023 21:36:37)

hydrofungus

AI art is something that people would fight over most. Guys who doesn’t know how to draw can find this useful, while experienced artists would try to block every single person who uses AI art (trust me, I’ve seen this before)
I don’t like AI very much, but some people would probably like it. But then, adding this would cause a lot of Scratchers angry, perhaps even a large decrease in the Scratchers community.
To me, AI is something that does oppose creativity. You just enter a word then the generator will give you thousands of the image of the word. You don’t even have to use your imagination at all.
This idea might bring good, might bring bad, depends on how ST will do it, but I think it’s more bad than good.
Still can’t take sides here atm

hydrofungus

Zydrolic wrote:
-snip-

Censoring now won’t do much, look at the older posts.

hydrofungus

(Removed)

Last edited by hydrofungus (Aug. 26, 2023 04:18:28)

Zydrolic

hydrofungus wrote:
(#14)
Censoring now won’t do much, look at the older posts.

doesnt neccasarily matter if its blocked for someone

BobRocks20

Did you all read the blog post?

Because I have. Rosenbaum made some good points there, so take a look if you can. I understand your concerns, though.

I need to sleep now

TerryLeeStudio

Don’t see harm in this, scratch is primarily a programming tool. Even if some part of scratch programming can be automated by ai, it’s fine.

hydrofungus

BobRocks20 wrote:
Did you all read the blog post?

Because I have. Rosenbaum made some good points there, so take a look if you can. I understand your concerns, though.

I need to sleep now

Uh the link isn’t working for me
Safari says it can’t find the server

rickrollkitt

Ok ok so about AI “art”, I don’t know what to say about this.

AI “art” would be “great” for non-artists or beginner-artists, but I don’t think AI “art” would do anything much to imagination. I mean, just write something you want the generator to uh…generate, press a button, and boom, THOUSANDS OF AI “ART”!

In my opinion, it’s dumb, and unoriginal, but for other people, it’s ok. I’m not fond of AI “art” because it’s just “art” which looks like someone was too lazy with the brush. But in other eyes, it’s “AMAZING”. I have two sides to this. I don’t know if we should do it or not.

It’s just pretty stupid for me, because it’s too…effortless. To me, real artists put all their sweat, blood, and tired tears while creating a masterpiece. But on the flip side, it would be ok for people who don’t aspire to be artists, and who just want to test AI “art” out.

So I have no idea what to say.

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