Do NOT add AI to Scratch — #NoAIOnScratch

BitcoinFarmer

Exascerbescence wrote:
BitcoinFarmer wrote:
Couldn't you just make like a userscript and cut out the popup?
The problem was that most people didn’t read the terms and conditions before they agreed

Obviously.
A main issue here is that it is really hard to read that.
The text is extremely long and unstructured in my opinion, with monster snake sentences that make you forget what the beginning was when you read the end.
Also, like many users on Scratch; I am not a native of English and there is no simple language version which doesn't make things easier.

IloveRoblox003

Sasha_Banks272 wrote:
snip

Pretty sure thats called the Scratch Foundation or something

CuteHamsterOwO

guys 3 pages until 100!

Last edited by CuteHamsterOwO (Jan. 28, 2026 15:08:33)

typedangerous

Rosics wrote:
Sasha_Banks272 wrote:
No, it is their fault. And when I say this, I don't mean the Scratch Team members that moderate this site such as cheddargirl, Paddle2See, ceebee, etc. I'm talking about the one behind the scenes that handle things like these. They chose to add AI, suffer the consequences. The world does not want to accept AI, as evident by the news, tabloids, and everything else going on in the world related to the rise of generative AI. The best way to discourage it to boycott it and anyone using it.
I use AI, also it's not that bad..

AI does more behind the scenes damage than what is presented to you. The OP said they use AI too, but it doesn't have a place on Scratch

ilIusionator

BitcoinFarmer wrote:
Exascerbescence wrote:
BitcoinFarmer wrote:
Couldn't you just make like a userscript and cut out the popup?
The problem was that most people didn’t read the terms and conditions before they agreed
Obviously.
A main issue here is that it is really hard to read that.
The text is extremely long and unstructured in my opinion, with monster snake sentences that make you forget what the beginning was when you read the end.
Also, like many users on Scratch; I am not a native of English and there is no simple language version which doesn't make things easier.

google translate

OR
use that summarized version by za-chary (somewhere, i aint looking for it lol) and
translate it

CuteHamsterOwO

CuteHamsterOwO wrote:
guys 3 pages until 100

sorry if its off topic

Last edited by CuteHamsterOwO (Jan. 28, 2026 15:11:38)

A_gamer_not_A_CODeR7

typedangerous wrote:
Rosics wrote:
Sasha_Banks272 wrote:
No, it is their fault. And when I say this, I don't mean the Scratch Team members that moderate this site such as cheddargirl, Paddle2See, ceebee, etc. I'm talking about the one behind the scenes that handle things like these. They chose to add AI, suffer the consequences. The world does not want to accept AI, as evident by the news, tabloids, and everything else going on in the world related to the rise of generative AI. The best way to discourage it to boycott it and anyone using it.
I use AI, also it's not that bad..
AI does more behind the scenes damage than what is presented to you. The OP said they use AI too, but it doesn't have a place on Scratch

Exactly. It shows you “helpful info” which it often makes up on the spot, and not to mention the environmental damage. Yes, it is bad.

BitcoinFarmer

Honestly I feel like this discussion is not really productive in the moment. Like, I see that people are constantly bringing up points, but many just agree and also the points repeat themselves a lot.

Last edited by BitcoinFarmer (Jan. 28, 2026 15:26:44)

Exascerbescence

BitcoinFarmer wrote:
Honestly I feel like this discussion is not really productive in the moment. Like, I see that people are constantly bringing up points, but many just agree and also the points repeat themselves a lot.

The counter arguments are rare because there truly is no excuse. AI does not belong on Scratch.

We’re really just waiting for a response at this point

knowitall1237

BitcoinFarmer wrote:
Honestly I feel like this discussion is not really productive in the moment. Like, I see that people are constantly bringing up points, but many just agree and also the points repeat themselves a lot.

Yeah, everyone's kind of talking about the same things over and over. Things that were already discussed before are buried in the 97 pages of text, so people start talking about it again
We all agree that AI shouldn't be used in Scratch (at least, I hope so at this point) so maybe we should stop talking here now

A_gamer_not_A_CODeR7

knowitall1237 wrote:
BitcoinFarmer wrote:
Honestly I feel like this discussion is not really productive in the moment. Like, I see that people are constantly bringing up points, but many just agree and also the points repeat themselves a lot.
Yeah, everyone's kind of talking about the same things over and over. Things that were already discussed before are buried in the 97 pages of text, so people start talking about it again
We all agree that AI shouldn't be used in Scratch (at least, I hope so at this point) so maybe we should stop talking here now

Well, we’re more trying to get ST or whoever’s attention with this topic and the many other ones. Hopefully they actually start caring.

redspacecat

ilIusionator wrote:
use that summarized version by za-chary (somewhere, i aint looking for it lol) and

https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/topic/863048

BitcoinFarmer

Actually, there are counter agruments.

Let us get into some points from the original topic.

1.) I do use AI pretty much almost everyday, but AI on Scratch seems very out of place and takes away from the one key charm of Scratch, that being human made-projects, human moderation, human users, etc. An AI, even in the place of just “helping” users is highly out of place.

I feel like this is a fair point in the sense of Ai being implemented in places where it is not seen as wanted and often unfitting. My personal example here is YouTube which has a feature where it automatically created an other language version of some videos using AI voices that terribly suck.
However, Scratch is different in the sense of that it IS a learning platform. And for coding. The thing here is, that AI is bringing in a big change and that change shall also be represented in how coding is taught, because the methods are simply different now.
The AI is here to assist the people, not replace them (as in: guided help to make you reach more not as in dr. chatgpt did my math homework) and as I read it partially to find snippets of code from others and help you patch them into your work.
I do already practice similar with my own works of coding where I reuse old stuff I wrote like 3 years ago in a new project nowadays.
I see the critique here that people don't want this but I feel like the backpack is the same principle and remixing also. It should be delivered with an unremovable comment block that gives credit.

2.) Some users said that you can just use ChatGPT if you really need help, but I disagree. As I stated in my original post, we have human resources on Scratch to help you out such as the Help with Scripts forum and tutorials. There is no need for AI to spill over into places that were always predominantly human-made.

Some users said xxx… But letÄs have a look. Human resources are always the best way, I couldnt agree more. But they are not infinitely aviable. You can't ask a tutorial questions and help with scripts has neither guaranteed response nor guaranteed quality response. The AI at least has the first of those. Also, the Scratch Tema did not enforce people to use the forums and the forums are kind of on retreat in the moment. This is probably due to them being hard to moderate and the size of the Scratch team. For this reason, a discuss button from the top bar of Scratch (next to explore ideas etc) was removed.

3.) AI is expensive, and notice how Scratch Membership conveniently rolled around when the Scratch Foundation announced that they were going to be making an AI for Scratch? Just sayin'

I agree that AI is expensive and a big step. But I wouldn't make too explicit connections here before anything. I do think that a bit of a shift is happening in Scratch, but a membership that helps support Scratch is, if implemented correctly a fair idea. Also, this topic is about the AI.

4.) This isn't a view on AI related but it's just something I need to address. Please refrain from using AI in this post because you're going to start a flame war and that's just unnecessary and defeats the purpose of this topic. And if someone does use AI, please do not ridicule them for it, you just look like a jerk.

I am a human and not using AI in my replies.

5.) Some AI training models have been under fire for being trained on either copyrighted material or material that it's creator didn't consent to using. How will we know if the people developing this AI for Scratch aren't using usermade projects without their consent? It's unethical regardless of whose the actual owner.

This is a bigger problem here and I don't personally favor big AI companies. However, Scratch doesnt have to follow these patterns. If the Scratch management decides for a way with consent here, this will be ethical. Don't blame the sole existence of AI for this though.

6.) AI can tend to be incorrect or hallucinate. And some AI's, like ChatGPT, really only tell you what you want to hear. And then some AI's like Gemini are really boring and have no personality and tend to just give up and redirect you to Google searches, which sucks.

I agree here. The AI ain't perfect. But neither are humans. In fact, YEAH, you can trick the AI with some things and this looks really goofy but humans are really also weird in function and as easy as the AI victims of misinformations. Also, the humans just make mistakes as well. The fact, that ChatGPT tells you what you want to hear is because it is a commercial product that wants to keep its users active. Scratch does not need to follow this line. The Gemini is the same but it's good for google to redirect you to searching and show you ads.
And I do not think that the AI is supposed to be “fun” here in the sense of: hey chatty, tell me a joke or something. It is mainly a coding tool and not an entertainment robot and therefore supposed to rather be helpful and assisting in programming than your “friend”.

7.) Kids might not understand AI boundaries because they can’t always tell the difference between facts, bots making stuff up, real people giving help, and so on. They trust the computer because “it must be right.” The AI could accidentally teach bad coding habits, misinformation, or encourage dependency. None of that matches Scratch’s mission.

This counts for the entire internet. Also this counts for other people as well. Someone state something (“omg scratch gets an image generator trained off our art” and without fact checking 20 scratch users be panic.

8.) Scratch is supposed to be a safe sandbox, not a tech experiment. Kids come here to learn coding basics, not be beta testers for a foundation’s new AI project. Scratch Team using Scratch kids as guinea pigs for a trendy AI rollout feels morally shaky. If they wanna play with AI, cool — but don’t use children as the testing ground.

I see this point but I do think that this is not an experiment as AI has been round for some while. If the new coding basics include the usage of helping AI, that is how it is. This is not about trends. Also, the AI can be seen as pretty safe and easier to moderate than if we had for example ten times the forum population. This would be a big chaos where dangerous trolls and spammers could be active and unseen. Just pointing this out.

9.) Even if the Scratch Team swears “AI won’t be behind a paywall,” let’s be fr. Services cost money. AI costs SERIOUS money. Membership suddenly appearing at the SAME time isn’t a coincidence. Eventually, features get split: “Basic users get slow AI”, “Members get advanced AI help”, “Members get more AI tokens”, “Members get better project analysis”, “Members get priority moderation”… It creates a two-class system on a platform designed for kids learning to code.

I see the danger you are trying to point out here and I feel like if it went this way it were a serious break with the scratch we used to know alike. However, once again I am not into conspiracies. If the AI is implemented correctly though, then the AI is an equal tool for everyone and the membership keeps out of coding features and sticks with badges, tags and themes like cat blocks. I feel like a harmful and restrictive token system would be definitely a chance, but as I see it, Scratch it is the most likely that sticks to it's values combined with AI, and this will not happen. Remember, that the membership is your way to support this free platform at running by basically donating and they just give a little back, not like YouTube premium with no ads or an AI premium deal. This is a totally different concept.

ilikeundertalemusic

one of my friends tricked AI into telling him how to make a hydrogen b*mb, he didn't do this for destruction or anything like that, he did it to show how easy it was to trick AI, now imagine adding AI to a children's coding website that's been up for about 20 years, this should definitely go well

A_gamer_not_A_CODeR7

ilikeundertalemusic wrote:
one of my friends tricked AI into telling him how to make a hydrogen b*mb, he didn't do this for destruction or anything like that, he did it to show how easy it was to trick AI, now imagine adding AI to a children's coding website that's been up for about 20 years, this should definitely go well

… you can do that!? I already knew you could trick AI, but I had no idea you could get it to tell you that.

BitcoinFarmer

ilikeundertalemusic wrote:
one of my friends tricked AI into telling him how to make a hydrogen b*mb, he didn't do this for destruction or anything like that, he did it to show how easy it was to trick AI, now imagine adding AI to a children's coding website that's been up for about 20 years, this should definitely go well

This type of encounter is impossible to happen because a Scratch coding AI would not even be trained on such a text corpus that contains information about topics like function of hydrogen bombs.

knowitall1237

BitcoinFarmer wrote:
-an entire 10-page essay LOL-

I can see why AI could be helpful, but this is one of the WORST times to try and implement something like this with how much drama there is surrounding AI in general.
And despite the fact that this AI probably won't be that bad… most people (including me) simply just don't want something like this added to Scratch. This is supposed to be one of the few places where there isn't that one AI chatbot button sitting in the corner.

BitcoinFarmer

knowitall1237 wrote:
BitcoinFarmer wrote:
-an entire 10-page essay LOL-
I can see why AI could be helpful, but this is one of the WORST times to try and implement something like this with how much drama there is surrounding AI in general.
And despite the fact that this AI probably won't be that bad… most people (including me) simply just don't want something like this added to Scratch. This is supposed to be one of the few places where there isn't that one AI chatbot button sitting in the corner.

I totally see your point with the controversy here. In my opinion, honestly I don't see myself in the chatbot fanclub either and I am kind of glad if that type of thing isn't lingering around everywhere. But an optional AI help tool could (imo) be beneficial and imo if you were able to completely make it invisible them I see the educational value.

Also, for the emotional point I am also somewhat agaisnt artifical intelligence lurking around everywhere but I still think it is important not to simply counter.

Now, for the discussion my essay was irrelevant anyway bcuz we're page 97 and not gonna stop and this place is to crammy for actually discussing anything imo.

Magudragon

cookedasparagus8 wrote:
CodeWyrm wrote:
Yeah I read the tos and didn't agree but most people wouldn't.
If you're typing this, you 100% agreed.

The popup didn't occor on 2.0 pages, including the forums.

GNARPY34561

Rosics wrote:
Sasha_Banks272 wrote:
-snip-
I use AI, also it's not that bad..

This is just a bruh moment, like can we all take a moment to just say “bruh.”

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