Do NOT add AI to Scratch — #NoAIOnScratch

pippy2011eight

A_gamer_not_A_CODeR7 wrote:
sup3r_r0ck wrote:
sup3r_r0ck wrote:
This forum is just causing arguing at this point someone should close it for a little bit
I think my post from two pages ago is still true
I… think you need to reread the posts that have been made over the past few days. I think it’s calmed down from arguing to just… debating. Which is pretty much what we’re here to do (other than convince the SF to not add AI, etc.), right? Plus, tons of new posts and points of views have been explored and some real strong arguments have been made.

Did everyone misunderstand the post?
it's saying recently it's good
it's NOT saying there's a flame war

thunderzee17

-BluEagle- wrote:
StarFutureFox wrote:
-BluEagle- wrote:
I think the CLA can have genuinely better uses
Like a translator
A guide for when scratch games become a bit too hard
(This is a suggestion I made just now) being able to describe code that can be hijacked that has been hidden (as a feature) in a way that makes it 1: not able to hijack the code and 2: still able to make the code visible in some form

Wow, those are really good ideas! I really like the translator one, too!

The translator one is actually one of the CLA’s intended release features judging from the demo, actually!

thunderzee17 wrote:
-BluEagle- wrote:
I think the CLA can have genuinely better uses
Like a translator
A guide for when scratch games become a bit too hard
(This is a suggestion I made just now) being able to describe code that can be hijacked that has been hidden (as a feature) in a way that makes it 1: not able to hijack the code and 2: still able to make the code visible in some form
thunderzee17 wrote:
thunderzee17 wrote:
AI can do good and bad things. For example: AI image and videogenerators can generate images and videos easily, But might Cause misinformation. They also don't care of copyrights of painters , such as people who is still alive.
In scratch,it might be good for beginners who don't know how to code but might replace people's minds, not creativity . The AI also gets code from other people using scratch, like the painters.
Yes ,BluEagle. I can be used to make a game when coding gets hard , but that means it is useless for easier games.

Kgais, some translators are not accurate. So the AI in scratch not might be accurate.

Blobfish_Industries

Sorry if I missed a few things, I am NOT reading 155 pages of forum posts, but I don't think it's as bad as people are making it out to be. Although I don't think anybody requested AI, I trust the ST to not ruin Scratch. I don't think it will generate project assets, or code for the user. It may help them figure out exceptions in code, or give them ideas for ways to implement an idea, but I don't think it will truly remove the creativity of Scratch.

EDawg2011

Blobfish_Industries wrote:
Sorry if I missed a few things, I am NOT reading 155 pages of forum posts, but I don't think it's as bad as people are making it out to be. Although I don't think anybody requested AI, I trust the ST to not ruin Scratch. I don't think it will generate project assets, or code for the user. It may help them figure out exceptions in code, or give them ideas for ways to implement an idea, but I don't think it will truly remove the creativity of Scratch.

It might not generate code, but it might take stuff from other people's projects.
https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/youtube/tGwu-7jTeaY/

unisparks8

Sasha_Banks272 wrote:
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'll admit that IS sus.
Aren't we a bit, well, overreacting?
I think that SF are not going to change their minds, and this is a lot of talk about stinky AI It's a long time before it might even be added (1-2 years!). I mean, we have the rest of the year AI free. So instead of complaining, just enjoy it while you can?

codubee

Okay. Okay. Okay. NO. I'm sorry, I have to jump in now… Membership has absolutely ZERO to do with anything AI. Membership is _solely_ about ensuring Scratch can become self-sustaining. Something that Scratch has never been before. It was a point of frustration to me that we were not monetizing the brand of Scratch. Not monetize the users themselves, but to cut branding deals with companies that take the Scratch Cat and put it on the boxes of their products (DJI, a million other robotics kits folks, a hojillion other companies out there) without sending us any money they were making by using Scratch like that. We've changed that and have been actively working on multiple fronts to change this, including membership.

I'm gonna repeat this part: Scratch has never been any where near self-sustaining, from 2001-2026. The entire culture of the world does not seem to understand this as when we talk to vendors, they just see our user numbers and data rates and that we're associated with MIT (by name only now), and they assume we're loaded with cash that we don't have. There are tons of folks in companies that first reach out to us and want to offer us free services… until they see things like:

In the last year (March 2, 2025 → March 2, 2026), there were 1.18652 TRILLION HTTP requests that arrived at our services
We inadvertently added a new index to our primary DBs a few weeks ago, and the index alone added 100GB of data space usage
AWS charges far more for data transfer out than is reasonable. They charge at rates that could pay for more 24TB drives per month than we actually transfer out!
We are holding onto projects for people going back to 2013, and just having those in storage long term is a significant cost at this point.

Meanwhile, whenever people who know what it takes to run something like Scratch, find out how many people are involved in running it from a tech level, are _astonished_ that we're doing so much with so few folks, to the point where they often just don't believe, either the amount of traffic we deal with nor how we're doing it. In any case, again, this has nothing to do with anything AI.

Last edited by codubee (March 2, 2026 17:28:22)

Magudragon

codubee wrote:
Amazing speech

So that means new projects after July 18th can finally be indexed?

Last edited by Magudragon (March 2, 2026 17:34:58)

codubee

Magudragon wrote:
codubee wrote:
Amazing speech

So that means new projects after July 18th can finally be indexed?

The issue with indexing has absolutely nothing to do with the tech and everything to do with folks continuously working to get inappropriate stuff into trending. And, we're focusing on getting new things prepared and deployed this year which means we're pivoting to make all explore pages curated, while search still works. This is yet another side effect of not having nearly enough folks to work on things vs what we have now, and want to create in the future.

-haruto--

ok but why people saying that this ai will deprive kids of their debugging like i saw that and what mean you

Blobfish_Industries

-haruto-- wrote:
ok but why people saying that this ai will deprive kids of their debugging like i saw that and what mean you

I don't think it will deprive kids of debugging skills. Scratch is designed in a way such that only logical errors can occur (code works, but not as intended), and these are often the hardest to figure out. AI might make this an easier process, without completely fixing the issue for the user.

codubee wrote:
-snip-

As someone who works in technology, I agree that server costs and even just maintaining storage long term can get very expensive over time. Memberships are not for AI features, but to allow Scratch to exist longer because it's only going to get more and more costly over time.

codubee

-haruto-- wrote:
ok but why people saying that this ai will deprive kids of their debugging like i saw that and what mean you

I have no idea dude.

CosmicStarV1

codubee wrote:
-haruto-- wrote:
ok but why people saying that this ai will deprive kids of their debugging like i saw that and what mean you

I have no idea dude.

then why respond?

EDawg2011

codubee wrote:
#3093
snip

Thanks. Can you please tell us what you think about the potential new CLA and this video? https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/youtube/tGwu-7jTeaY/ Also, what if Scratch Team members protested against this AI?
Also: https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/9012972 https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/9011912 https://scratch.mit.edu/discuss/post/9013687

Last edited by EDawg2011 (March 2, 2026 20:23:56)

Exascerbescence

codubee wrote:
-haruto-- wrote:
ok but why people saying that this ai will deprive kids of their debugging like i saw that and what mean you

I have no idea dude.

Exascerbescence about 50 pages ago wrote:
I did once get addicted to AI when I was a much more vulnerable person and I think the people who support AI should know what that’s like before they make their decision.

You lose all of your energy, you no longer have any will to create or do things, you stop researching and pursuing inspiration and ideas and thinking deeply and trying to understand the world around you, because why not just ask the AI? You lose the ability to fact-check and become gullible and eventually you stop having the energy to just go for a walk. This is not exaggeration, this is personal experience and I only got out of it because I knew the AI (or rather, the company behind it) was there to take all of my time and control me.

How in the world are young children supposed to navigate this? I do realize that Scratch is a non-profit, but you still quite directly risk exposing young children to these other intentionally controlling AIs. I have seen grown adults who allow themselves to get controlled by this sort of hyperconvenience and not even take a moment to question it. There are 7 year olds here. I fear that including an AI here would not just be annoying and saddening but could quietly ruin lives.

cacacacabonbom

catsarebest1 wrote:
Rosics wrote:
WormChow wrote:
We're losing the battle… https://medium.com/scratchteam-blog/introducing-creative-ai-at-scratch-bcdbd6c3efc9
Oh shucks, looks like Scratch got a little new battle going on in here huh? It's getting a little jaxle in here, if you want me to spice up the chat, just say the word!
WAS THAT AN AI RESPONSE???? IT SEEMS LIKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Prolly yes

Ransom321Ransom

catsarebest1 wrote:
Ransom321Ransom wrote:
AI would be great for learning code the scratch tutorials don't give you enough info to code on your own, and it can boost creativity instead of just seeing starters games as pong or pop the balloon. Instead, you can tell it your idea, and it can walk you through the code.
what ever happened to looking at other projects

Looking at other projects would make the projects more similar; many people can come up with ideas, but they don't know how to code.

catsarebest1

Ransom321Ransom wrote:
catsarebest1 wrote:
Ransom321Ransom wrote:
AI would be great for learning code the scratch tutorials don't give you enough info to code on your own, and it can boost creativity instead of just seeing starters games as pong or pop the balloon. Instead, you can tell it your idea, and it can walk you through the code.
what ever happened to looking at other projects
Looking at other projects would make the projects more similar; many people can come up with ideas, but they don't know how to code.

bro i look at other projects to help code and mine are insanly differnt. code is code. whats differnt is how to use it

codubee

CosmicStarV1 wrote:
codubee wrote:
-haruto-- wrote:
ok but why people saying that this ai will deprive kids of their debugging like i saw that and what mean you

I have no idea dude.
then why respond?

No, as in, I have no idea why anyone said such a thing. What you are describing just wouldn't be _Scratch_.

bubgamer07

support, i think ai and scratch are 2 things that do not go together well.

Blobfish_Industries

It's not that I'm against AI, I just don't see why it's being added to Scratch. As in, who asked for it?

Discuss Scratch