Regarding Cara—

Banning AI is hard work. It requires moderation technology and, ultimately, expensive human moderation and an experienced trust and safety team.

Offering reliable protection, thus far nonexistent, against being scraped for training AI is difficult. It’s beginning to seem that Elon Musk’s mistake of not understanding the challenges of properly running a startup social network also applies here. I’m willing to bet they didn’t think things through.

This is an expensive, challenging endeavor with high demand from a passionate audience. Charge users for it.

Unfortunately, I’m willing to wager that the very same people who complain that they should get paid and that their livelihoods are on the line will balk at having to pay for the remedies Cara seems to offer. This strikes me as naive, immature, and hypocritical.

A small group might be willing to spend money on Cara, an artist-focused alternative to Instagram, but most artists will not.

Too bad. I’m already posting my traditional artwork there. I hope they figure it out, but I’m skeptical. An emotional response and a core ethos focused on censoring and dividing users seems like a tough way to start a business.

I’ll be interested to look back in the next year or so, and see if they exist at all.

doodle #aiguardian #cara

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