Meta, AI, and back to blogging

I shared this graphic on my art Facebook and art Instagram pages yesterday following the latest announcement from Mark Zuckerberg that he intends to do away with fact-checking on Meta platforms. This will allow these spaces to transform into platforms like X (Twitter), which has become a safe haven for the spread of disinformation and white supremacy. 

This is not a surprising news. The United States has entered an open oligarchy era after the re-election of Donald Trump, and the tech bros are making huge contributions to him - breaking records for inauguration funds (and there will be no transparency here). 

Meta has also confirmed that they do plan to add AI generated users to Facebook and Instagram platforms. 

Meta has been using images uploaded to its site to train its AI - and you can now generate your own images via Meta AI using these stolen images. Just because it is legal ( if you're a user, you did agree to the terms and conditions), doesn't mean it's ethical. Meta is certainly not ethical. 

It is possible to resist AI - even if the resistance is small. Do not use it. Do not allow your art to train it. Turn off features in apps and on websites that automatically give the site permission to use your information to train its AI (and if you can't opt out, leave the platform). It is important, coming into an age of unregulated tech growth and AI expansion, that we do what we can and we do that when we can. So, I am doing what I can right now. In the new year, I will be focusing on a more intentional use of social media. This looks like no longer sharing new pieces of art to Facebook or Instagram. I will be sharing art here, to my website, and occasionally to BlueSky (for now). I am no longer on Twitter. I did have a blog and newsletter through Substack, but they also have a Nazi problem and I do not want to continue supporting that platform (Jonathan Katz wrote an article about this for The Atlantic in 2023 and it has not improved). 

Why is this so important? Not only is art my form of self-expression and self-connection, art is also a form of resistance. Engaging art and considering the message of the artists causes the viewer to pause for a moment and take in a different kind of message. Consider the work of Francisco Goya and his Third of May 1808 painting about the Spanish resistance to Napoleon - the artwork moves away from traditionally religious themes found in art during the early 1800s and instead focuses on the horrors of war. Pablo Picasso's Guernica is a powerful anti-war piece of art, depicting the suffering and chaos of the Spanish Civil War. The work Soldiers and Students by Jacob Lawrence captures moments of fear during desegregation in the United States. Art, always valuable, makes important cultural statements. 

Moving my artwork off of Meta platforms and away from X will give me the space to talk more about the intentionality behind my work. I am bringing my blog back. I will post links to my blog posts on Meta, but I will not share new artwork to its platforms. I hope to see you here.