Kickstarter Rolls Out a New AI Policy – Transparency Ahead
Yesterday Kickstarter announced a new AI policy, focused on transparency, credit, and consent with regards to AI-created works. Take a look.
AI is everywhere these days. Well not actual AI, that’d be extremely cool. If that were the case, we would be having a wildly different discussion, either from the majesty of a fully-automated luxury gay space communism stellar enclave or from behind the blast doors of the resistance bunker as we try and stave off the roving machine hordes. I know which one I’m hoping for.
But, like most things in real life, we get the most boring dystopia version, where it’s not actually AI, just extremely upscaled predictive text that makes it easier to do some very specific things, many of which are tied to digital businesses. Yeah. Makes you wanna vom just a bit with the mundanity.
Distinctions between AI notwithstanding, automation is affecting every industry. And tabletop games are no exception. This is why, when Kickstarter announced its new AI policy, many creators took notice.
Kickstarter’s New AI Policy – Disclosure & Transparency
Here’s Kickstarter’s new AI policy:
Beginning August 29, if AI is a part of a creator’s project, they’ll be prompted in the project submission process to share details about how they leverage AI. Here’s summary of our upcoming policy:
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- To be allowed on Kickstarter, projects utilizing AI tools for generating images, text, or any other output must disclose relevant details on their project page. This includes information about how the creator plans to use AI content in their project, as well as which elements of their project will be wholly original work and which elements will be created using AI outputs.
- Projects developing AI technology, tools, or software must disclose information about any databases and data the creator intends to use. The creator must also indicate how these sources handle consent and credit for the data they utilize. If the sources don’t have processes or safeguards in place to manage consent, such as through an opt-out or opt-in mechanism, then Kickstarter is unlikely to allow the project.
If any use of AI is not disclosed properly during the submission process, the project may be suspended. Attempts to skirt our guidelines or intentionally misrepresent a project will result in restrictions from submitting a Kickstarter project in the future.
This was developed in conjunction with a number of “creators, backers, other platform leaders, and [their] own staff” as well as members of the Community Advisory Council. As you can see, the main focus is on distinguishing projects that are fully human-made and those that are AI-generated.
Why the disclosure? Well, a big part of it is consent. Kickstarter wants to make sure that creators have consent from owners of the works that are fed into the AI generator. This means you can’t just train your AI on the art of say, Wayne Reynolds and then have AI-generated art to fill your book.
Kickstarter wants to avoid those pitfalls where artists are exploited. Because that’s the real secret to AI these days. It’s all trained off of scrapings from the internet. Whether your text, your art, your ideas – all of it grist for the content mill.
Kickstarter’s new policy goes into effect August 29th!
