I've had AI-nough.

Editor's note: This is an opinion piece that sits at the intersection of culture and tech. If you're here more for the Film/Music coverage, this may not be your cup of tea!

The Problem...

I'm not going to cast myself as a Luddite here – every new technology has both its utilities and its ethical dilemmas. To understand what I believe about AI as a tool, the absolute best and most comprehensive video ever made on the topic can be found below;

I don't want to talk about anything above. I want to talk about how major platforms let panic and feature creep sabotage their value proposition.

A value proposition is the reason anyone uses your app in the first place. For instance, on TikTok, a lot of us use the app to disseminate information, find our audience, and otherwise commune. One of the big things about TikTok is both the low barrier to entry and the fact that, up until recently, you knew that the person speaking to you "as if they were facetiming you" was a real person, an authentic person sharing their opinion. A lot of the features on TikTok have been used to further community building – there is a lexicon in which fonts you use, how to duet/stitch, and so on. There is also another big value proposition, one that has launched careers, raised money for charity, and lifted people out of dire financial situations – the TikTok Creator Fund.

Last night, one of my mutuals messaged me and told me about the new AI Remix feature. This feature had been rolled out in secret; it was turned on for every video, and there was no master switch to turn it off. In order to opt out of this feature, I would have to go through all of the 2,800 videos I've posted to the app since 2019, and then all of the private videos, and then do all of that again for the OBSCURAE account. This seemed to be the point – make it prohibitively difficult to opt out.

We don't know what an AI remix is, but it's one of those things where I don't want to find out. My immediate fear was that I'd see my face in someone else's video, doing and saying things I never did. We all understand that due to massive AI data scraping, there is always a risk that our faces have already been used to train LLMs – but where I can opt out, I always do.

Furthermore, this messes with the original value proposition – I now feel terrified that all of this natural, "FaceTime-like" footage I've posted to this app is going to be used to train a model to put words in my mouth. Regardless of whether this is TikTok's intention, because of the prohibitively intense workload, this was enough to make me want to delete all of my accounts on TikTok entirely, just to avoid the feature itself.

A sizeable amount of both my audience and my income comes from TikTok. These platforms tailored themselves to creators' needs to attract talent so they could build an audience/consumer base – and now, they're focused on squeezing the consumer base for value, while devaluing the work of the creators into a stolen database of unlicensed footage and likeness. Again – TikTok may end up announcing that this AI remix feature is just an AI clip machine, at my disposal, for no one else's use – but I doubt it, and I have good reason to.

So, how am I going to be able to continue to find our audience without TikTok?

The Solution...?

Something similar just happened with Spotify, and I've pulled most of my music from streaming onto Patreon and YouTube. YouTube, part of Google, and not without its own issues, seems to be the only platform left that realises that a death spiral into AI-trained content will eventually become a photocopy machine, or a perfect example of "Dead Internet Theory". You can still, for now, build a business on YouTube, and mostly, if you don't run afoul of its imperfect guardrails, not worry about having to move platforms.

However, TikTok is unique in both its audience and its algorithm – and my reach there currently drives most of the opportunities I've been able to build for myself and my team – and is the main reason, other than our amazing Paid Aficionados, that I'm even able to pay people the small amount we try to at OBSCURAE. This isn't something that Instagram or YouTube (again, imperfect) can rival right now – trust me, I've tried diversifying for the past year, and we're just not there yet.

So, now, I'm going to have to go through over 4,000 videos and switch a little toggle off. I've already sent a very strongly worded message to TikTok, and am planning my move away from the platform as a creator, which is super sad. TikTok was a breath of fresh air and a revelation for myself and so many creators – a true, unbiased way to find "our people", that, in its desperate attempt to keep up with the AI Bubble, will crumble with the crash.

A lot of people, creators included, are moving to the Indie Web – and if you're reading this, you already have too. OBSCURAE is hosted on Ghost – this has hindered our growth as opposed to Substack (which has in-built discovery), but it means we own the platform we work on, and you likely found us through Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube, and now you're here. This is the Indie Web.

My music is on Patreon for now, but I'm planning to create my own, owned site where my music can live, be streamed, and be purchased similarly.

This may have to be the solution – owned Indie Web platforms, that we link to via "content" posted to discovery channels such as YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. The future of independent media of all kinds depends on both ownership/autonomy and discovery. I fear, for now, creators are going to have to play both games and try their best not to get burned.