Automattic's self-immolation continues apace
The exact types of data from each platform going to each company are not spelled out in documentation we’ve reviewed, but internal communications reviewed by 404 Media make clear that deals between Automattic, the platforms’ parent company, and OpenAI and Midjourney are imminent.
The internal documentation details a messy and controversial process within Tumblr itself. One internal post made by Cyle Gage, a product manager at Tumblr, states that a query made to prepare data for OpenAI and Midjourney compiled a huge number of user posts that it wasn’t supposed to. […]
Gage, the product manager, […] said that he was deleting all of his images off of Tumblr, and would be putting them on his personal website. […] At one point last week, his personal website had a specific note stating that he did not consent to AI scraping of his images. Gage’s original post has been deleted, and his website is now a blank page.
We are expected to believe that “Andrew Spittle, Head of AI” is not an AI-generated name:
Andrew Spittle, Automattic’s head of AI replied: “We will notify existing partners on a regular basis about anyone who’s opted out since the last time we provided a list. […] I believe partners will honor this based on our conversations with them to this point.”
Automattic is the company that owns Tumblr, operates Wordpress dot com, and develops the Wordpress software. This AI shitfuckery applies to hosted blogs on Wordpress dot com, not to self-hosted blogs running Wordpress software, like the one you are reading now.
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Disqus is great for comments/feedback but I had no idea it came with these gaudy ads.