Is Cara the future of human-made art on social?
Methods+Mastery
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In today’s edition:
Cara: An AI-free haven
Have you heard of the newest "anti-AI" social media app, Cara ? It's like Instagram for artists and it’s banned AI-generated art from the platform “so that people who want to find authentic creatives and artwork can do so easily.”?
The app launched in 2023, but recently made headlines when its audience soared from 40,000 to a whopping 650,000+. This explosion placed Cara ahead of apps like X, Discord, and Reddit in app store rankings.?
Cara’s rapid growth coincides with Meta’s announcement that it’s using the platform’s public images and videos to train AI systems. Although some artists are embracing AI , others are concerned . Meta attempted to quell backlash , but uncomfortable artists seem to consider this the final straw .?
Do apps like Cara have staying power among the creative community as they sort through their gen AI feelings??
Let’s generate a conclusion ??
What we’re seeing #1: As AI art gains traction on major platforms, art purists seek alternatives.
There’s a widening gap between purists (aka anti-AI artists) and AI-forward artists. Last year, purists threatened to leave X, believing Elon Musk would use their content to train his startup xAI . On the flip side, creators of AI art say they feel more comfortable talking about AI on X –which tracks because X has earned a reputation for supporting AI art and even hinted at a potential partnership with AI image-generator Midjourney.?
Creators of AI art are also finding a “safer place” to gather in subreddits like r/DefendingAIArt or r/aiArt , where they talk about how they’re “harassed ” or “attacked ” on other platforms. Meanwhile, purists are looking at alternatives like Cara to grow and protect what’s theirs.
What we’re seeing #2: Artists aren’t completely against AI; they just don’t want their work used without their permission.?
We previously covered how artists are generally open to using AI – especially for things like concept generation, 3D modeling , and streamlining administrative tasks. On social, artists praise AI’s cost-effectiveness and its ability to help them get to “the final masterpiece” quicker, while some even credit it with pushing them out of their creative comfort zones to try “new aesthetics or subject matter.” Actor and rapper Childish Gambino spoke positively about AI at this year’s Google I/O and the creative community praised him for it.*
But it’s a different story when artists feel their boundaries have been crossed . Their main grievance is not having ownership or control over their work and how it’s used.?
*Disclosure: Google is a client of Methods+Mastery
What we’re seeing #3: Artists want to trust new apps like Cara to keep their promises, but they’ve been burned before.?
Apps like Artfol , Kofi , and Vero were positioned very similarly to Cara. While a few of them are still technically around today, that initial excitement has completely faded and some are stuck in beta .
The creative community is understandably tired of all the new apps and wants something to stick . Imagine building a creative portfolio across new platforms and having that work disappear because these apps aren’t given the chance to succeed.?
“These art apps are always small teams that are trying to put something out there to help us. So let them and help them. We'll never be free of this awful app [Instagram] if we abandon any other options.” - Artist on TikTok
Cara was intentionally made for artists, but they're taking steps to attract brands and non-artist communities. For instance, Cara plans to implement Nightshade , a software that prevents data mining, to solidify their stance on stealing personal content. Updates like this can help propel its meteoric rise.?
Cara still has a long way to go in terms of UI and engineering , but maybe, this will be the one that sticks.
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What It Means For You & Your Brand
PSA for future brand x artist partnerships: If you’re working with artists–whether in a creator partner capacity, or you’re using artist talent to create brand content–be mindful that they may have concerns about where their content is placed, and how vulnerable it is to AI data mining.
Keep an eye on the artist community and similar emerging apps. It will help give you a sense of the environment in which you’re launching AI-driven content and products–and therefore how they’ll be received. This will constantly evolve so ensure you have the right structures in place now to support ongoing intelligence.??
Be as transparent as possible when it comes to the use of AI. You’ve likely established internal guidelines/protocols around this technology, but see where you can pull your audience in too. If you are using the “made with AI” label and are seeing backlash because of it, try threading the reasoning behind its use.
The Social Scoop
Get up to speed with the biggest stories on social.
Pinterest now lets you share and turn boards into videos. This new feature encourages people to post their boards across other social media platforms. Pinterest partnered with “power Pinners ” Avril Lavigne and Tierra Whack to help launch and demonstrate this feature in action.
Our take: Gen Z is Pinterest’s most engaged generation and a big reason for its resurgence . It’s thanks to them this feature exists. Gen Z and younger audiences are passionate about self-expression–a phenomenon Pinterest has dubbed “#MeCore.” We anticipate more updates and launches from Pinterest that give their audience more of what they want .
TikTok updates its geolocation pages to include new categories like shopping, restaurants, and hotels. While this isn’t a new feature, TikTok now displays different categories with corresponding videos . Think less FYP and more Yelp or Tripadvisor.
Our take: We know Gen Z uses TikTok for recommendations and search needs , and this new feature pushes it further. Travel content is huge on the platform and it’s smart to create space for unique city landing pages. There’s no paid promotion incorporated into this feature (yet), but this is worth exploring for local and smaller businesses in the future.
Facebook Pages with 10K+ followers now have access to Broadcast Channels. Channels is positioned as a “one-to-many messaging tool ” for creators to connect with their audiences. With more eligible pages, there are new capabilities and features, including:
Our take: We’ve been talking about the rise of private messaging for a while, and creators can now create deeper, more meaningful connections. Broadcast Channels are like a group chat for creators , and with the influencer industry becoming more competitive , this is a way to curate that closer experience with fans. But that doesn’t mean brands can’t enjoy this feature too. If this makes sense for your brand’s content strategy, this could become a great focus group to explore your core audiences.
Rabbit Hole of the Week
We’re obsessed with internet rabbit holes. Here’s one we dug into this week:
AI time traveler
We all know the familiar time traveler trope of going back in time to change the outcome of an event. Sometimes, the event is prevented, and sometimes the time travel creates the event itself. You know, Tenet logic . But now, thanks to the power of AI, we have a new time traveler in our midst: The AI time traveler.
This trend was created with Dream Machine by Luma AI , a new tool launched in June that transforms still images into video through prompts. Some of the earliest examples of this were memes like distracted boyfriend and success kid . Back then, people started applying the tool to classic Vines, adding alternative endings where the time traveler stopped the meme from ever taking place. It began with the 9+10=21 Vine , where the AI time traveler interrupts before the kid can answer, and soon many more began populating the FYP. What makes things even more bizarre is the fact that when Dream Machine generates these videos, a shadowy figure enters and stays in the frame. Spooky, but we dig it.
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Alt Text is brought to you by Methods+Mastery . Our insatiable curiosity and hunger to understand the world around us is what fuels our mission. We go down cultural rabbit holes to understand how trends form and how people think and behave — all so we can build work that works.
Disclosure: Methods+Mastery serves multiple clients . Those clients and/or their peers and competitors may be included in Alt Text, if we feel they’re relevant to what’s trending in social. We always disclose direct client relationships and affiliations.