The Automattic “AI” thing  ## Metadata - Author: [[tante]] - Full Title: The Automattic “AI” thing - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: - WordPress - Automattic - AIDataScraping - TrustIssues - UserGeneratedContent Author: [Tante] Source: [Mastodon Post, Blog Entry] Reference: [Page Link to Mastodon Post] date created: 2024-09-10 15:30 --- # Title: Automattic's Decision to Sell User Data: A Breach of Trust? ## Table of Contents: - [Summary](#summary) - [Main Content](#main-content) - [Introduction to the Issue](#introduction-to-the-issue) - [Opt-out System Raises Concerns](#opt-out-system-raises-concerns) - [The Harm of the AI Hype](#the-harm-of-the-ai-hype) - [Impact on WordPress Open Source](#impact-on-wordpress-open-source) - [Automattic's Shady Approach](#automattics-shady-approach) - [Notes](#notes) - [References](#references) - [Paraphrase](#paraphrase) - [Newsletter](#newsletter) - [Action Items](#action-items) - [Hypotheses](#hypotheses) - [Methodology](#methodology) - [Questions](#questions) - [Future Research](#future-research) - [Implications](#implications) - [Logical Validity](#logical-validity) - [Conclusion](#conclusion) ### References: - [Mastodon Post](https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/112004861936954526) - [Automattic Privacy Policy](https://automattic.com/privacy/) ## 📝 Summary: Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and Tumblr, is planning to sell user-generated data to AI companies like OpenAI and Midjourney. This decision has sparked outrage as it breaches user trust and shifts WordPress’ focus from user empowerment to commodification of content. The “opt-out” nature of this move raises further ethical concerns, reflecting the pervasive "AI hype" that is steering tech companies toward monetizing user contributions. Many worry that this could also harm the WordPress open-source ecosystem, which has long championed user autonomy and creative freedom. ## 📖 Main Content: ### Introduction to the Issue - Automattic, the parent company of WordPress.com and Tumblr, is in talks to sell user-generated data to AI companies like OpenAI and Midjourney. - This applies primarily to hosted WordPress.com users, while self-hosted instances (using Automattic’s plugins like Jetpack) are currently unaffected. ### Opt-out System Raises Concerns - Automattic has opted for an “opt-out” system, meaning users need to actively reject the sale of their content. - This move is seen as a violation of trust, akin to how companies like Meta treat their users, leading many to question Automattic’s ethics. - Automattic, once viewed as a “good” company in the tech world, is now revealing its pursuit of AI-driven profit over user respect. ### The Harm of the AI Hype - The article critiques how the AI hype has eroded the original mission of platforms like WordPress, turning user-generated content into mere "data sludge." - Tools like “AI writing assistants” introduced by WordPress underscore the shift from empowering users to treating their work as training fodder for machine learning models. - The core argument is that WordPress no longer prioritizes creativity and human expression, reducing user contributions to exploitable data. ### Impact on WordPress Open Source - Automattic’s decision could damage the WordPress brand and affect the larger open-source project. - WordPress has long been a user-friendly tool enabling writers and creators to own their platforms, standing apart from proprietary platforms like Medium or Substack. - The article warns that damaging the trust in WordPress could drive users back to closed platforms, undermining the open-source web. ### Automattic's Shady Approach - Automattic's lack of transparency and secretive decision-making reveal its disregard for user trust and respect. - Rather than introducing an opt-in system or communicating openly, Automattic chose to quietly work on data deals with Microsoft/OpenAI, prioritizing profit over its community. - The call for a possible fork of WordPress reflects the need for governance that truly values user autonomy and creative freedom. ## 🗒️ Notes: - Automattic’s data-sharing decision is seen as a breach of user trust. - The “opt-out” nature of the feature raises significant ethical questions. - AI hype is critiqued for reducing user-generated content to training material for AI systems. - Concerns are raised about how this could damage the open-source WordPress ecosystem. - Automattic's secretive approach suggests a shift in values, prioritizing profit over user empowerment. ## 📖 References: - Mastodon Post by @tante - Automattic Privacy Policy ## 🗣️ Paraphrase: 1. Automattic is preparing to sell user-generated content from WordPress.com and Tumblr to AI companies like OpenAI and Midjourney, allowing these corporations to exploit user contributions. The real issue is that this is being done through an opt-out system, suggesting that users' trust and agency are not priorities for Automattic. 2. The AI hype has caused platforms like WordPress to abandon their original mission of empowering creators. Instead, they now view user content as mere data to feed into AI models. This commodification of human creativity undermines the fundamental principles that once set WordPress apart from proprietary platforms. ## 📰 Newsletter: 📢 **WordPress Trust Breach? Automattic to Sell User Data to AI Companies** It’s hard to believe, but Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com and Tumblr, is gearing up to sell user-generated data to AI firms like OpenAI and Midjourney. While self-hosted WordPress sites are safe for now, this breach of trust leaves many questioning Automattic's commitment to its users. The opt-out nature of this move has drawn sharp criticism, as it shows little regard for those who helped build the platform’s success. Stay tuned as this story unfolds and let us know how this affects your approach to web publishing! 💬 Read more about this developing story [here](#). ## ✅ Action Items: This article aligns closely with my professional focus on open-source advocacy, transparency, and contributor respect. Automattic’s decision to sell user data without transparent communication strikes at the heart of user empowerment—an issue central to WordPress' role in the open-source web. The article also touches on sustainability, noting that damaging trust in WordPress could lead to long-term harm for the open-source ecosystem. It’s a critical moment for re-evaluating WordPress governance, which directly connects to my aspiration to become an OSPO director and improve how open-source projects balance user respect with growth. ## 🧪 Hypotheses: - If Automattic continues with this practice, there will be a significant decline in trust within the WordPress community, potentially leading to users leaving the platform. - The lack of transparency in data-sharing practices will prompt more WordPress forks or alternative open-source publishing platforms to emerge. ### 📊 Methodology: - Conduct surveys and community polls within the WordPress ecosystem to gauge trust levels before and after Automattic’s announcement. - Analyze the impact of opt-out policies on user retention rates, focusing on trust erosion and migration to alternative platforms. ### ❓ Questions: - What legal frameworks govern the sale of user-generated data in platforms like WordPress and Tumblr? - How will Automattic’s decision affect the broader open-source publishing landscape? ### 🔮 Future Research: - Explore the potential consequences of large-scale data-sharing practices on open-source communities. - Investigate how alternative open-source platforms could provide more user-respecting models for content publishing. ### 💡 Implications: If Automattic’s decision significantly harms trust, it could lead to a major shift in how open-source communities and platforms handle user data. The erosion of trust could also fuel the rise of new open-source alternatives that place a greater emphasis on user autonomy, transparency, and consent-driven policies. ### ✅ Logical Validity: The article makes a strong case that Automattic’s decision to sell user data represents a breach of trust. The argument is well-supported, particularly in its critique of the opt-out system, which prioritizes profit over user empowermen - Document Tags: [[ai]] [[automattic]] [[wpdrama]] - Summary: Automattic, the company behind WordPress, is considering selling user data to AI companies, sparking concerns about privacy and trust. This move could harm the open-source project and erode user confidence. The decision to make this a default opt-out feature has raised ethical questions about user exploitation and the devaluation of creative expression. - URL: https://tante.cc/2024/02/27/the-automattic-ai-thing/ WordPress Blue Ball Wallpaper Collection: Single ball and black background So this just happened: [](https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/112004861936954526)[Mastodon post by me at https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/112004861936954526: "Holy shit, WordPress.com/Automattic is really trying to destroy all the goodwill it has built over years. Selling user posts to "AI" companies is such a breach of trust and an insult. It negates any respect for user contribution that is the basis for a good and sustainable relationship. https://mastodon.social/@404mediaco/112004850884204466"](https://tldr.nettime.org/@tante/112004861936954526) and I thought it might make sense to add a few more words to it. So Automattic, the company financing the development of the Open Source WordPress blogging platform (which this site and a huge part of the Internet runs on) is in talks to [sell user generated data to Midjourney and OpenAI](https://www.404media.co/tumblr-and-wordpress-to-sell-users-data-to-train-ai-tools/). This only applies to users/customers of their hosted WordPress.com offering and Tumblr, a struggling social media platform they bought a while ago. (So your own instance is in the clear for now – until you realize that these companies are scraping the web anyways so your writing or drawing or whatever is in their training set). This is bad for a bunch of reasons. Firstly it shouldn’t be “opt-out”: Making this feature a thing you need to actively reject shows how Automattic sees their user base and it’s not better than how Meta looks at their little content producer drones. There was a level of trust between Automattic (which was seen as one of the good companies [spoiler: Those do not exist**)**] and its users. Automattic wanted some money for hosting or maybe place a few ads but they didn’t appear overly creepy or greedy. Of course Automattic always had the power but they played the role of the nice king, the well meaning ruler. Now they show that with all the free money that is sloshing around due to the “AI” hype nothing is sacred. This will make many people even more suspect of “the nice companies” and might lead to a “anyone is going to screw me anyways so I can just as well publish on some closed platform. Some people might also just drop out of publishing to the web because the friction to move is such a hassle. Secondly it shows the fucking brainrot that the “AI” hype creates. WordPress a product that got its market and mind share because of enabling people to write, to publish, to be creative and expressive now tells you that anything you do is just data sludge to feed to whoever has the most NVIDIA cards to burn through. Signs of this already emerged when WordPress added “AI” writing assistants to their products. It’s no longer about you having the tools to write and create and through that connect to others, it’s just about creating whatever content. Who cares what’s in your posts anyways? A tool for creation whose makers and owners very explicitly display a total disregard for the people using it to create something and the artifacts they create. Because the loop “AI writing assistant” to “training stochastic parrots on people writing” back to “writing assistant” tells a clear story of that is valued. Your writing is valuable not as your expression but as something with some information density and entropy that OpenAI can use to fuck up the web even more. Thirdly this damage to the WordPress *brand* might affect the open source project as well. Which is massively bad for a web that’s not controlled by big corporations. WordPress might not be the fanciest tool on the market but it has one thing going for it: Nothing comes close to ease of deployment and running. WordPress enabled so many non techy writers and artists to run their own platform should they choose to do so. It was one of the few successful mainstream projects that actually got people to realistically choose not to post their stuff on Medium or Substack or some other closed hosting platform. Because while there are more open source publishing platforms really nothing is near WordPress’ sweet spot of features, ease of use, ease of deployment and plugin landscape. The fancy shmancy new tools running increasingly complex JavaScript stacks or even more obscure tech are not ready for non nerds to run (and often fragile as fuck). And that’s on the nerds and techies. We were so busy rewriting things in rust or JavaScript that we never thought about what to do when Automattic falls. We were very naive. I don’t think it’s necessary to move away from your self-hosted WordPress instance. Yet. But Automattic has shown their true colors and this goes beyond implementing a new editor you don’t super like or not adding some feature you’d like to see. This is about the things you do, the products of your creativity, your expressions of joy and anger and pain and love and beauty. It’s about a company who used to claim to support writers and other creators deciding that all you do, all the things you care enough to express in whatever imperfect, broken, dumb way are up for grabs to feed to a machine whose expressed purpose is to replace you, to drown your work in the digital equivalent to toxic waste. And very obviously Automattic knew it was shady. Because they worked on this completely in secret: They could have introduced an opt-in system for third party data use beforehand. Communicated things honestly, going into an exchange with their users before accepting checks from Microsoft/OpenAI and others. But they didn’t. Because they didn’t think that the writers and artists that made WordPress and Automattic what they are and their work are deserving of respect. When people show you who they are and what they think, believe them. Maybe WordPress needs a fork and a new home governed by an entity that does care about the people using it to express themselves. Automattic obviously does not want to be that., The Automattic “AI” thing, tante, 01hqpgvc03s3vdp8wc07k6cfre.