Today Anthropic joins the Blender Development Fund as corporate sponsor.

[Gast]

@Blender Today, Blender will lose a lot of users and have several smaller sponsors pull their support.

[Gast]

I'll be back tomorrow!

[Gast]

@tillbtc @Blender This is the most rational response I've seen in this thread.

[Gast]

@Alairthephoenix @Blender Finally some else can read the room. I feel for this contractor.

[Gast]

@fsiddi

[Gast]

@fsiddi the concern for me was the messaging, how much strings did they buy, how much influence did they get. When these companies come crashing down what harm does that do to blender? There is a significant supply chain risk relying upon any of them.

[Gast]

@Blender lol

[Gast]

@Blender Five seconds of thought might have suggested this wasn't the best move.

[Gast]

@Blender sigh

[Gast]

@Blender@mastodon.social

please reconsider. there are only 3 likes and there are 17 wrench reactions (a sign of disapproval on the fediverse). all other reactions are also that of disapproval. i don't think reactions federate to your instance, though. oh yeah and ai is destroying everything you stand for yadda yadda

[Gast]

@Blender@mastodon.social @davidrevoy@framapiaf.org

when even david revoy is against you, you know you've made a terrible mistake. or you're completely innocent, and your name is richard stallman. hard to tell.

[Gast]

@Blender So what exactly is the point of Blender being free if you take money from the industry single-handedly making RAM unaffordable to the majority of users?

[Gast]

@davidrevoy @Blender by your logic blender was always evil: https://fund.blender.org/. Adobe, Nvidia, meta, amd, meshy.ai, they're sponsoring blender development for a long time, but it's not an issue for you?

[Gast]

@Blender

🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

[Gast]

@davidrevoy @Blender The one thing that should be kept in mind is according to the Funding Policy, "The Blender Development Fund is a donation platform. Individuals and organizations contribute to support Blender's development without acquiring decision-making power over the project's direction."

There have been sponsors like Nvidia, Intel, AMD, etc before. While they aren't directly AI companies, they are now involved with that. While money can certainly influence, they aren't taking control of the project. I do understand your concern, I just wanted to present it from another perspective

[Gast]

@Blender Way to throw your reputation completely down the toilet. I can no longer recommend you.

[Gast]

@fsiddi
Blender user for twenty years here, Blender Development Fund supporter more recently.

Anthropic as a corporate sponsor tarnishes Blender's reputation in a way that no other sponsorship has in the past; it's that simple.

[Gast]

@Blender
IMO, the problem is the Corporate Membership program itself:
https://download.blender.org/institute/BF_Development_Fund_Membership.pdf
In §5, you promise to keep companies' secrets. In §3, you offer (a) better transparency to these companies than the public gets, (b) allow companies to guide your priorities, & (c) special access to your staff at multiple levels.
If your agreement actually said clearly that the donations are no-strings-attached & you won't endorse or promote these companies, I think accepting #Anthropic 'd be ok.
#b3d

[Gast]

@Blender Disappointing to read, not only as someone that taught Blender in several countries, broadly promoting it as a cultural good way back when the project was still building its audience.

Please understand there are no companies as culturally parasitic and destructive as Anthropic. It would be less ethically bankrupt to take money from a gangster.

It is painfully foolish to pretend this is anything akin to sponsorship.

[Gast]

@davidrevoy
Why people always need to be pro-something or anti-something?
Is it primal instinct of belonging and classifying everyone as friend or foe?

@Blender