Today Anthropic joins the Blender Development Fund as corporate sponsor.

[Gast]

@Blender
Blender no!

[Gast]

@Blender This is a disaster. Some money really ought to be turned down. Version freezing our blender, and never updating again unless this decision is reversed.

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@fsiddi@mstdn.social @Blender@mastodon.social Yeah I'm gonna second what others have said -- how did you imagine this going over with your users? Did you expect indie artists to welcome genai with open arms?? Was there a survey or something that suggested this would be the case?

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@Blender
i sincerely didn't thought you'll manage to fall even lower than accepting slop and yet, here we are.
you didn't even cared enough to listen to users, developers and artist all alike not only once but twice as of now.
there's not gonna be a third time to rip those tumors out and return the money.

[Gast]

@fsiddi So, will Anthropic's name be gone from the (nearly top of) Blender's credit page, assuming they don't renew the donation? If so, when is it expected to happen?

[Gast]

@Blender can you reword it to say, "we've realized our terrible mistake, and have decided not to do business with Anthropic?"

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@Blender
This ain't it.
This is the opposite of "it".

You literally couldn't find any other sponsor?
Should we expect AI slop in the code base now? 3d tools based on AI slop?
IDK how human artists can trust you now, to be honest.

[msbellows@c.im]

@Blender Guys, it's not the wording, it's the action itself. And the problem is less whether you'll still be independent, and more that you're whitewashing an evildoer. Think the Museum of Tolerance would accept a no-strings donation from white separatists?

[Gast]

@Blender ffs

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The feigned innocence ... yeah OK buddy

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@Blender Developing a tool for creatives and then accepting money from a company that is not just evil but set out to systematically destroy the livelihood of creatives and creative thought in general is definitely A Choice.

[Gast]

@Blender The complete picture? Are you on crack?

This is not the complete picture until you factor in anthropic's current and past associations and actions

It's blood money you are taking, nothing you do will make it clean or good. No matter what direct influence anthropic has on the company or product, the company is now aligned with all of anthropic's ideals and crimes

by taking this money you have openly declared that you believe ecocide is fine, genocide is fine, fascist slopaganda is fine

if you want us to believe this complete picture nonsense at least say what it is, bonuses all round in return for white and green washing an LLM company at the expense of the community on which your company is founded

[Gast]

@ninjadodo @JoshuaACNewman @Blender probably people aren’t talking about blender’s funding from meta, google and microsoft because we aren’t in a thread about their funding from microsoft, meta or google, we’re in a thread about their funding from anthropic.

this is just whataboutism. it doesn’t refute or mitigate the criticisms people are making. it’s just an arbitrary demand that every historical bad decision by blender be addressed simultaneously with the current criticism

[Gast]

@DiogoConstantino @bnut @fsiddi

Unfortunately for your argument, this does not neutralise their concerns.

[Gast]

@Blender While it's great that Blender gets so much industry support nowadays, it might be time to decline some donations if the donor has obvious ulterior motives.

This is not an honorable company. Nothing good will come of this.

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@fsiddi @cczona i think if money did not equal influence you wouldnt be seeing this reaction in your supporters. its clearly influencing something. inducing this huge upheaval in your support base means proportionally more users supporters and contributors that are pro ai. the conclusions arent hard to reach.

[Gast]

@Blender oof.

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@fsiddi I think enough people have said enough things, but that will probably continue. Please take care of yourself and the team. Sometimes, it is literally that, a mistake. These are tough times for creative people, and many in the community do look up to Blender. They're understandably angry about this. To my fellow artists, we should remember there are humans on the other side of this, and as humans, try to give them a second chance.

[Gast]

@Blender Please reconsider this decision. Your community of artists are feeling betrayed.

[Gast]

@Blender say it ain't so!