When I learned Figma, the popular design platform, announced Artificial Intelligence (AI) features at their June 2024 annual conference (Wayback Machine), I shook my head.
Over the past couple years, I’ve become frustrated with companies (especially design tool companies) announcing new AI features, since many companies train their AI models on user-generated content.
Without giving customers/members the ability to opt-out or remove their content before training begins.
I wondered how long before Figma announced they were training their AI on user content.
As I expected, I didn’t have to wait long.
Within a couple days of their AI announcement, Figma sent email to users saying they will use customer content to train their AI model.
Figma customers have until August 15, 2024 to opt-out.
Rather than making the option opt-in (which is more customer friendly), Figma chose to automatically opt customers in.
Not a good user experience. I’ve never been an advocate for automatically opting in customers/members/users to a feature.
Argh.
What a refreshing change when I learned about Vimeo and their community outreach about AI.
Vimeo and AI
In his May 2024 blog post, Vimeo CEO Philip Moyer shared his message about Vimeo’s position on AI. He commented about his April 2024 AI post asking for feedback from the community.
It was clear from his May blog post that Moyer listened to feedback from Vimeo community members.
Gathering this feedback ensured that our community’s voice guided our decisions and that we approached this question with transparency and inclusion.
Their decision prioritized community members, a decision Vimeo describes as “contrary to many other community websites.”
I describe their decision, which I feel is good user experience, as focused on their community members.
Vimeo will not allow generative AI models to be trained using videos hosted on our platform without your explicit consent, even if you use our free offerings.
As a customer/member/user on community websites, Vimeo’s decision is common sense.
Without community content, community websites don’t exist.
Moyer highlights three key points that helped Vimeo make their decision:
- Protecting creative rights
- Transparency and control
- Community feedback
My interpretation, Vimeo:
- Understands the importance of community
- Seeks feedback from their community
- Treats community members and their content with respect
Kudos to Vimeo on their AI decision! I wish more companies would make the same decision.
