Procreate Hates Generative AI & Will Never Adopt It

iPad digital illustration app Procreate, owned by Australian company Savage Interactive, is taking a bold stance against generative AI and vowed never to incorporate the new technology into its products.

“I really f****** hate generative AI,” the company’s CEO, James Cuda, said in a video posted on the Procreate account on X. “I don’t like what’s happening in the industry, and I don’t like what it’s doing to artists. We’re not going to be introducing any generative AI into our products,” he was categorical, adding “Our products are always designed and developed with the idea that a human will be creating something.”

Procreate launched in 2011 as one of the most advanced painting apps for a mobile device, more precisely, the Apple iPad, aimed at artists and creative professionals alike. At that time, the app emerged in response to a new wave in tech, tablet computing.

Procreate allowed creatives to replace traditional art techniques like painting and drawing and tools like brushes, pens, and inks with touchscreens, pixels, and styluses. Interestingly, the company now refuses to embrace the next big thing in tech – generative AI.

“AI is not our future,” reads the headline of Procreate’s website announcement on its stand on AI, calling the new technology “a moral threat” to human creativity. “Creativity is made, not generated,” the announcement continues.

Many artists applaud Procrate’s strong anti-gen AI stance, urging others to support Procreate over competitors like Adobe, which has incorporated AI into their products. Since ChatGPT’s release initiated a major AI frenzy, companies have been racing to adopt the new technology. On the other hand, creatives feel tech companies exploit their work to train AI models without their permission or compensation.

Procreate is one of the very few who boldly decided to embrace an AI-free future. The company’s CEO is uncertain what that future holds but seems ready to stick to his decision:

“We don’t exactly know where this story is going to go, how it ends. But, we believe that we’re on the right path, supporting human creativity,” Cuda ended his video.