In what is becoming a frequent occurrence, another popular software service legions of creatives depend on to work has sneakily updated its Terms of Service (ToS) to jump on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) train, hoping no one would notice. Of course, people did notice, threw a justified fit, and the software service had to walk back the change, only not enough to assuage fears from users that their work was being used to train the robots without explicit permission (not buried in fine print), absent any compensation, and at risk of legal peril.
This time, it was the cloud-based file-sharing service WeTransfer’s turn.
Creative professionals often use WeTransfer to share large files with collaborators, clients, and others. However, some eagle-eyed users noticed a change to WeTransfer’s ToS granting permission for the company to utilize user files to train machine learning models, with a stated purpose of “content moderation.” Furthermore, the updated terms grant WeTransfer “the right to reproduce, distribute, modify, prepare derivative works based upon, broadcast, communicate to the public, publicly display, and perform Content.”
