"Can the pictures posted by artists on Xiaohongshu be freely used to train AI?"

In the past month, the topic of "Xiaohongshu stealing user works to train its own AI model" has been continuously fermenting, and users have initiated a boycott on Xiaohongshu and other social platforms. Some have stopped updating their works on Xiaohongshu, while others have chosen to delete their works and develop on other platforms. Currently, Xiaohongshu has not made a public response to the incident or the parties involved.

The incident was triggered by a freelance artist named "Xueyu" who accused Xiaohongshu officials on July 30 of taking works without the knowledge of the users to train AI. The next day, the user detailed the evidence of Xiaohongshu stealing artists' works to feed AI using two of their own works as examples. For example, in the original work "Kuafu Chasing the Sun," in order to express Kuafu's persistence in chasing the sun, the negative emotions of fear and fatigue were personified into the image of a beast being left behind by Kuafu. However, other users used Xiaohongshu's official AI tool Trik AI to generate images, replacing the beast with a wolf's head. Similarly, in the work "Gaoxin Creates Everything," the user flattened the animals created by Gaoxin and drew decorative patterns around Gaoxin, but the AI did not understand the lines inside and just casually scribbled.

(Left: "Kuafu Chasing the Sun" comparison; Right: "Gaoxin Creates Everything" comparison. Source: Xiaohongshu)

More than just "Xueyu," many other victims have suffered as well.

Weibo user "Zhengban Qingtuanzi" revealed that their work was used by Xiaohongshu's AI tool to create drafts.

Left: User's original work. Right: AI tool's work. Image source: Weibo

Weibo user "Huahua de Yundan Fengqing" stated that multiple of their works were used for alchemy.

(Left: User's original work. Right: AI tool's work. Image source: Weibo)

Weibo user "RedMatcha" had their work used for alchemy.

(Left: User's original work. Right: AI tool's work. Image source: Weibo)

Unable to catch up with Xiaohongshu's big model and the Trik AI's car crash

The big model has become a standard for major domestic internet companies. If a company has not yet launched a big model, it probably feels embarrassed.

Xiaohongshu has not yet announced its big model, but the team has been working on it. According to 36Kr, Xiaohongshu has been preparing an independent big model team since March, and there are multiple independent departments internally simultaneously exploring the AIGC direction. In April of this year, Xiaohongshu quietly launched an AI drawing application called "Trik." In July, Xiaohongshu launched graffiti and the "Now" function.

Regarding Xiaohongshu's AI layout, the author pointed out in the article "Xiaohongshu selects the cover image for AIGC landing scenes, the direction is right but not heartfelt" that Trik AI's operation rhythm is too slow, and by the time it was launched, the Chinese toon had already cooled.

However, unexpectedly, Trik AI is now resorting to using user works. However, using user works for AI alchemy is actually an open secret in the industry. In January of this year, foreign artists collectively sued Stability AI, DeviantArt, and Midjourney, accusing them of infringing on the copyrights of many artists with their training data, but the case was not resolved.

Specifically for Xiaohongshu, the most criticized aspect is the hegemonic clause in the user service agreement. Works published by users on Xiaohongshu can not only be "freely" used by Xiaohongshu but can also be licensed for third-party use. This is why Trik AI can use works from Xiaohongshu's platform for alchemy.

User resistance, Xiaohongshu's silence

Clearly, Xiaohongshu's behavior is clearly inconsistent with the "Interim Measures for the Administration of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services" that officially took effect on August 15.

According to the "Measures," Article 4 of Chapter 1 states, "Respect intellectual property rights, business ethics, keep business secrets, and shall not use algorithms, data, platforms, and other advantages to implement monopolistic and unfair competition behaviors," and Article 7 of Chapter 2 states, "If it involves intellectual property rights, it shall not infringe on the intellectual property rights enjoyed by others in accordance with the law."

Before Xiaohongshu, the domestically renowned AIGC product "Miaoya Camera" also faced controversy over hegemonic clauses. After receiving user feedback, the official quickly revised the agreement and issued an apology statement. They promised that the photos uploaded by users would only be used for creating digital avatars, and would not be extracted or used for identification and other purposes, and would be automatically deleted after the avatar creation was completed.

In fact, the public opinion storm surrounding Miaoya Camera from the outbreak to the official apology took almost only 1 day, and the crisis emergency response speed can be said to be very fast. Perhaps some people feel that Miaoya Camera is a startup team with insufficient confidence and cannot afford to provoke users. In fact, Miaoya Camera is under Alibaba's Big Entertainment, with Alibaba backing it. Even so, they did not show arrogance to users.

As for Xiaohongshu, although it is also a startup company, it has 200 million monthly active users and a valuation of over 20 billion US dollars, making it a super unicorn. It is difficult to say whether they are clear about their customer service, but it is already very difficult for them to listen to the voices of users.

(User resistance to AI on Xiaohongshu, source: Xiaohongshu)

Since August 1st, users have protested Xiaohongshu's use of artists' works to train AI by deleting their works and moving to other platforms. However, Xiaohongshu has not made any statement to date.

The artist "Qingsisi" had previously posted many works on Xiaohongshu.

"Qingsisi" told Babite that upon learning that Xiaohongshu had stolen user works to train its own AI model, they found it quite outrageous that their works were blatantly used without permission. Compared to the major uproar caused by global artists boycotting AI painting events at the end of last year, the current user resistance on Xiaohongshu has not had a significant impact. "Qingsisi" believes that if everyone joins forces to resist, it may not make Xiaohongshu give up infringement in the short term, but when the number of protesters and the duration reach a certain level, it will have an impact on Xiaohongshu, increasing the chances of users fighting for their rights.

Currently, "Qingsisi" has stopped posting works on the platform and only uses it for commissioned work.

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