u/Mr_Electro84

https://x.com/FFmpeg/status/2084084810813743614

The best part about all this is that it seems to be helping them with their work (Once again, AI is a tool that, when used properly, can be a great help in development and creation.).

(Now all we have to do is wait for the most hadrcore anti-AI users to have a heart attack and say, “Oh, FFmpeg is becoming slopware, let's move on... [oops, FFmpeg is a video transcoder used just about everywhere]”)

Recently, following a strong backlash from a (small) anti-AI group over Anthropic’s involvement as a sponsor of the open-source 3D software Blender, Blender reclassified the sponsorship as a one-time donation, so Anthropic will no longer be a sponsor of Blender.

https://www.blender.org/news/upcoming-blender-development-fund-and-ai-policies/

The problem isn't this decision (even though I personally think it sends the wrong message, since the controversy is baseless - a company sponsoring Blender has no say in the software's future), but that the decision contradicts Blender's existing list of sponsors.

In fact, Blender’s list of sponsors includes: Meta and Google (two companies with divisions specializing in generative AI and leading the market), Adobe (a company that has decided to incorporate generative AI into its creative products), Nvidia (the “shovel maker” of the AI market), and others (you can verify this on https://fund.blender.org/ ).

So there are two possibilities: either they stick with Anthropic’s sponsorship through to the end (even if it means upsetting that small anti-AI faction - small because I’m willing to bet that for the majority of users, the announcement didn’t faze them in the least). Or they remain consistent to the end and remove the companies mentioned above from the list of sponsors (which, in my opinion, is a shame because in that case it would mean depriving an open-source software project of a major source of funding in the name of the software’s “financial purity,” which would very likely result in a decline in development quality).

In short, the controversy wasn't based on much, but Blender's response is disappointing given the full context (and we'll have to wait and see whether the anti-AI activists will also call out the sponsors of the companies mentioned above).