Blockquote Lastly, I don’t think we should be ideologically policing anything as iNaturalist contributors… at the end of the day, we’re making an open dataset here.
I am taking this as an opportunity to share my 2 cents on this being larger than just generative AI, but about iNat’s values. Many of us think of iNat as a powerful way to deepen connections with nature and care less about the dataset, and more about the ideology. I am reading a book by Jenny Odell, How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, that articulates well how iNat goes far beyond being an open dataset.
At the end of the day, we are making a revolutionary change on how people (including us) interact with nature and see the world . This ties deeply with our sense of self, community and purpose. That makes it so we cannot avoid politics — but hey, politics is good! Otherwise, iNat may eventually turn in an amorphous, spineless blob, not unlike other online places we all know too well.
Resisting enshittification is way harder than it sounds, but it is vital for community/purpose/passion-driven platforms. I don’t know if adding/complying with big tech GenAI is enshittifying, but I am so thankful for @graysquirrel for raising the discussion!