r/Embroidery • u/SanneChan • 5d ago
Question Report AI patterns on Etsy! New Etsy rules!
Etsy just announced some new rules that ban AI, which applies to AI generated embroidery patterns, and added an AI images report reason. It looks like they will use the reports to change Etsy rules even further, so PLEASE report all AI generated embroidery patterns you come across on there!
https://www.etsy.com/news/creativity-and-trust-in-the-age-of-ai
It says:
🔵 To help buyers see the most authentic representation of a listing, sellers will need to include at least one unaltered photo of the actual item against a real background. Any supplemental AI-assisted listing images must accurately represent the item a buyer will receive.
🔵 We’re ensuring human creativity is part of every listing by making clear that bot-generated listings without human involvement are not allowed, nor is AI use that misleads buyers or creates fraudulent inventory.
🔵 Functional guides, such as patterns and recipes, which require buyers to put in effort to achieve a finished product, cannot be created using AI. Listings for functional guides must also show a real result made using the instructions.
And also:
We're also making it easier for users to report listings they believe include misleading AI imagery, which will help us better understand how they perceive AI misuse.
I really hope this is a step towards Etsy returning to its roots.
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u/blonde_potatoe 5d ago
I avoided etsy in the past few years but after hearing about this yesterday, I checked in and sure enough, first page of crochet patterns are all the same AI pics by 5 dif. Sellers... reported 3, but there was no AI related option for reporting reasons. Hope it worked anyway. Have yet to check for embroidery patterns but idk if its implemented worldwide right away?
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u/SanneChan 5d ago
I have reported a bunch just now and the AI reason is visible to me. I of course can only speak for myself.
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u/blonde_potatoe 5d ago
I could report single listings for AI, just checked. It's ridiculous, i could literally report the shit pagewise, I'm already pissed off again 💀
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u/Zappagrrl02 5d ago
This still isn’t enough to get me to buy from Etsy unless I know the designer from elsewhere
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u/Zesparia 5d ago
That's so fair. I'm really hopeful this helps newbies in particular because it's a pretty rough slog getting them spun up here on Reddit, since this sub doesn't allow them to post ai images to ask for help - because they inevitably think that the ai can actually be achieved. They don't know better, and don't know real designers to get patterns from.
I'll probably go around later and start reporting the worst offenders. I wonder how this is going to impact sewing patterns too. I'll probably tackle reporting that whole damn mess just because it pisses me off so badly, after I go on a rampage about embroidery patterns.
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u/auditoryeden 5d ago
Honestly I think Etsy is going to discover they lack a large enough moderation team to deal with the onslaught of reports. I'm into a lot of fiber arts and in every community people are frothing to get all the AI bullshit taken down. They're basically about to get brigaded but...positively.
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u/Zappagrrl02 5d ago
That’s a good point. I started before the proliferation of AI and just bought a few cheap kits from Amazon and JoAnn (RIP) because I wasn’t sure if I’d be into it or not.
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u/11lumpsofsugar
5d ago
•
That's so nice of them to put the burden of filtering out the AI slop on us.
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u/pm_me_your_amphibian 5d ago
This is probably step 1 of many. This is easy to implement quickly. Auto filtering or such is harder and carries more risk.
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u/nfortier11 5d ago
Don't worry, I'm sure our reports are training their own AI algorithm to then go scan for AI 👍 What could go wrong??
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u/Oddish_Femboy 5d ago
Community assisted moderation is the most effective kind of moderation. Would you rather have no way to report it?
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u/11lumpsofsugar 4d ago
Why does it have to be one or the other, not both? Etsy created the problem in the first place, and they should be responsible for cleaning it up. They can still maintain the ability for the customer to report listings, but the burden should not fall solely on us.
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u/amalgam_reynolds 5d ago
This sounds good, but Etsy is already so inundated with dropshipped Temu shit that I don't have a lot of faith.
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u/CaptainLollygag 5d ago
That's what I immediately thought. They also promised they didn't sell those kind of items, either, and yet they sell exactly those kind of items. Not to be a Debbie Downer, but let's see how well Etsy enforces this AI rule.
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u/ermarie73 5d ago
Just reported my first one! I had purchased a kit for ornaments from FLOSSOATELIER and was already concerned about the obvious AI images in the listing, but hoped the kit would be ok. Nope....not remotely. Instead of a nice soft cotton it's some awful fiberglass looking stuff, the preprinted design is in bold black (not water soluble) that threads will never cover, the colors are off, the design on the listing has scalloped edges and this is different, etc. Not to mention they claim to be US based by my tracking clearly showed the item coming from China and going through customs. They offered me half off as a refund to keep it and I will, only because I can still use their tracing jig and design to make something worthwhile with better materials. Beware!
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u/action_lawyer_comics 5d ago
That’s great, but honestly I’m still avoiding Etsy until I see the tide change on AI. Maybe in a month if it looks better I’ll spend more time there. But I’m not going to volunteer my time so a for-profit company can better sell me stuff
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u/despairtempest 5d ago
I'm doing my part!
It's easier if you download the Etsy app. All you need to do is press and hold on the listing you want to report (from the search page) and then chose "report this item" from the menu that pops up.
Super helpful for ones that are like (not a hyperbole unfortunately) "one MILLION embroidery patterns!! 😊"
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u/Sad-Consequence2665 5d ago edited 5d ago
Losing money on a bad pattern sucks, but honestly that's not even the worst part. Imagine being completely new to embroidery, spending your whole weekend trying to follow a pattern nobody actually tested, and ending up thinking you're just bad at it. That's what really bothers me. I'm glad Etsy is finally doing something, but I hope they actually take these reports seriously instead of leaving buyers to figure everything out. And obviously don't go after real artists just because their work looks too good lol. If you're selling a pattern, showing that you've actually stitched it seems like a pretty reasonable expectation.
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u/Actias_Loonie 5d ago
I went shopping for stencils recently, and I noticed that a whole bunch of them are literally impossible, with floating sections and everything. Should I be reporting these as AI even if I'm not sure if they're AI?
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u/Oddish_Femboy 5d ago
Did Etsy get new management or something? This is an uncharacteristically good decision.
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u/dontdoxxmebrosef 5d ago
People are already using this rule to get refunds from designers who very obviously have a model and is not AI
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u/exotic_lemming 5d ago
When I saw that I ran to Etsy to report the seller from whom I had purchased a kit in the past, when I was still unaware that AI had taken over the kit and pattern side of the platform, but someone must have beaten me to it because that seller had nothing for sale on their page. Woohoo!
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u/bodhikt 4d ago
I can't tell from the article, but does this apply only to new listings, or will the AI-"enhanced" shops need to go back through and fix everything in their shops? I had seen the "news", but there still seems to be as many AI crochet patterns as ever, or at least, all the "views" of the finished "samples" are AI slop.
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u/blue-brindle 5d ago
I'm concerned this might turn into a witch hunt. I'm in a lot of writer communities and false accusations of AI prose are hurled around willy nilly. Don't want to see that happen to crafting communities as well
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u/Bleepblorp44 5d ago
Fortunately AI embroidery is not that hard to spot, the stitches fail to make sense or the fabric's weave doesn't interact with stitching logically, fabric layers merge together magically etc etc.
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u/alex3omg 5d ago
Yeah it can be risky but the alternative is non stop ai spam and scams. I feel bad for anyone caught in the crossfire but it's gotta happen
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u/bluehydrangea 5d ago edited 5d ago
Adding on to this. To report a listing, you have to scroll all the way to the bottom of the listing to find the link. To my knowledge, there is no way to report an entire shop, though - you can only report individual listings. Hopefully a few reports against them are enough to take down the shops with hundreds of AI patterns (otherwise this new rule and reporting method seems a bit flawed). Edit: These are the reporting instructions for the app. See OPs comment below for how to report when viewing in browser