Affinity Studio now free

Many comments here that this "makes sense." Free does not make sense! If I'm not paying for it I'm not the customer anymore.

Yep. Your art is now their training data. Their AI subscription today comes at the cost of your job tomorrow.

That depends on whether they have anything to sell you. Like Da Vinci Resolve's free version, for example; they have something pro to sell you (and hardware).

Canva presumably see it the same way

Does this read in ToS somewhere? I know many professional artists and if they would find out that their work is used for training, the app is uninstalled faster than it takes time for you to read this text.

It requires a Canva login now, so they'll smuggle it in through there. If it not already in the language it's inevitable because it's set up for enshittification now.

"presumably" doing a lot of heavy lifting

It’s not all free. It gets you in the door to then pay for the subscription to the AI features.

Also, that idea of “if you don’t pay, you’re the product” was a nice slogan but it isn’t true. Open-source software is free and respects you, while streaming services these days charge you money while serving you ads.

Is it? It's just saying I presume it. Is there another word that I can use that does less heavy lifting? Or did you just say that because it's the done thing to say?

It says, on the actual website, the absolute opposite:

"Your content in Affinity isn’t used to train AI features — we can’t access local files. For content you choose to upload to Canva, you’re in control. You can review and update your preferences any time in Canva settings."

The only nuance I can think of here is that if you are using the cloud AI tools, you are uploading content. But it's largely hypocritical to complain about AI tools being trained on your content. They were trained on everyone else's.

Professionals I know don't want to use AI at all. So if Affinity is really not using the produced art for training, many artists will get a good tool for free.

>2025

>believing anything a corporation says

The open-source comparison is confused. Lots of open-source projects do offer optional commercial licenses or support contracts. And the truly free-as-in-beer projects either have some kind of grant financing or else the maintainer shoulders the costs until they burn out.

That "nice slogan" is emphatically true.

Makes sense to whom, exactly?

Free makes business sense when monetizing through business customers and AI subscriptions.

Conflating "this doesn't align with my preferences" with "this is objectively bad business strategy" assumes personal consumer expectations should dictate corporate viability. Those are different frames of reference.

> For content you choose to upload to Canva, you’re in control.

IE: You're in control of what you upload. What happens after it's on their servers? What happens when they send it to a partner for processing?

The AI industry is filled with liars. It's basically "we're not using you data for training, that was a partner we pay that trained using your data." Good luck finding out who actually used your data for training when more than one company had access to it.

No, by "you're in control" they don't just mean that the control is whether or not you upload it. You've elided the other bit of that quote: "You can review and update your preferences any time in Canva settings."

They mean there are two privacy toggles that control it. They ask, you can change your answer.

> AI-powered features can learn and improve with your general usage

> When this setting is on, Canva and our trusted partners will use information about your general usage to help AI-powered features learn and improve. This includes how you interact and create with Canva products, but not your content.

> AI-powered features can learn and improve with your content

> We want to develop better AI features to help improve the way you create it in Canva. We have strict controls and policies in place to protect yours and your Team’s content when building AI, but we still won’t use it without your consent.

Beyond these, I don't know. Or really care, since I won't be using those tools.

Pretty bold claim. Do you have bold evidence?

> Lots of open-source projects do offer optional commercial licenses or support contracts.

And lots more don’t. The difference is so large that the ones who do offer commercial support are a rounding error in comparison.

> And the truly free-as-in-beer projects either have some kind of grant financing or else the maintainer shoulders the costs until they burn out.

Those aren’t the only options, that is a false dichotomy. But even if it were true, it in no way contradicts the argument.

> That "nice slogan" is emphatically true.

It emphatically is not, and you are ignoring half the argument. You can pay and still be the product.