ArtStation Turns On the AI Training Ban by Default and Admits Its Generative Content Filters Are Failing

ArtStation has changed the logic behind protecting artists' work: the NoAI tag, which forbids using an image to train neural networks, is now enabled by default for all new projects and has been applied retroactively to portfolios and profiles that were already uploaded. Previously artists had to ask the platform themselves to protect their work — now, on the contrary, they will have to switch the protection off if they want to allow model training. In parallel, the platform, together with Cloudflare, has begun detecting and blocking known AI crawlers and automated scrapers before they reach the content.

The second part of the statement concerns day-to-day work on the site: ArtStation has admitted that the CreatedWithAI label and the current filters are not coping and that generative images are flooding its search and discovery systems.

What exactly has changed in the settings

• NoAI is applied automatically when a new project is uploaded — consent to AI training is no longer implied by default;
• the tag has been applied retroactively to older work and profiles, so there is no need to update the portfolio archive by hand;
• known crawlers and mass scraping tools are blocked together with Cloudflare;
• ordinary search engines still index projects, so portfolios remain visible to recruiters, studios and potential clients;
• the terms of use have been updated to match the new rules.

Separating search bots from AI crawlers is essential here: ordinary indexing is preserved, so the work stays findable by people and is at the same time marked as unavailable for model training.

The company immediately noted that it is impossible to fully protect a publicly posted image from scraping, and it promises only to make unauthorized access harder and to build out protection as the technology develops. Under its current AI policy the rights to the work remain with the authors, the platform does not sell or license them to AI companies and has no agreements allowing anyone to scrape its content.

Generative images make it harder to find professionals' work

Artists have long been complaining about the same thing: because of the volume of generated content, original work is harder to find, portfolios are harder to assess, and ArtStation itself is becoming less useful as a professional venue. Until now the platform responded to this with the CreatedWithAI label and filters. Now it says that this has turned out not to be enough, and it is developing new search tools and additional controls so that professional work does not end up buried under generative work. Neither the makeup of these systems nor the timing of their arrival has been disclosed.

At the same time, there is no ban on AI art right now. Work made with neural networks is allowed if the user owns the rights or has permission to publish it, and marketplace products containing generative material are required to carry the CreatedWithAI label. Part of the community is demanding that such content be removed entirely, so this announcement does not close the argument.

Why this is happening now

Formally this is a product update; in essence it is a change of position by the site. It coincided with a change of owner: in August ArtStation and Sketchfab moved from Epic Games to KitBash, the company behind KitBash3D and Greyscalegorilla, while portfolios, libraries, subscriptions, marketplaces and workflows were left untouched. One of the new owners' first notable decisions was a reversal on the very issue the platform has been criticized over ever since generative services appeared. This is probably because retaining a professional audience matters more to a niche owner than to a corporation: if modelers and artists leave, the site is left with neither content nor recruiting traffic.

At the same time, protection from AI crawlers is ceasing to be a gesture and is becoming a default setting at the infrastructure level — large providers and publishers are moving the same way, and Cloudflare here serves as a ready-made technical layer that the site does not have to build itself. If the trend continues, opting out of model training will become an industry norm for portfolio platforms, and ArtStation's competitors will have to explain why it is not switched on for them.

The practical takeaway for artists: work already sitting on ArtStation no longer has to be protected by hand, but the weight of the NoAI tag still rests on the good faith of those who assemble datasets, not on a technical prohibition. The verifiable result will be the state of search and discovery: until the new tools are described and launched, the second half of the statement remains a promise.

Community reaction

Artists met ArtStation's move with restraint: they praise it, but almost no one considers it sufficient. The official post gathered thousands of likes, and the most visible replies all strike the same note — a good start, now get the generative material off the site and out of the store. Some people are ready to trust the new team again after the move to KitBash, but only if the NoAI label is followed by a real cleanup rather than yet another setting. The line of lateness and distrust sounds harsher. Critics point out that work has been harvested for model training for years already, and that a label without hard blocking of the harvesters remains a polite request that can be ignored. They compare it to Cara, where protection is stricter, and write outright that the platform is years late and is now guarding its own body of data from other people's models more than it is guarding the authors themselves. The rare “time to come back” voices are drowned out by the formula: the first step is accepted, there is no full forgiveness.

“A great first step! Now get rid of the generative stuff that has clogged the store — then it will really be something.”

— @arvalis (X)

“ArtStation quietly harvested everyone's work for months and trained models on it, and since 2022 it has been doing so openly. ‘We've heard your feedback’ four years ago. What does ‘immediate steps’ mean?”

— @mikeymegamega (X)

“Removing all the generative material from the site would be a top-class move. It is not art. The people posting it are not artists. Letting it onto ArtStation is like hawking cheap Temu goods at a craft fair.”

— @lockwood_ted (X)

Why has ArtStation decided to do this: the failure of its own filters, pressure from artists, the threat of lawsuits?