Cara — around late May until now, this new social media/portfolio application has taken over the social media trend like a storm.
The application that is claimed by the developers to supposedly be the solution to the problems all digital artists face when dealing with the surging AI art (and so-called AI phonies artists alike).
What exactly is Cara? How can it surge in popularity so quickly? Can we, as the general users of social media, benefit from it?
Cara is All about Genuine Artworks
Finally, no generated art overwhelming the social media feed as thumbnails to lure in clicks and views from users like us.
There’s nothing wrong with generated artworks (as long as they are declared as AI-generated), but considering that the data collected by the AI from the artworks posted or published by the actual artists, of course it’s going to cause some concerns regarding stolen data.
So to combat this, Cara automatically adds “NoAI” tags on every image uploaded on the platform to prevent AI to scrape data from those images.
If some scrapers out there really wants to collect the data from said image, they’d have to do it manually (screenshot, illegal downloads, etc.), so at the very least that’s a step to limit the possibilities of stolen data, since AI is blocked from accessing the pictures itself.
Cara also utilises third-party services to detect and prevent AI scraping, ironically enough. It could analyse user behaviour, download patterns, or image characteristics to identify and block automated attempts to collect data.
Talk about fighting fire with fire. Or in this case, fighting AIs with AIs.
How do We Benefit From Cara?
Even if you’re not an artist yourself,
Cara’s rise can have some positive benefits for you as a general social media user, too.
As stated in the website, Cara is “a portfolio and social network platform for artists and fans of the entertainment art industry”.
Cara’s focus on human-made art could mean a shift towards seeing more original and creative work on social media.
You might discover new artistic styles and talents you wouldn’t have encountered otherwise. Take Pinterest, for example, for when you want to browse for room decoration ideas, or what to wear for a retro-themed dinner party.
Seeing people share their artwork without worry is such a fresh breath of air over the constant competition of publishing only snippets of the best artwork locked away in Patreon, Ko-fi, or any other platforms that is not the main social media platform thanks to both AI and human scrapers.
Remember DeviantArt?
DeviantArt was a haven for artists to upload their artworks back then, before the rise of AI.
Now, even DeviantArt has hopped into the trend of art-generating AI machine to boost traction because AI-generated images are all the rage right about now.
Of course, with the AI machine created by DeviantArt, comes the concern regarding data stolen from the website itself. Considering the huge amount of uploads, it’s a no-wonder that DeviantArt gets a lawsuit regarding copyright infringement (though the team behind it denies such claims).
So, artists can only hope that with Cara, they would be able to have their artworks protected by the data-collecting AIs.
Let’s Take a Look into Cara
I was tempted to try out Cara, and see it for myself what really drives artists to migrate yet again to another social media application.
It is quite a sight.
It kind of looks like Twitter/X or Threads if you look at it at a first glance.
The layouts are definitely familiar, and you can make written posts or include images, just like Twitter/X or Threads.
The Home page consists of both your posts and the works of others, whether you follow them or not.
What I’m not sure, though, is that the recommended artists may or may not be tailored to your preferences in the type of artwork you interact with. If it does, it may invite unnecessary trouble with privacy violations, but that’s a story for another day.
The explore page, though, is somewhat a striking resemblance of Instagram. It contains endless posts from various artists that showcase their artworks on the platform, so you can click on any of them to like, bookmark, or follow the artists.
For now, the main tabs of the explore page includes ‘Discover’, ‘Latest’, ‘#caramemes’, and ‘News’. Could be helpful if you want to browse for specific posts curated to your preferences.
Or hey, just use the search function. That works, too.
I had to try posting a few things on the platform to test how things work. Glad to see it didn’t crash or malfunction like Threads once did when it was having an upsurge of users installing the application.
I didn’t post pictures, though. Instead, I just use pictures as thumbnails to showcase my articles in the portfolio on the profile.
Speaking of which, the ‘Portfolio’ tab on Cara works similarly to the ‘Highlights’ tab on Twitter/X. Whenever you post something, you can opt to tick the post as ‘portfolio’ to showcase your work in the portfolio section.
Regular posts fall under the ‘Timeline’ tab, so it won’t interfere with your best works.
As far as I’m using it, I’m having no issues whatsoever. I didn’t have issues with crashes or freezes. There was no glitches nor bugs either.
Verdict
I’m not exactly an art enthusiast, mind you — I’m just a person that likes to try out new things.
And as far as social media/portfolio platforms go, Cara is quite a decent application to go by. Considering that the app is still new and developed by a small (human) team, I’d say there’s a lot of potential to open up possibilities for showcasing not only artworks, but other professional works, too.
Think of LinkedIn — it’s a platform to showcase your best work in your portfolio and interact with companies to potentially engage and form a bond (or get a job) between one and another. In Cara, it’s to showcase your best work for clients to buy, interact, or commission.
Now, with all this talk of AI, maybe you’d want to read more about Sora by OpenAI — a video-generating tool by AI — which you can click here.
Otherwise, feel free to browse through my entire catalogue to find the ones that just might entice you. I’ll see you another time!
