Anthropic’s patronage of Blender downgraded to one-off donation
AI developer Anthropic’s controversial Corporate Patron status of the Blender Development Fund has been downgraded to a one-off donation, the Blender Foundation has announced.
According to the Foundation, “Anthropic has been informed and supports this decision.”
The Foundation is now “strengthening the processes when it comes to accepting donations”, and will now “clearly define how Blender is positioned in regards to generative AI technologies”.
A divisive donor to the Blender Development Fund
Last week’s announcement that Anthropic had become Blender’s latest Corporate Patron, and would contribute €240,000/year towards development of the open-source 3D software, split the Blender community.
Although support from other large tech corporations had proven controversial in the past, some Blender users’ visceral dislike for generative AI meant that the news was particularly divisive.
On social media, responses ran the gamut from “this is a smart move” to “I will never donate to you again”.
Although by no means all of the feedback was negative, on Friday, the Blender Foundation issued a statement that Anthropic’s contribution to the fund had become a one-off donation.
Anthropic’s logo no longer appears on the Blender Development Fund website.
New status ‘requires no formal relationship’ between Anthropic and Blender
Blender CEO Francesco Siddi has also posted a thread on Mastodon explaining the decision in more detail.
Some of it covers the issues we analyzed in our original story: whether large corporate donations grant donors influence over future development of Blender, either explicit (they don’t) or implicit (more debatable).
Comparing Anthropic to previous corporate donors, Siddi commented:
“In my personal view, Anthropic is no different than other large corporations that are part of the Development Fund. But I do know, and respect, that for many it’s not the same.
“In the case of the Development Fund, showing the logo (at mutual discretion) or providing a point of contact in the organization can be considered a form or relationship.
“This is why we chose to shift Anthropic’s Development Fund membership into a donation, which requires no agreement or formal relationship. The money still goes towards Blender’s mission, unconditionally.”
Reviews of Blender policy on future donations and relationship to AI announced
The Blender Foundation is now “strengthening the processes when it comes to accepting donations”, with progress due to be communicated through the board meeting logs on the Blender website.
The Foundation will also now “clearly define how Blender is positioned in regards to generative AI technologies”, including in developing the software itself, and for creating documentation.
The statement concludes that Blender is a tool “made by humans for humans” and that “no generative AI functionality is currently available or planned to be integrated in Blender”.
Read the Blender Foundation’s announcement of the changes to funding and AI policies
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