Episode 296

Jingna Zhang on Protecting Artists from AI

October 30th, 2026

34 mins 51 secs

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About this Episode

Guest

Jingna Zhang

Panelists

Richard Littauer | Eriol Fox

Show Notes

In this episode of Sustain, Richard and Eriol talk with Jingna Zhang about Cara, AI copyright, and protecting artists’ creative ownership. The discussion also examines the intersection of art and open source, the importance of licensing, and how technology can better support creative communities without exploiting their work. Press download now to hear more!

[00:02:22] Jingna recounts her legal battle after an artist copied her photograph, won an award in Luxembourg, and initially defended his use of her work.

[00:07:01] We learn why Jingna created Cara and how it takes a practical approach to generative AI, focusing on protecting creators' rights rather than making unrealistic promises to ban AI forever.

[00:13:37] Jingna compares the financial support available to open source developers with the limited resources available to independent artists, questioning how creative work can be better sustained.

[00:15:29] The discussion explores the need for global protections.

[00:17:24] Jingna explains how Cara encourages community interaction, longer comments, and user-curated feeds rather than algorithm-driven engagement. Also, she discusses the disconnect between artists, developers, and newer AI enthusiasts.

[00:22:00] Eriol and Jingna discuss coding, design, photography, and engineering as creative disciplines.

[00:24:30] Richards asks about Lantern and Jingna explains how she helped launch Lantern after Cara experienced targeted scraping attacks.

[00:27:03] They discuss open source licensing and AI restrictions.

[00:28:21] Eriol highlights how existing open source licenses often fail to address design assets, user research, and other creative contributions beyond code.

[00:30:31] Find out where to follow Jingna and learn more about Cara and Lantern.

Quotes

[00:18:17] “I would love for Cara to be a corner of a better internet.”

[00:22:52] “Good programming is art and good engineering managing is art.”

[00:24:42] “The first scraper [of Cara] actually ended up apologizing.”

Spotlight

  • [00:31:07] Richard’s spotlight is the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
  • [00:32:05] Eriol’s spotlight is a report and project called, Exploratory study of Addicting Design.
  • [00:33:06] Jingna’s spotlight is Open Access at The Met.

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Sponsor

CURIOSS

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