AI Use Policy

Effective June 2025

As a trade association encouraging businesses within the crafts industry to stay current on new technology, we strive to be knowledgeable and up-to-date about developments in artificial intelligence (AI). 

We are committed to educating our members on the ethical and effective use of AI, through webinars, resources, and community discussions that promote informed decision-making. We believe that there are AI tools today that can be helpful to business owners and endeavor to share those tools, and resources on how to optimally use them, with our members. 

At the same time, we are aware that AI training sets, especially for visual AI tools, can include the works of artists and makers without their permission and that this use has complex and controversial intellectual property implications. We also acknowledge that visual AI tools may be a threat to artists and illustrators if individuals and companies choose to use these tools rather than commissioning and paying for original artwork. 

Our role within the industry, and in the business community at large, is to emphasize the value artists and crafters bring to our society. As a result, our policy at Craft Industry Alliance is not to use AI-generated imagery anywhere, with some rare exceptions, as outlined below.

Articles and Resources for Publication

We do not publish articles, resources, or other print material generated by AI. We hire writers to craft original written content for our website, and we draft original content for our newsletters and social media posts. Our writers and our staff may at times use AI tools such as ChatGPT to assist in brainstorming ideas, drafting headlines, or rewriting specific phrases etc., but the article, post, or resource will be original to the writer. Any article suspected to have been written by AI will be returned to the writer and will not be published until it is rewritten and original.

If, after publication, we discover that the text we’ve used on our website, newsletter, or social media post was generated by AI, we will post an apology on the same platform and spell out specific steps we will take going forward to prevent the circumstance from happening again. These may include more explicitly explaining our AI policy with our writers, exclusively working with writers committed to original prose, and using AI text detectors when we suspect text has been written by AI.

Imagery

We do not use AI-generated images in any materials, on our website, newsletter, social media, or anywhere else, unless the topic being covered is about AI-generated imagery. For example, we will not use an AI-generated image as the illustration for an article that appears on our website or newsletter, or as a post on Instagram about a topic covered on our website, and we do not accept AI-generated imagery from our advertisers. Exceptions include using an AI-generated image as an illustration of AI technology in an article on that topic, or when we hire a presenter to teach about AI imagery, and so we use an AI-generated image to promote the session on that topic, etc.

Looking Ahead

We acknowledge that the field of artificial intelligence is a rapidly changing one. As AI expands into audio, video, and tool-based applications within crafting, we will evaluate and adapt our policy to remain consistent with our mission and ethical standards. We reserve the right to update this policy as both the technology and our views and understanding of it develop.