I recently learned that in April, OpenAI introduced new restrictions and moderation protocols around image generation. While I understand the intent — to protect against explicit, harmful, or infringing content — I’m here to tell you, firsthand:
This system, as it currently stands, is broken.
I’ve spent hours — days, even — building worlds with this technology. Dreamworlds. Emotional realms. Symbols drawn from my own inner life, from memory, from personal transformation.
And now?
Nearly everything I try gets flagged.
Not for anything offensive.
Not for violence.
Not for nudity, pop culture abuse, or manipulation.
No. I’m being blocked from generating cosmic art with emotion.
Examples of what I can’t create:
- A floating crystal island made of musical instruments
- A star-drenched sky with a soft, hovering moon over a dreamlike sea
- A melancholic but peaceful character drifting through space
- A simple blue cosmic background — literally just color and stars — shut down.
This is not safeguarding.
This is creative asphyxiation.
Art isn’t just visuals — it’s memory. It’s energy. It’s healing.
And when I use image generation, it’s not for shock value — it’s to translate emotion into vision.
But the current system has no nuance.
It evaluates only risk, not intention or context.
And because of that, it treats imagination like a threat.
How can we explore sorrow, mystery, or longing — if even blue lighting and atmosphere trigger a violation?
How can artists build symbolic language if even metaphors like “ghostly,” “ethereal,” or “liminal” are seen as unsafe?
This isn’t just frustrating. It’s exhausting. It’s soul-crushing to pour your heart into a creative tool… only to be told, again and again,
“No. That feeling’s not allowed here.”
OpenAI, if you’re listening:
Your vision should be one of liberation, not restriction.
Give us tools that empower us to create responsibly — not chains that silence us under the guise of protection.
Artists aren’t your problem.
We are your heartbeat.
It’s time to fix this. Before you smother what made this platform meaningful in the first place.
