In the last few months, Meta started to sneakily train its generative AI tool on Instagram posts. Now, some artists are jumping ship to a lesser-known portfolio app, Cara, to protect their work from AI data scrapers.

The portfolio app bills itself as a platform that protects artists’ images from being used to train AI, and only allowing AI content to be posted if it’s clearly labeled. Based on the number of new users the Cara app has garnered over the past few days, there seems to be a need. Between May 31 and June 2, Cara’s user base tripled from less than 100,000 to more than 300,000 profiles, skyrocketing to the top of the app store.

While the unprecedented technology (AI) presents a wide range of uses and implementations, it’s not without its downsides, which often revolve around data usage, copyright, and regulation. When artists began noticing their original art had been co-opted by generative models, a clarion call was issued to stop their work from being scraped to build the databases generative programs use. Class-action lawsuits have further drawn attention to individuals’ copyrights and how information is collected, reused, and remixed.

A few months ago, a new social media and portfolio app called Cara emerged with a twofold goal of creating a space for artists to share their original work and closely monitoring for AI-generation, which is not allowed. Cara also incorporates a tool called Glaze, or The Glaze Project, developed by the SAND Lab at the University of Chicago “to protect human artists by disrupting style mimicry in the training of generative AI models.” Not only can artists share their work in an AI-free environment, but the platform actively works to prevent imagery from being replicated as closely.

Over the weekend, Cara jumped from a few thousand users to more than 300,000 when Instagram users started sharing links to their new profiles, launching the platform into the Top 5 in Apple’s U.S. App Store. It hasn’t been without some growing pains—the team had to upgrade the servers seven times to keep up with demand, and the team is determining how to sustainably handle the growth. Formatted like a fusion of Instagram and Twitter, the interface is familiar and efficient, quickly becoming a hub for artists working in both digital and analog character development, animation, illustration, and more.

Created by photographer Jingna Zhang and a small team of engineers and contributors, Cara aims to stay at the forefront of technological developments, advocating for artists’ rights while building an effective networking tool. “The future of creative industries requires nuanced understanding and support to help artists and companies connect and work together,” the team says. “We want to bridge the gap and build a platform that we would enjoy using as creatives ourselves.”