Your ArtSites website is already protected from the major AI crawlers, and you don't need to do anything. Several artists have written to us recently about Meta's new AI and tools like Glaze, so we wanted to answer those questions in one place.
What Meta is doing with your images
Meta's AI training is about what you post on Instagram and Facebook. Meta has said for some time that it uses public posts on its platforms to train its AI models, and its terms of service give it broad rights to do so.
In July 2026, Meta launched Muse Image, its own AI image generator. For a few days it trained on public Instagram posts without notifying users, and anyone could mention a public Instagram account in a prompt so the AI would use that account's photos as references. Meta rolled back part of this after the backlash, but the direction is clear.
If you post your work on Instagram or Facebook, your controls are in those apps: your privacy settings (a private account isn't used this way) and your choice of what you post there.
Your ArtSites website is already protected
AI companies do collect images from websites using automated programs called crawlers. Every ArtSites website already tells the major AI crawlers, including Meta's, OpenAI's, Google's and Anthropic's, not to collect your images. This is done with a standard file called robots.txt, and we keep it up to date as new crawlers appear.
To be honest about the limits: reputable companies respect these instructions, but a crawler that chooses to ignore them can't be stopped this way. No public website can promise complete protection.
Why we don't recommend Glaze
Glaze is a free tool from the University of Chicago. You run it on your own computer before uploading an image, and it adds small, mostly invisible changes meant to stop AI from learning your style. Its sister tool, Nightshade, goes further and tries to corrupt what an AI model learns.
These tools are well intentioned, but we've chosen not to recommend them, for two reasons.
First, the protection doesn't hold up. Researchers have shown that simple techniques, such as upscaling an image, can remove Glaze's effects, and newer tools can automatically detect and strip the changes. You Glaze an image once, but AI developers can keep improving their methods and apply them to every image already online.
Second, it changes your artwork. The alterations can be visible, especially in areas of smooth colour, and your images are what you're selling. That's why ArtSites has never pushed watermarks. A guaranteed cost to your work for an uncertain benefit isn't a good trade.
If you'd still like to use Glaze, that's your choice, and Glazed images upload to ArtSites like any others.
What you can do