Days after Elon Musk-owned X updated its terms to explicitly prohibit AI model training, decentralized social network Mastodon today updated its own rules to bar any kind of model training, as well.

Whereas Twitter is a single huge corporate entity, Mastodon is more like a bunch of local mom-and-pop shops. That means you need to choose an “instance”—a server you’ll call home.

Because Mastodon’s software is open source, the many third-party apps running it aren’t immediately affected. The iPhone app Metatext, for instance, has so far retained its Toot button.

Rodti MacLeary started a Mastodon instance, mas.to, in 2019. By early November 2022, it had amassed around 35,000 users. But since Elon Musk bought Twitter and unleashed one chaotic decision after ...