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The tech CEO behind the popular Procreate drawing app is James Cuda, and his blunt 2024 comment about generative AI was more than a viral sound bite. Cuda said, “I fucking hate generative AI,” while Procreate stated that it would not introduce generative AI into its products. The company’s official position remains publicly summarized as “No generative AI.”

What James Cuda said about generative AI

On August 18, 2024, Procreate’s official X account shared a company video in which CEO James Cuda criticized generative AI and its effect on artists. Cuda said, “I fucking hate generative AI,” and said he disliked what the technology was doing to artists.

He also made the company’s product direction clear: Procreate was not going to introduce generative AI into its products. Procreate summarized that position with the line, “We’re never going there. Creativity is made, not generated.” Futurism reported the statement on August 21, 2024.

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The headline’s phrase “really f*cking hates” is a stronger paraphrase of the story. The directly reported quote is “I fucking hate generative AI,” so the two should not be treated as identical wording.

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Who is James Cuda?

James Cuda is the CEO of Procreate, the Australian creative-software company best known for its iPad illustration and painting app. Procreate describes the app as a drawing and painting tool with hundreds of features and more than 300 handcrafted brushes. Its official product page also presents the iPad app as a non-subscription product.

This matters because Cuda was not speaking as the head of a general-purpose AI company or a hardware manufacturer. He was describing the philosophy of a software business whose core customers are illustrators, painters, designers, and other visual artists.

Procreate’s official AI policy

Procreate maintains a dedicated AI position page headed “No generative AI.” The company says that it believes generative AI diminishes the human element of creative work and raises concerns about how artists’ work is used in training datasets.

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Procreate also emphasizes user control and privacy. It says users’ artwork belongs to them and that Procreate does not have access to their art by design. Those are the company’s data-handling and product-positioning claims; they should not be confused with a legal ruling about copyright, training datasets, or every AI-generated image.

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Procreate is not rejecting every form of machine learning

“No generative AI” does not mean “no algorithms” or “no machine learning.” Procreate’s own explanation distinguishes generative AI from machine learning more broadly and acknowledges that machine learning can have value.

Generative AI creates new content—such as images, text, audio, or video—from prompts or other inputs. By contrast, features such as brushes, layers, stabilization, color controls, selection tools, and time-lapse recording should not automatically be labeled generative AI. The relevant Procreate policy is specifically about systems that generate content, not a blanket rejection of every computational feature.

Why Procreate rejects generative AI

Procreate’s stated objections center on four connected concerns:

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  • Human authorship: The company wants its tools to support work made by people rather than replace the act of creating with generated output.
  • Training data: Procreate objects to the use of artists’ work in datasets without clear consent, attribution, or compensation.
  • Artist control: Its position appeals to creators who want control over their work and do not want their files used to develop external systems.
  • Brand identity: A human-centered workflow differentiates Procreate from creative-software companies that have adopted generative features.

Procreate has used strong language about generative AI being built on the work of artists. That is the company’s ethical and political position—not an uncontested legal conclusion. Lawsuits and policy debates about training data, fair use, copyright, and consent remain separate questions.

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Was Cuda speaking only for himself?

No. The statement was tied directly to a product decision and reinforced by Procreate’s public AI policy. Cuda’s personal objection and the company’s “No generative AI” position point in the same direction.

Still, the most precise description is that Procreate has publicly stated that it will not introduce generative AI into its products. That does not establish that the policy can never change, nor does it prove that every current or future feature uses no machine learning. It describes the company’s stated direction and scope.

Why the statement resonated with artists

Futurism reported strong support from artists and other online commenters after the statement appeared. For some creatives, Procreate’s refusal to add generative AI represented solidarity over concerns about consent, style imitation, dataset provenance, and the possible displacement of creative labor.

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That reaction should not be treated as a survey of all artists or Procreate customers. Other artists and designers see carefully governed AI tools as useful for ideation, accessibility, repetitive tasks, editing, or workflow assistance. The disagreement is not simply between people who understand technology and people who do not; it reflects different views about authorship, labor, consent, and what creative software should do.

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Procreate, Adobe, and Figma take different approaches

Procreate’s position is easier to understand when compared with the broader creative-software market:

Product Primary workflow AI-position contrast
Procreate iPad drawing, painting, and illustration Publicly rejects generative AI and emphasizes human-made creativity.
Adobe Photoshop and Creative Cloud Professional image editing, design, photography, and creative production Represents a broader ecosystem that has incorporated generative AI tools.
Figma Collaborative interface design, prototyping, and product workflows Has pursued AI-assisted functionality and is not a direct replacement for a brush-based painting app.

These positions do not mean Adobe or Figma force every user to make generated work, or that their tools are identical to image generators. They indicate different product philosophies. Procreate prioritizes a direct, manual illustration workflow, while Adobe and Figma compete partly through larger ecosystems and AI-assisted capabilities.

What the policy means for users

For an artist choosing software, Procreate’s position is useful because it is unusually clear. Choose Procreate when you want:

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  • an iPad-first painting and illustration workflow;
  • manual brush-based control;
  • a company that publicly rejects generative AI;
  • a product page that currently advertises no subscriptions; and
  • a privacy position stating that Procreate does not access users’ artwork by design.

Procreate may be a poor fit if you need desktop publishing, advanced professional photo workflows, vector design, extensive team collaboration, or built-in generative features for ideation, image expansion, background creation, or other automation.

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For broader desktop creative production, Adobe Photoshop and Creative Cloud offer a larger professional ecosystem. For collaborative interface design and prototyping, Figma is the more relevant category of tool. Neither is a like-for-like replacement for Procreate’s raster painting workflow.

What has changed since 2024?

The original controversy is a 2024 story, not a new 2026 announcement. However, Procreate’s official AI page continued to display its “No generative AI” position when checked in 2026. That supports the conclusion that the company’s public stance remains in place.

It is more accurate to call this a continuing policy than to describe it as breaking news. A live public statement is also not proof that every internal roadmap decision is permanent. The safest current summary is that Procreate publicly rejects generative AI while distinguishing it from machine learning more generally.

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What the statement does—and does not—prove

  • It does show that James Cuda, Procreate’s CEO, publicly opposed generative AI.
  • It does show that the comment was connected to a company product policy.
  • It does explain why Procreate appeals to artists who prioritize human authorship, consent, and privacy.
  • It does not prove that every AI training dataset is legally unlawful.
  • It does not mean Procreate rejects all machine learning or all algorithmic features.
  • It does not guarantee that the company’s policy can never change.
  • It does not establish that every Procreate user or artist agrees with Cuda.

The important point is that the remark was not merely an executive’s offhand insult. It expressed a deliberate position for an artist-focused company: Procreate wants to sell tools for human-made creativity without adding generative AI to that workflow.

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