The “NO AI” clause is conditional, though.
As mentioned in their FAQ, they will reverse that rule when it is “viable in terms of data privacy and ethicality”
unless the rampant ethical and data privacy issues around datasets are resolved via regulation.
Whilst they aren’t VC-Backed, their servers already had to do nearly 10 upgrades, their “AI Detection” is backed by another, third-party AI, and it’s not transparent what said service is.
And to top it off, it’s a closed ecosystem. You upload your art there, and either Cara dies one day and your following is gone, or they change their policies, leadership or anything else, at which point everyone will have to move again
it’s yet another case where the Fediverse and other Federated networks address the core issue that lead to this disaster - content ownership - better than systems like these do. I’m not hopeful for Cara.
Hosting data yourself wouldn’t be required, but it would become an option.
You’d have the option of leaving your identity on your home server, or a separate domain/website, or host your data and identity but use another instance to federate.
Though, designing UX for this will be an interesting challenge.