Our AI Policy

People are Primary; AI is a Tool

 

Your trust is essential to our business.

We share our process here as part of building trust.

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As creators, we see that stolen human work is being sold back to us in AI form. 

Not cool, tech bros…

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We see that AI technology is added without our consent into software and search. 

Bottom line, AI is here, and we must reckon with it.

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The question is:  How do we make ethical use of an unethically-built technology?

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Our philosophy is to center human creation, experience, and ideas, and to use AI as minimally as possible.

 

We will tell you what is done by PEOPLE, and what is done with help from AI tools.

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What is Done by People

 

People are in charge at Vivid Cottage.

 

People lead the business.

Vivid Cottage was founded by Kerstin Rao, a retired teacher in Westport, Connecticut, in May 2021. 

 

People create the art

Kerstin creates her fine art the old-fashioned way: by hand, using materials like paper, pencil, ink, charcoal, pastel, colored pencil, etc. 

 

Kerstin also loves to write. You’ll feel her sincere and sometimes silly self in her writing.

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Connecting and sharing our real-life experiences is profoundly important to us at Vivid Cottage.

We hope you feel uplifted by our imperfect, hand-made, and human-written creations!

 

People make our products here in the US.

Vivid Cottage was founded in 2021 with a commitment to USA-based manufacturing of our products.

 

Kerstin’s Grandpa Eugene and Grandma Alice were factory workers in Detroit.

Grandpa Arthur was a doctor and Grandma Esther was a teacher in the Twin Cities.

All four of them were proud of their work and contributed to our country.

The United States was founded as a democracy" of the people, by the people, and for the people.

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In that spirit, we choose to manufacture in the USA.

We are proud to support American workers.

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The Role of Artificial Intelligence

 

At Vivid Cottage, it's the humans who create.

Next, and only if needed, AI tools can help with mundane tasks.

 

We focus on protecting our intellectual property and safeguarding the privacy of our customers.

 

The AI Tools We've Tried So Far:

• Google AI during search for those quick summaries at the top of the page.

• Google Analytics to understand data so we can serve you better.

• ChatGPT to refine marketing.

• Gemini in Google Workspace tools like docs, sheets, etc.

• Intuit AI in our accounting software.

• Wix website AI tools for updating our site.

 

Updated 8-19-2025