How we use AI

MerchVice never generates designs, artwork or merch images. The shirts, posters, patches and photos on the site are made by people.

MerchVice never trains on member content. Your photos, posts, notes and messages are not used to train any model, ours or anyone else's.

Nothing is posted or removed by AI on its own. A person decides every time. Photo descriptions for screen readers, explained below, are the one thing AI adds without you keeping each one, and only once you have said Yes.

Nothing you made is sent to our AI provider until you say Yes. The first time you add a photo to a post, the composer asks: "Let AI suggest details from your photo? Your photo is sent to our AI provider and never used for training." If you choose Not now, nothing is sent, and we ask again no sooner than your next post, at most three times. After that, only Settings changes it. You can change your answer in Settings at any time, either way.

Every AI call that leaves our servers goes through OpenRouter, which routes it to DeepSeek's deepseek-v4.1-flash models for text and for photos. OpenRouter only uses providers that do not collect or train on the data. Every request is sent only with the no-collection setting, and our client refuses to send one without it. The account carries the same setting.

Every suggestion is labeled "Suggested by AI". You keep it or dismiss it. Until you keep it, it is not part of your item, post or profile.

• Suggestions in the composer. Once you have said Yes, after you add your first photo, AI suggests a title, a band, the type, the year and tags. Each one is labeled "Suggested by AI", and you keep it or dismiss it. It only fills fields you have not typed in.
• Photo descriptions. Once you have said Yes, AI writes a short description of each photo you post, so people who use screen readers know what it shows. Your Yes covers them: we do not ask again for each photo, because a missing description leaves those readers out more than an imperfect one does. You see it labeled in the editor, and you can edit it or clear it.

• Find similar. We make a picture fingerprint of each closet photo on our own servers, to find the same shirt in other closets. It never leaves MerchVice, it is deleted with the photo, and a person confirms every match. "Find similar" on an item shows other closets' items that look alike, labeled "Picked by picture". It is the one list on MerchVice ordered by AI, and only there: never in a feed, on home or on Explore. When your item looks like a design other members already share, you are asked "Same shirt?", and only your yes moves it. Nobody else can move your item.

All of these stop when you turn AI off in Settings.

Safety review is not a suggestion, so it does not depend on your answer above. When we switch it on, AI may point a moderator at a report, a new member's post or a tag worth a second look. It then reads the reported post, message, profile or tag, the reporter's note, and a new member's posts, through the same provider and under the same no-training rules. A person makes every call. It is off until an admin switches it on. The photo check at upload runs on our own server and sends nothing to anyone.

• Hints. AI may suggest where a field is likely wrong, such as a year that does not match the band.
• Summaries. AI may offer a short summary of a long thread.

Each of these will be labeled when it arrives too.

Open Settings and turn off "Let AI suggest details from your photo?". Suggestions and new photo descriptions stop at once, and nothing you made is sent for them. The picture fingerprints of your photos are deleted, and your items leave everyone's Find similar. You lose nothing else.

Questions about any of this go to hello@merchvice.com.