So, what even is Fold? Why does it exist?

Fold is an idea that I came to after struggling to become a novelist. Over half the books published in 2026 are either completely AI made or have meaningful traces of AI throughout. In the first case, this is sad and a detriment to our collective creative culture. In the second place, it’s incredibly frustrating to make the already difficult job of being a working artist even harder. The art market is suffuse with slop. This is wrong. It should not be so hard for real artists to get their work into the hand of real art enjoyers. For a long time I was left asking the question: how can I, as an independent artist, manage to get my work into the hands of real people who want to read it, without selling out or spending my every waking hour on finding my audience?

The answer, I realized, is part of the problem. AI is in many ways a horribly destructive force, while in others it’s a beautiful extension of the ever grasping arm of technology. AI opens up new doors that never even existed before. It was through this idea that I developed the underlying concept for Fold Laboratories. By leveraging the good of AI, we can displace the bad.

Ultimately, the aim of Fold is to empower real artists to connect with real audiences. If we at Fold are doing our jobs, artists are able to live easier and create more.

Mac Tuten,
Founder/CEO