WotC WotC: 'Artists Must Refrain From Using AI Art Generation'

After it was revealed this week that one of the artists for Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants used artificial intelligence as part of their process when creating some of the book's images, Wizards of the Coast has made a short statement via the D&D Beyond Twitter (X?) account.

The statement is in image format, so I've transcribed it below.

Today we became aware that an artist used AI to create artwork for the upcoming book, Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. We have worked with this artist since 2014 and he's put years of work into book we all love. While we weren't aware of the artist's choice to use AI in the creation process for these commissioned pieces, we have discussed with him, and he will not use AI for Wizards' work moving forward. We are revising our process and updating our artist guidelines to make clear that artists must refrain from using AI art generation as part of their art creation process for developing D&D art.

-Wizards of the Coast​

Ilya Shkipin, the artist in question, talked about AI's part in his process during the week, but has since deleted those posts.

There is recent controversy on whether these illustrations I made were ai generated. AI was used in the process to generate certain details or polish and editing. To shine some light on the process I'm attaching earlier versions of the illustrations before ai had been applied to enhance details. As you can see a lot of painted elements were enhanced with ai rather than generated from ground up.

-Ilya Shlipin​

​

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Yes. It even copies signatures. It doesn't create, it copies.

It's a bit more complicated than that. With the right prompt you can get an image in the style of a famous artist featuring a completely different subject than anything the artist has actually painted. Just because it has a fake signature doesn't make it a copy of any existing works.

 

[J.Quondam]

Yep. Honestly they shouldn't be able to Call these things AI. Nothing created by tech has been even remotely intelligent. Which when we see what the dumb AI's can do should scare everyone.

Thank the techbros, corpos, and media for pushing this stuff with as much sweet, sweet sensationalism as the We the Consumers can handle!

 

[Morrus]

It's a bit more complicated than that. With the right prompt you can get an image in the style of a famous artist featuring a completely different subject than anything the artist has actually painted. Just because it has a fake signature doesn't make it a copy of any existing works.

Are you saying that if my signature ends up on a piece of AI art, that’s coincidence?

 

[Justice and Rule]

Are you saying that if my signature ends up on a piece of AI art, that’s coincidence?

I think they're saying that you can get if you include the artist as part of a prompt, even if its a subject they've never touched, by including it in the prompt may end up including the signature despite it not directly taking it from something. To give an example, if I asked for "Star Trek Picasso", obvious he's never done anything regarding Star Trek but because I used his name in the prompt the AI will include the signature with whatever else it outputs. At least, that was my take.

 

[Vaalingrade]

It's a bit more complicated than that. With the right prompt you can get an image in the style of a famous artist featuring a completely different subject than anything the artist has actually painted. Just because it has a fake signature doesn't make it a copy of any existing works.

See, this is the problem: people just aren't aware of how it works.

The software creates a database of images and keywords associated with them. Then it breaks them down into a bigger database of math based on the related shapes and their components as well as medium and color choice.

Then when it gets a prompt for say 'In the style of...', it grabs images of that artist's style, grabs images of things noted as that object, and then render the subject using all the math from the style. The computer doesn't know what a dog is; if people keyworded enough ducks, we can make the AI to reply to requests for dogs with ducks or combinations of ducks and dogs. It doesn't know what it's making, it's just using existing images to apply an algorithm.

 

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Are you saying that if my signature ends up on a piece of AI art, that’s coincidence?

Nope, I'm saying the AI thinks your signature is part of your style.

 

[Morrus]

Nope, I'm saying the AI thinks your signature is part of your style.

And copies it.

 

[Clint_L]

A lot of these comments are based on a misunderstanding of how AI generated art works. The AI can't see, and it isn't sentient. It is responding to data points and trying to create similar patterns in an attempt to fulfill a prompt. So for an AI, the signature is not really distinguishable from other types of data. Yet - I suspect that is something that the folks working on these AI are trying very hard to sort out.

It doesn't so much copy it as recreate it, usually with weird alterations.

 

[Morrus]

A lot of these comments are based on a misunderstanding of how AI generated art works. The AI can't see, and it isn't sentient. It is responding to data points and trying to create similar patterns in an attempt to fulfill a prompt. So for an AI, the signature is not really distinguishable from other types of data. Yet - I suspect that is something that the folks working on these AI are trying very hard to sort out.

It doesn't so much copy it as recreate it, usually with weird alterations.

What’s the difference between copying and recreating something?

If I type out your post am I copying it or recreating it? If I recreate the Apple logo myself based on how somebody describes it to me and then sell my new phone with that logo on it, am I in breach of copyright? (Yes I am).

To me, this argument quickly devolves into semantics. Whatever the method or terminology, my signature has been copied.

 

[FrogReaver]

I think theres a few discrete scenarios.

1. Color this thing I drew blue.
2. Create the image of a X.

I think having AI color a drawing you made is AI as a tool.

Creating an image with only a text prompt is quite a beyond the scope of just an artistic tool, especially given the inner workings.

I guess I’m trying to say that It’s not that AI can’t function as an artistic tool it’s just that it can also function as the artist too.