AI art bans are going to ruin small 3rd party creators

ECMO3 · 2026-03-21T02:21:51+0000

Several years ago on an AI thread thread I wrote that AI bans will help the major corporations and hurt 3rd party creators. I faced some criticism for this.

Now we have exactly this coming to pass. Foundary recently banned AI art on its Marketplace. As a result, most of the small mom and pop 3rd party creators will need to remove their products or remove the art in their products.

Paying for art for 100 different monsters in a monster supplement, or dozens of NPCs in an adventure, is not a viable financial option on a publication that might sell 100 copies. Removing the art will make their products inferior to what is being published by the mega corporations that are selling thousands of copies and can absorb the cost to pay artists.

bedir than · 2026-03-21T02:30:09+0000

Good!
If people can't be bothered to create things themselves why should that cost me money?

Sacrosanct · 2026-03-21T02:30:22+0000

Absolute nonsense. What do you think us small time publishers did prior to 2023? Not only is there high quality inexpensive stock art options out there, there are LOADS more options than there were in years past.

ECMO3 · 2026-03-21T02:32:26+0000

Sacrosanct said:
Absolute nonsense. What do you think us small time publishers did prior to 2023? Not only is there high quality inexpensive stock art options out there, there are LOADS more options than there were in years past.

I think they did not publish and sell nearly as much as they do now. The ones I know personally certainly didn't.

ECMO3 · 2026-03-21T02:33:34+0000

bedir than said:
Good!
If people can't be bothered to create things themselves why should that cost me money?

People are creating things, they are just being elbowed out by large corporations with more money and what is essentially a monopoly due to economies of scale.

I don't think having 4 or 5 companies control the D&D market is a good thing.

Sacrosanct · 2026-03-21T02:34:16+0000

ECMO3 said:
I think they did not publish and sell nearly as much as they do now. The ones I know personally certainly didn't.

Not really true. Either way, not the point. The point is that there are tons of high quality professional level stock art options out there. Absolutely no need to go the AI route. I'd argue you'd sell less with AI, because so many people hate it.

bedir than · 2026-03-21T02:35:17+0000

ECMO3 said:
People are creating things, they are just being elbowed out by large corporations with more money and what is essentially a monopoly due to economies of scale.

The AI images aren't created by people.
Charging me for work that isn't human is a theft as great as those who stole my works to seed their averaging machines.

ECMO3 · 2026-03-21T02:39:27+0000

bedir than said:
The AI images aren't created by people.
Charging me for work that isn't human is a theft as great as those who stole my works to seed their averaging machines.

Ok then don't buy it. Or just admit that only companies large enough to pay for such human artists should be in the marketplace.

This hurts small 3rd party creators. That is fact and those creators ARE creating their adventures and their supplements, even if they use AI art, and they are also creating the prompts to develop the AI art.

ECMO3 · 2026-03-21T02:40:45+0000

Sacrosanct said:
Not really true. Either way, not the point. The point is that there are tons of high quality professional level stock art options out there. Absolutely no need to go the AI route. I'd argue you'd sell less with AI, because so many people hate it.

It is true. 3rd party creaters ARE being removed from Foundary. Their Foundary products that are there right now are going away. That is FACT!

They have a grace period until their current license runs out, then those products are gone.

This is not some hypothetical, I know real living people who will lose their livelihood over this. Meanwhile everything Hasbro/WOTC will stay.

Sacrosanct · 2026-03-21T02:58:39+0000

ECMO3 said:
It is true. 3rd party creaters ARE being removed from Foundary. Their Foundary products that are there right now are going away. That is FACT!

They have a grace period until their current license runs out, then those products are gone.

This is not some hypothetical, I know real living people who will lose their livelihood over this. Meanwhile everything Hasbro/WOTC will stay.

Where is your evidence that they are being removed due to not using AI? As I keep saying, there is a ton of stock art out there that is just as good as the "big boys". Dean Spencer comes to mind, and his NPC and monster portraits are $3 each. If small 3PP are being removed, it's for reasons other than not using AI to keep up with the big companies.

It's not the art budget that's killing people in the "compete with big companies" issue, it's the marketing budget. And AI won't fix that. As you're seeing in this very thread, AI will only make that worse as you're pushing away your already small customer base.