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

[Umbran]

I’ll be curious to see if this will get a mod response, or if it gets a pass because of the topic.

Mod note:
We do not read every post, Bill.

There is no Aha! or Gotcha! or Pithy Observation to be found in our not responding to any particular post.

Now, if you had reported the post, that might speak to the moderator opinion on the matter, but since you didn't, now you have missed the chance to get that unsullied - do I now not moderate that post because of the topic, or because you were being passive-aggressive about it?

Like how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop - the world may never know.

 

[Umbran]

I've asked a few questions. 1) what's the difference between me doing the job with the AI tool and a human doing the job with the paintbrush, canvas, and paint tools? 2) What's the difference between using the AI picture as my inspiration and an artist looking at a picture as inspiration? That last one is what you were responding to. The context was sort of spread over a few posts, though.

My answer remains the same, for two reasons.

1) In fact, while the results of your neurology, cognition, and process of creation may seem to be very similar to the machine's result, under the hood, during the process, they are not really much alike at all.

2) As noted - if we do not reserve some differences between ourselves and our tools, then we are tools. There is ample example in the world, and in our own history, to demonstrate this. Ask any African American.

 

[Cergorach]

It is not 100% your vision. It's as close as AI can get using information it already has in it's database. If it doesn't exist in the database, you will never get "your" vision.

Getting 100% your vision as an illustrator is also very hard, then there's also the customer who's vision you're trying to translate into a working illustration. With generative AI, you can add things to that 'database' without retraining the AI, depending on the model, you can add in actual art, styles, etc. You can add what's missing in the 'database'...

The point of the position against AI is that there are more things in the world than venal and hollow self-interest

But funnily enough, many creators that see their livelihoods threatened speak out against it, it's no wonder that people see it as venal and hollow self-interest...

I would hesitate to call it a skill

It's a skill, just a skill you don't value. In the same way getting higher quality/relevant results with a search engine is a skill, a skill most people don't posses. I work in IT and finding stuff quickly online that is of high relevance and has high accuracy is very valuable when people are paying you a lot of money per hour. Although most people wouldn't value that skill highly either, there are many such 'niche' skills that are valuable in the niche, and not so much outside of it.

You do not need AI.

You also don't need pnp RPGs or a computer... And many people don't, the point is that some people want it...

I'll post a reply on a forum by writing it myself, because I want to. I don't want to write room descriptions of hundreds of Undermountain rooms. Nor would I want to draw a similar amount of illustrations. It's not just the work involved, but the time as well. I want certain things on my walls in my living room, and I won't be using generative AI for that (maybe for upscaling). I'm either using large prints of iconic illustrations or making/reproducing it myself.

As for using LLM for posting topics or replies to topics, this happens on Reddit quite a bit. But it generally gets downvoted so hard and quickly by the community, that it is not much of an issue in the Reddits I use. As this forum doesn't want to do community moderation, not only is it 'verboten', even using the Like icons in a sarcastic way is not allowed, all reaction moderation is done by moderators. And even if LLM replies are not allowed, people who want to use them, will use them (and get banned), but imagine the strain on moderators. Imagine folks getting banned due to being accused of using LLMs, that are not actually using LLMs, but are actually so exposed to that style of writing, they are using it in their own writing.

Using tools for detection might work, but teachers using 8+ tools to detect LLM usage get outsmarted by students that also use multiple tool combinations to defeat detection tools... Personally I think mods have better things to do then hunt for LLM replies...

 

[Brendan Byrd]

The same way it's actual human art since you got there using your human brain to use the paint, paintbrush, and canvas tools to make it your own.

It's not even the first time. Sculptors use power tools to get rid of large chunks of a piece of stone to help them get down to the part where they want to fine tune it into their vision. Is it not art because they didn't use personal skill with a hammer and chisel on the entire thing?

And if the canvas, paint or stone are stolen goods?

If an LLM is trained on art obtained legally, I don’t have a problem with it.
Bad actors have tainted the product, so everyone pays.
AFAIK art produced with AI, while art, is not copyrightable property.

 

[Scribe]

You also don't need pnp RPGs or a computer... And many people don't, the point is that some people want it...

Yeah, so we need to decide if we want people to be able to make a living wage creating art, or if we want to race to the bottom, and hand over that creation to soulless AI companies who generate that art based off of theft.

We dont 'need' a lot of things. Many things we enjoy are actively harmful, yes, I get it, I believe we live in a society that is actively getting worse, great, fantastic.

AI, when it comes to art, when it comes to replacing labour, is probably up there in the top 3 worst things we could be pursuing, but hey "press button get pretty picture good".

I mean if I was inclined, I'm 99% sure I could populate my upcoming book with generated art at zero cost to myself other than some time clicking and waiting.

I would rather instead, commission some to fill out what I cannot source as stock art or create myself.

We can choose a better path, instead of again just racing to the lowest common denominator.

 

[tetrasodium]

PI don't know what your question has to do with my post,

You were quick to throw out words like "stolen", that makes Plato's cave relevant.

Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" describes prisoners chained in a cave who mistake shadows on a wall for reality, until one escapes and discovers the true world outside.

Every single artist dating back to the second to draw on cave walls has drawn inspiration and technique from art created previously.. every last one of them.

but based on the bolded parts above, I'm not going to respond to you anyway. Not if you're going to insist on characterizing people who disagree with you like that. Too much hostility for me to spend time on. Have a good day.

I'm not sure why you would quote a back and forth exchange with a different poster and present it as if it were made in isolation or directed at you but it's more than a little sketchy. The bolded bits you are up in arms over are referring to the post 67 examples those bolded bits refer to while complaining about it reveals the hollow core of the complaint. If you read the post that you quoted it's taking issue with selective quoting. Adding misattribution to that by implying it was directed at you doesn't speak well of the complaint you are making

 

[MichaelSomething]

If you rather interact with AI, why bother with Enworld? I heard Moltbook is where all the AI hang out.

 

[tetrasodium]

If you rather interact with AI, why bother with Enworld? I heard Moltbook is where all the AI hang out.

When talking about an adventure or some other small time creation the distinction is usually something like this:

A: one or more images that the author put effort into generating so they show off something that the adventure creator thought was cool and relevant to the adventure they put time into creating for others.

B: random stock images that have little or no relation to the adventure content other than perhaps coincidental and likely generic overlap.

C: no artwork or very little artwork.

I don't care too much about the artwork in most adventures but "A" is often very much preferable because the creator tried to include some relevant stuff they thought was a cool addition my players might be served well to see.

 

[Maxperson]

My answer remains the same, for two reasons.

1) In fact, while the results of your neurology, cognition, and process of creation may seem to be very similar to the machine's result, under the hood, during the process, they are not really much alike at all.

The machine's result doesn't matter to my question. My question was in both examples about the artist using a tool. In one example the tool was AI, and in the other the tools are paintbrushes, etc.

2) As noted - if we do not reserve some differences between ourselves and our tools, then we are tools. There is ample example in the world, and in our own history, to demonstrate this. Ask any African American.

I wasn't talking about what the tool was doing. Both examples were about what the person is using for inspiration. AI shows me a picture. I use that for inspiration. Time Magazine has a picture in it. I use that for inspiration. In both I see a picture and I use it for inspiration in achieving my vision.

 

[ECMO3]

Where is your evidence that they are being removed due to not using AI?

Right here, their new AI policy, March 18th 2026:

AI Content Policy | Foundry Virtual Tabletop

The Foundry Virtual Tabletop AI Content Policy which describes how LLM and diffusion models may be used in third party packages.

foundryvtt.com

Their previous policy required creators to discoles use of AI, now they are banning it going forward.

As I keep saying, there is a ton of stock art out there that is just as good as the "big boys".

Where is your evidence of this? That it is better than AI art, because I sure as heck don't think it is and it certainly is not as original.

It's not the art budget that's killing people in the "compete with big companies" issue, it's the marketing budget.

Things like Foundary Marketplace are a way to market your product if you are a small timer. Sure the people I know can produce the same content, including the custom Foundary code and plug ins and sell it on their own website, but what they lose is the ability to market.