WotC So it seems D&D has picked a side on the AI art debate.

[Benjamin Olson]

How does it benefit them to stigmatize AI art when you call them out specifically for having a vast trove of art they own and paid for to train an AI on completely legitimately if they wanted?

I'm confident it's not yet economical for them to do that, as even the entirety of official TSR and WotC art would not be enough to train an effective AI, specifically since so much of the art they have, and need, is for weird fantastical creatures, which AI art generally struggles to produce useful results for. Try getting an AI to make a mythical creature (other than unicorns, they're good at those) and you'll see the problem. If the art for various D&D things had been more consistently "on model" over the decades it might be a somewhat different case, but it's still not enough data points for current AI.

In ten or twenty years, when the tech is better and their art has followed a somewhat consistent house style for longer there might be more sense in WotC training their own AI for some of their art. And by then their less well-heeled competitors will have normalized the use of AI-assisted art. Right now the market favors them continuing to use their position to outspend competitors on traditional art.

 

[Vaalingrade]

But how does any of that come around to WotC benefiting from stigmatizing AI?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeeeeah, this is just an AI avatar app, of which there are 10 million. This is not exactly WotC showing Hydro74 the door in favor of doing everything with Midjourney.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

But how does any of that come around to WotC benefiting from stigmatizing AI?

The scale, history, and synergies of WotC's operation make non-AI fantasy art more affordable to them than their competitors.

In a market where you have a competitive advantage on one sort of product, stigmas against an economical alternative to that product favor you.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The scale, history, and synergies of WotC's operation make non-AI fantasy art more affordable to them than their competitors.

In a market where you have a competitive advantage on one sort of product, stigmas against an economical alternative to that product favor you.

I think it's fair to say the ethics around AI generating content are extremely thorny, especially given that it's only going to get better at it -- much better, and quickly.

 

[Vaalingrade]

The scale, history, and synergies of WotC's operation make non-AI fantasy art more affordable to them than their competitors.

In a market where you have a competitive advantage on one sort of product, stigmas against an economical alternative to that product favor you.

They... aren't selling the art.

 

[tetrasodium]

I really wish we could get past there idea that there are binary "sides" to an AI art discussion. If there's war between the Robot Overlords and the Butlerian Jihad I want to register as a conscientious objector.

That being said, I don't see anything right now on the Photoleap site or anywhere else that this is an official thing licensed by WotC. This may just be shady advertising.

It's also interesting that after so many years of automation & ai labor suddenly with things like chatgpt & stable diffusion based tools everyone wants to begin talking about ai with an immediate hardline absolute based on the "but x skilled job workers" problems that were previously ignored for decades

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's also interesting that after so many years of automation & ai labor suddenly with things like chatgpt & stable diffusion based tools everyone wants to begin talking about ai with an immediate hardline absolute based on the "but x skilled job workers" problems that were previously ignored for decades

Given how many people are in denial that AI can come for their jobs, I think we've just seen the beginning of people waking up to automation as a problem.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

I think it's fair to say the ethics around AI generating content are extremely thorny, especially given that it's only going to get better at it -- much better, and quickly.

Absolutely, but so are the ethics, say, of producing things by means of industrial production.

Which is to say, I tend to ignore the ethical issues when making prognostications about the economics or future of AI art, because radical revolutions in production method (of the sort that turn the economics of an industry on its head) being rejected because of ethical concerns is not how human history works, especially when the ethical issues are hardly clear cut.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Absolutely, but so are the ethics, say, of producing things by means of industrial production.

Which is to say, I tend to ignore the ethical issues when making prognostications about the economics or future of AI art, because radical revolutions in production method (of the sort that turn the economics of an industry on its head) being rejected because of ethical concerns is not how human history works, especially when the ethical issues are hardly clear cut.

Oh, I 100% agree that society sucks. This is going to be very much a "the robots came for the factory workers, and I said nothing, because I was not a factory worker" situation, where people will be pretending there's not a huge issue here until their job is finally gobbled up.