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​

​

 

[Eubani]

It's amazing how with some jobs being replaced by technology the answer by the public is a shrug of the shoulder at most whilst with others it is pitch forks and torches. Digital cameras meant that everybody employed to print photos, make and repair the machines lost their job in a fairly short period of time not a peep but artist are at risks due to computers getting better it is tears and gnashing of teeth all around. technology changes the nature and even the existence of employment. The list of jobs that no longer exist is near endless, what makes one grooup so special over those that went the way of the dodo before them?

 

[Scribe]

Bit garish for my taste.

Fair, but you know you are in an alien place, and well, Spelljammer is about as out there and wild as it gets.

 

[Zardnaar]

Fair, but you know you are in an alien place, and well, Spelljammer is about as out there and wild as it gets.

I own the original. Guess what one I like.

 

[Zardnaar]

It's amazing how with some jobs being replaced by technology the answer by the public is a shrug of the shoulder at most whilst with others it is pitch forks and torches. Digital cameras meant that everybody employed to print photos, make and repair the machines lost their job in a fairly short period of time not a peep but artist are at risks due to computers getting better it is tears and gnashing of teeth all around. technology changes the nature and even the existence of employment. The list of jobs that no longer exist is near endless, what makes one grooup so special over those that went the way of the dodo before them?

Has a whiff of entitlement to me tbh. Luddites. Few posters opposed to it seen to have no problem with various other issues (eg Apple, Amazon, hell WotC) and theyre playing the ethics card.

 

[humble minion]

It's amazing how with some jobs being replaced by technology the answer by the public is a shrug of the shoulder at most whilst with others it is pitch forks and torches. Digital cameras meant that everybody employed to print photos, make and repair the machines lost their job in a fairly short period of time not a peep but artist are at risks due to computers getting better it is tears and gnashing of teeth all around. technology changes the nature and even the existence of employment. The list of jobs that no longer exist is near endless, what makes one grooup so special over those that went the way of the dodo before them?

I think a lot of the outrage about the impact of tech on artistic fields is that people like doing art. Being able to write (or draw, or game design, or whatever) for a living is a dream for many. But it's never been well-paid in the first place, and now AI tools are making it even harder to earn a living in a job that people want to do. I mean, my Twitter feed this morning is full of authors complaining that jerks are publishing AI-generated shlock under their names, cashing in on their reputations, and Amazon is refusing to remove it. If a job that you do for a living rather than out of love gets automated, then sure, there's financial stress involved for many in the field, but you don't get as much anger in the broader community because there isn't a huge number of people who've been harbouring life-long dreams of working in a lab developing film photos.

One of the big promises of tech is that it'd do the drudgery and repetitive, boring, soulcrushing scutwork so that people would have more time to devote to pastimes they enjoy - like art. But now people are seeing tech taking over the art jobs, the writing jobs instead. And these aren't even jobs that were well-paid in the first place! And you don't have to venture too far in the wilds of the internet before you find a bunch of tech-evangelists saying that artists should just quit now and become apprentice plumbers instead. Yeah, cos that's EVERYONE'S career dream, spending your life fixing toilets while a computer does the art. That's why it feels so dystopian and makes people angry.

 

[Zardnaar]

I think a lot of the outrage about the impact of tech on artistic fields is that people like doing art. Being able to write (or draw, or game design, or whatever) for a living is a dream for many. But it's never been well-paid in the first place, and now AI tools are making it even harder to earn a living in a job that people want to do. I mean, my Twitter feed this morning is full of authors complaining that jerks are publishing AI-generated shlock under their names, cashing in on their reputations, and Amazon is refusing to remove it. If a job that you do for a living rather than out of love gets automated, then sure, there's financial stress involved for many in the field, but you don't get as much anger in the broader community because there isn't a huge number of people who've been harbouring life-long dreams of working in a lab developing film photos.

One of the big promises of tech is that it'd do the drudgery and repetitive, boring, soulcrushing scutwork so that people would have more time to devote to pastimes they enjoy - like art. But now people are seeing tech taking over the art jobs, the writing jobs instead. And these aren't even jobs that were well-paid in the first place! And you don't have to venture too far in the wilds of the internet before you find a bunch of tech-evangelists saying that artists should just quit now and become apprentice plumbers instead. Yeah, cos that's EVERYONE'S career dream, spending your life fixing toilets while a computer does the art. That's why it feels so dystopian and makes people angry.

Bit pretentious answer. I had a reasonably well paying factory job years ago. They tried automation but couldn't get it working right.

Still lost our jobs (60-80k pay roughly these sats).

Paid more than other similar jobs though.

One of my players is driving a forklift. Job pays a lot for what it is with time and a half and double time rates as well.

 

[Eubani]

AI art for RPG could make books more affordable for the smaller members of the industry by saving money on the art budget which for some by my understanding is more than a small part of the production cost. More competition could one would hope create greater choice for consumers ie us, whilst promoting better quality material to compete and new ideas.

 

[Aldarc]

AI art for RPG could make books more affordable for the smaller members of the industry by saving money on the art budget which for some by my understanding is more than a small part of the production cost. More competition could one would hope create greater choice for consumers ie us, whilst promoting better quality material to compete and new ideas.

Or prices remain the same because if you are willing to pay $30 for a book with art from an artist, then you would also be willing to pay $30 for a book with art from AI, and there would be greater profits for the publisher or creator, while the artist would be out of a job. How we imagine capitalistic systems and the market should work is not always an accurate reflection of what does happen.

 

[Eubani]

Or prices remain the same because if you are willing to pay $30 for a book with art from an artist, then you would also be willing to pay $30 for a book with art from AI, and there would be greater profits for the publisher or creator, while the artist would be out of a job. How we imagine capitalistic systems and the market should work is not always an accurate reflection of what does happen.

Considering how small profit margins are for the smaller creators is that a bad thing? Also the comment you replied to said nothing about pricing just volume and competition.

 

[Morrus]

It's amazing how with some jobs being replaced by technology the answer by the public is a shrug of the shoulder at most whilst with others it is pitch forks and torches. Digital cameras meant that everybody employed to print photos, make and repair the machines lost their job in a fairly short period of time not a peep but artist are at risks due to computers getting better it is tears and gnashing of teeth all around. technology changes the nature and even the existence of employment. The list of jobs that no longer exist is near endless, what makes one grooup so special over those that went the way of the dodo before them?

That's because you're missing the point. It's not about 'technology replacing jobs'. It's about art being plagiarized and copied without renumeration, sometimes even to the point where you can see the actual signatures of artists in the final piece. The issue is the data sets.