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​

​

 

[Uni-the-Unicorn!]

2 AI cases for bigby’s from the other thread. One artist drew his art and used AI to tweak it. In the other case, the concept artist submitted dinos for then a secondary artist is using that as a guide for their art…but one of those artist it’s just used AI on the concept artists original art instead of creating something new.

The 2nd case, if true - and it looks like it may be, is definitely an issue as that borders on plagiarism. Through still primarily the artist’s (who produced the AI art) issue, it feels to me that the WotC art team should know if a completed work looks suspiciously similar to concept art submitted to them. I can understand how it could slip through the cracks, but that shouldn’t happen.

I will say in both cases WotC appears to have hired artist to do work. In one case the artist appears to have ripped them off (as well as the concept artist)

 

[PrintableHeroes]

I’m confused n why this is bad? This seems to be a tool . Is the art good?

Something folks may not be considering is that AI tools like this are trained on other artists work without those artists being compensated.

This results in a situation where someone can undercut the rates of the very artists they are using the AI tool to mimic.

Practical example: Lets say it takes Artist A three days to do a full illustration in their unique style, so they'd bid their work for enough to account for that time. Artist B has an AI tool that they can feed Artist A's work into (found off Artist A's online portfolio) and can use that to take a rough sketch to final quality in under 60 minutes.

Artist A bids for 24 hours (8 hour work days over 3 days)
Artist B bids for 18 hours (45 minute sketch, ~15 minutes playing with AI Tool, then 17 hours worth of pure profit baby, woohoo!)

"Artist" C is like, damn, I could mimic that work with an AI Tool in less then an hour, bid for 10 hours, and still make a big profit for my time.

"Artist" D is like, hell, I want in on this, I'll bid for 5 hours, still a profit for me.

So it goes.

 

[sevenbastard]

Classic Magic vs Technology battle. Of course the Wizards chose to hold back Technology it threatens thier power.

Sure they can create arcane illusions but if I use a computer they ban it.

Thier "Mend" cantrip already destroyed the Tailors Guild and "Mold Earth" ruined Gravedigger Local 6. They can't be trusted.

 

[BigZebra]

In 5 years time nobody would be able to see the differences. Foolish to think otherwise. It would be wise to be adaptable instead.
Also this happened to blue color workers a long time ago. Don’t think it wouldn’t happen for white collar workers.

 

[Scribe]

Can we please not 'well cars replaced horses' and 'you live in society, curious' in this one as well?

 

[PrintableHeroes]

In 5 years time nobody would be able to see the differences. Foolish to think otherwise. It would be wise to be adaptable instead.
Also this happened to blue color workers a long time ago. Don’t think it wouldn’t happen for white collar workers.

We can and do regulate things and regulation is itself an adaptation to avoid an unwanted outcome.

Hell, if we'd had more regulation during the industrial revolutions that shook blue collar workers out of the middle class then maybe we wouldn't have the massive wealth disparity/inequalities we do today.

Just because something can happen one particular way doesn't mean we have to let it happen in only that one particular way. No reason for us to be so fatalistic.

 

[Abstruse]

Fun thing to do: Anytime anyone talks about generative algorithms (aka "AI" though I hate the term because it's not AI, it's autocorrect with delusions of grandeur), just mentally replace all the "AI" buzzwords with buzzwords related to NFTs or cryptocurrency. It's shocking how little the scripts have changed.

 

[Parmandur]

2 AI cases for bigby’s from the other thread. One artist drew his art and used AI to tweak it. In the other case, the concept artist submitted dinos for then a secondary artist is using that as a guide for their art…but one of those artist it’s just used AI on the concept artists original art instead of creating something new.

No, it's the same case...Ilya did all the art in question.

 

[Parmandur]

I’m confused n why this is bad? This seems to be a tool . Is the art good?

A kneejerk reaction against a bad publicity buzzword. This artist created the drawings and used AI as a tool - which as far as I can tell - did not steal from other artists. They used machine learning to improve their art, in the same way a writer might use a spellchecker.

I mean, the main reason people noticed is that it did not improve their art, and it was not good.

 

[Nikosandros]

No, it's the same case...Ilya did all the art in question.

Has this been definitively confirmed? That Ilya did the dinosaur "re-touch"?