D&D: WotC Includes AI Art in ‘Glory of the Giants’
Over the weekend, previews of the art in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants raised suspicions of AI art – suspicions that were true.
Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants isn’t even out yet (release date August 15th) and it’s already sparked controversy in the D&D community after people began to notice that some of the art in previews of the upcoming book looked like it had been done by AI art programs.
The illustrations in question had several odd details, including messed up feet, armor details that didn’t really match up or make sense, and strange blurred, misty sort of elements that made no sense.
For instance from the Frostmourn, here, people pointed out that both hands are at strange angles, the one gripping the axe has a weirdly recessed pinky, while the feet just sort of disappear into a weird, transparent mess.
As it turns out, the suspicions were correct, when an artist came forward and admitted to using AI tools to “generate certain details or polish and editing” in a now-deleted post on the social media site formerly known as Twitter:
Since then, more information about the use of AI art tools has come to light, and Wizards of the Coast has weighed in with an official statement about the illustrations and the use of AI for D&D books.
AI Art in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants
Another criticism points out that these wolves have human feet
The artist in question has been heavily invested in AI art and founded a generative AI-driven NFT company in previous years. As community members debated the artwork, the artist, Ilya Shkipin weighed in with commentary. Another post on X showed how the artist had reworked some of the concept art with AI as well:
Original dinosaurs before any processing applied, obviously painted. The one that looks exactly like concept art was chosen. pic.twitter.com/Mkr58uvl3M
— Ilya | SuperRare (@i_shkipin) August 6, 2023
Unfortunately, the concept art came from a different, and staunchly anti-ai artist who was “deeply unhappy” to see the development.
In any case, not long after this news broke, Shkipin took down one of the posts, stating “the future of illustrations was being reworked” and hours later, WotC issued an official statement via D&D Beyond:
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 books 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.
WotC has also stated that AI was not used to generate text for the book. And while the art will be reworked, the book is already on its way from publishers to stores, so this first printing will almost certainly include the AI art.
This whole incident just illustrates some of the choppy waters that publishers and freelancers will have to navigate. Especially considering that this technology is so new. Disclosure is just one of many tools the community will need in the coming years.
What do you think about AI Art in WotC’s new book?
