WotC Rolls Out New D&D AI Art Policy After ‘Glory of the Giants’ Controversy
WotC has updated its official policy to reflect its stance on “AI-generated art” after “becoming aware” of AI art in Glory of the Giants.
WotC updated its policy regarding AI art in D&D late last week. The move comes about a week after a statement from D&D on the usage of AI art, which itself came not long after members of the community identified AI art in Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants.
The official policy outlines the steps WotC is taking, not only to address the “AI-generated art” in Glory of the Giants but in directing their artists in the future. As with most of these things, the first step is trusting the artist not to do it in the first place.
WotC’s New AI Art Policy – D&D For Humans, By Humans
Last week, we became aware of an artist that used generative 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 it with him, and he will not use generative AI for Wizards’ work moving forward.
We released a statement about this use of generative AI on Saturday, August 5th, and we want to provide more information on the reason behind our decision, as well as to answer some of the questions you’ve had in the days since.
Per WotC’s update, the art has already been pulled from digital printings of the book. New art will be recommissioned and added:
We have pulled art that contained generative AI from Glory of the Giants and Giants of the Star Forge on D&D Beyond. That change is visible now to anyone with the preorder benefit of early access to digital content. We’re also recommissioning the artwork, and we’ll add it to the digital compendium once we have it, as well as any future reprint of Glory of the Giants.
Multiple members of our art team and art team leadership have personally re-reviewed each piece of art in Glory of the Giants, The Deck of Many Things set, Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk, and Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse for potential AI art usage. No generative AI art usage beyond what has already been identified in Glory of the Giants and Giants of the Star Forge was found.
Moving forward, WotC will look into tools to “assist in the detection of generative AI use.” Though as of now, these kinds of tools have generated their own controversy. Choppy waters lie ahead, but on the other side of them, a changed industry lies.
What do you think of WotC’s AI policy?
