RPG Companies Big and Small Take a Stand Against AI Art

The looming specter of AI art has cast a pallor over the RPG community, but companies large and small are keeping creatives human.

We haven’t even made it to Wednesday, Lemon, and it’s already been just an absolute week. Especially in the RPG scene, as the shadow of generative AI “art” rears its head once more. Twice more, to be accurate. Yesterday, AI art was all the rage, literally, in D&D as accusations from within the community about the D&D 2024 art for the Dwarf Fighter being AI-generated started gaining some steam.

However, you only have to look at it to see that it isn’t. For one, AI has a hard time with hands and bows, and these are all here, looking good. And for two, it looks like an actual piece of art instead of a flattened-out Ditto that has been poured into the shape of a piece of art.

Nevertheless, with people spoiling for a fight with Wizards of the Coast raised enough of a clamor that WotC quickly clamped down on the rumors, one of the few positive PR moves they’ve made lately. They posted on Twitter the following yesterday:

“We became aware of community concerns that generative AI was used in an art piece we recently teased. We confirmed with the artist that no generative AI was used, which is consistent with our artist guidelines restricting it. We’re happy with the artwork and hope you enjoy it as much as we do. We can’t wait to share more with you soon.”

And the artist of the piece, Nestor Ossandón shared some of the work in progress with ComicBook‘s Christian Hoffer, who was investigating the claims and shared his findings on Twitter:

“First of all, I do not use artificial intelligence (NOT AI) for my work,” said Nestor, who also pointed out that the image was “one of [his] favorite recent jobs.”

Case closed, the anti-AI art guidelines stand. But AI art was also involved, ironically, in the Terminator 2 RPG.

AI Art Found and Removed in Terminator 2 RPG

Here’s where we get into the week. Nightfall Games, creator of the forthcoming Terminator RPG: T2 Judgement Day caught and then subsequently removed a piece of art from the T2 RPG after it looked “suspiciously AI-like” in a backer update:

“[O]ur Indesign guru was working through the files when he noticed that one of the art pieces looked suspiciously AI-like. […] Our art experts quickly noticed things the less experienced members of our team would never have know. Things like image resolution, go to AI filters etc…”

Though further in their update, they were quick to point out that “AI art is theft; it creates art from a massive, massive portfolio of art and images that have been created by real people.” And this is true, the source of most generative AI training has been work without permission from or compensation to the original creators.

It is a dilemma that many industries will have to deal with going forward. Though with programs that can “detect AI” being infallible, it just means more tedious work that can’t be farmed out to a machine.

AI being removed from the Terminator RPG is kinda poetic if you think about it.

Author: J.R. Zambrano

Bell of Lost Souls Staff Writer and DM, J.R. covers RPGs of all stripes and on occasion eats sandwiches. You can ask him about either at [email protected]