The point isn't about the perceived quality of AI-generated artwork but the fact that the tools like Midjourney and whatnot have been built on databases of unethically-sourced and uncredited artwork (or at the very least, being totally opaque about where it all comes from) of many human artists, not to mention the infrastructure that powers them being particularly ecologically-unfriendly.
Authors disclaiming the usage of such generative artwork does not change that fact, and it's frustrating to see it being tolerated and normalized like that.
I can’t fault you for not taking a personal interest in the topic, but as a prominent voice in an indie creative niche I really think this is something you’ve gotta have an opinion on, assuming supporting likeminded creators is somewhere on your list of ideals. Doubly so as an author who I can only assume wants to keep commissioning real human artists for your future work.
I appreciate the requirement for AI images to be disclosed, but that truly is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues with it. I don’t know if this lack of an opinion is just because you haven’t read up on it, but if that’s the case, I can guarantee your community is full of people far more eloquent and educated than me who could give you some very good explainers on why AI image generation is considered such a crisis among independent artists.
The recently closed Shadowdark game jam had a similar disclosure requirement. If you’d like to see what those disclosures looked like, I think you can still download many of the entries for free.
I believe 3 of the top 5 used AI art. Only one of the top 5 used AI art. But you can peruse many of the entries to see how they disclosed their use of AI art.
I’m also not a fan of AI art but the cats out of the bag and even if people were told they couldn’t, there’d be a good chance people still would and would have some plausible deniability.
The stuff done by humans is way more consistent in style though, and if you are an artist I look forward to seeing what y’all make.
I’m debating on doing this jam as well, but probably just won’t have any original art as I have no skills in that department. The best I can do is hack together public domain art in an image editor and apply filters to it :’)
That’s disheartening to see but at least it makes this make a bit more sense.
Though it also proves my point that apathy towards generative AI just helps shift public sentiment in the direction of acceptance. I’ve seen Baron use AI images in his videos so I’m not surprised he’d write that rule, and Ben not changing that just carries over Baron’s acceptance. And now we’re here, but we really didn’t need to be.
Ethics aside, I’m sure that if you enter, your submission will be far more interesting and unique with the use of edited public domain art. Limitation promotes creativity — not to mention you’ll actually have a chance to practice those skills! That’s what I always thought jams like this were for.
(Or alternatively, I’m sure nothing is gonna stop anyone from asking artist friends to collab)
I understand your point of view regarding AI image generation. But I think it’s a tool, especially for people who have zero drawing or editing skill. I agree that jams are here to learn do some new things, but people like me (I’m a developer with no drawing skills) would never be able to participate to this kind of jam without having access to some sort of tool to illustrate the story. And for me the learning part of this jam would be to focus on the writing of a story, not learning how to use photoshop or other illustration tools. I’m pretty sure you would agree that for a perfect newbie in this area it would take a lot of time to do a very simple thing in PS.
Of course, if I were to submit something, I would priorise using open source content or try to do my own things in a first place, but working with AI can also help and inspire. I would probably ask somebody to do the art if I were to do a commercial product. But for a game jam I don’t think it would be possible to spend 1000€/$ or more.
As the jam is about writing a RPG story, I think we could miss the creation of people with excellent game design ideas because they don’t have access to illustration skills. For me this would also be disheartening.
As I said I’m a developer and there’s tool to generate code (that probably also comes from shady places without really caring about copyrights)… but I think this also helps people with less development skills to submit entries for other types of game jam (video games), maybe people who are more focused on design and illustration and less on code.
(Please keep in mind that I’m not an native English speaker, so my sentence might not be exactly like I would have phrase them in my mother tongue, and I hope I didn’t offend you in any way, I’m just trying to give another point of view on this very difficult topic that is AI 😊)
There are millions of images in the public domain that you can use without modifying. I think doing that makes a lot more sense than using tools that can only function when allowed to steal from countless artists without giving them credit, and being a new designer doesn't give you a free pass from people who worked very hard to get good at making art for real.
genuine question. I use AI art to make character portraits for myself because I cannot draw well enough to make them and I certainly don't have the time to learn. But if there are troves of public domain art I could use, I'd rather do that. Where can I find it? Would I be able to get post-apocalyptic, scifi, cyberpunk, or steampunk character art in the public domain?
Openverse lets you search through a Creative Commons image database, with checkboxes for images you're allowed to modify and/or use commercially. Unsplash has a license that enables commercial use. "Public domain" and "Creative Commons" are the magic words you're looking for here. If you want very specific things, 15 minutes of simple photobashing can still create incredibly evocative work.
