When it was fresh, some of us had played around with it, but it quickly became apparent that the ways these generators were being trained was incredibly unethical — scraping artwork without artist permission, artwork from behind paywalls (such as Patreon tiers, the donations from which are often times the way creatives financially survive), and even scraping from people’s medical files. The way in which AI art was implemented and people are exploited for it is part of a larger problem, and it’s one that we refuse to be complicit in.
A while back, Roomba went through the World Anvil and removed any AI-generated art that we had posted as hopeful placeholders for when we might be able to eventually commission artists, and we intentionally haven’t been using it since. AI-generated art can slip past our Perception and Investigation checks, but we’re trying to make sure that we don’t intentionally use it or permit its use in Radiant Realm spaces. If something you post or use is pointed out to be AI-generated, it’s no shame or mark against you, just a head’s up so that you can find a replacement for it. Similarly, if you notice something being used by the Radiant Realm Team (whether posted on the Discord, used in Roll20, or something Roomba missed on the World Anvil, etc) please point it out to us! One way to make sure you are not reposting AI-generated art is to always include the name of the artist and/or a link to one of their websites when you share art.
While there are some efforts being taken to have specific AI systems generate images from libraries that contain only artwork that has been contributed with consent and compensation of their human creators, the ability to verify if an image has been generated in a more ethical system or a non-ethical one is not there, nor does it address root problems of amplifying biases in algorithms. As things currently stand, we would rather make the ruling a simpler one of no AI-generated art at all, and instead direct folks looking for art to artists who take commissions (you can find some artists in this very community in the #community-connections channel on the Discord) or have made generative resources available from their own assets.
This also relates to a wider issue of other AI-generated content, such as ChatGPT, which WotC has flirted with using as a way to automate DMing games. As you can imagine, we take this a bit personally. The trend of companies looking to automate any kind of art and remove the artist from it in the process is anti-community. There are several folk within our community who make a living for themselves as creators, whether that be artists, writers, or even musicians. The technology for AI-generated content is advancing quickly, and if we do not take ethical stands about how to handle it with respect to human creators, those folks may no longer have a career in several years.
Links to various resources and reading about the subject:
Some non-AI art generators for characters:
Some reverse image search tools for verifying if AI-generated art or not + finding the artist for crediting:
Some further reading on the subject and its impact:
— Radiant Realm Team
