D&D Artist Confirms They Used AI Artwork in New Sourcebook

One of many artists engaged on Dungeons & Dragons’ latest guide—Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants!, has said that they used AI to assist generate “sure particulars or polish and enhancing” in a current put up on X, on the location previously often called Twitter. Ilya Shkipin, who drew the artwork in query, has deleted his posts, however information stay as screenshots.

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Screenshot: X | Ilya Shkipin

Shkipin states that numerous painted components have been “enhanced with ai reasonably than generated from [the] floor up.” Nonetheless this doesn’t change the truth that AI generated pictures have been put into the guide, and there’s apparently no disclosure on the photographs in any respect. It’s unclear if anybody concerned within the manufacturing of Bigby Presents was conscious that Shkipin used AI artwork in his course of.

Extra screenshots acquired by io9 verify that Shkipin used AI artwork turbines, however on the time when this artwork was being developed and turned in, turbines weren’t of a excessive sufficient high quality to generate correct pictures, and Shkipin claimed to others by way of personal message that “total it was painted digitally.”

Left: Closing art work in Bigbys Presents. Proper: Preliminary sketchesImage: Wizards of the Coast | Ilya Shkipin

Shkipin is well-known for utilizing AI artwork turbines like Pika Labs AI and operates an NFT market out of superrare, placing him at odds with many within the D&D and TTRPG communities who don’t maintain with both NFTs or AI generated artwork. He has additionally offered early preliminary sketches on X, as a approach to present what he used to immediate turbines.

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A supply at Wizards of the Coast has stated that Shkipin’s use of AI was not one thing that the crew was conscious of. Additional, they state that no textual content within the guide was AI generated. Wizards has stated that they are going to replace their pointers to extra explicitly stop these kinds of incidents from occurring sooner or later. On August 5, D&D Past posted an announcement on X, emphasizing that that they had no information that Shkipin used AI turbines in his artwork course of.

Whereas io9 has reached out to Ilya Shkipin for clarification and remark, he has not been in touch with us. Shkipin said on social media on August 5 that “the way forward for right this moment[s] illustrations is being mentioned.” That is seemingly as a result of intense backlash he—and Wizards of the Coast—acquired after this realization got here to mild on-line. There isn’t a info but on what Shkipin has been offering drawings and illustrations for Wizards of the Coast for practically 10 years, having been first employed in 2014 to assist contribute to the primary spherical of fifth version books.

There isn’t a info but on what “reworked” means on this context. Bigbys Presents: Glory of the Giants! is scheduled to be launched on August 15, which signifies that bodily copies have been printed and are, most certainly, already on their approach to distributors if they aren’t already of their shops, able to be set out, AI artwork and all. We’ve reached out to Wizards of the Coast for added feedback.

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Replace, August 6, 1:30 p.m.: Added Wizards of the Coasts’ official assertion on X, and offered extra context for these statements, together with individuals’s reactions on social media.


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