Popular board game doubles down on using AI art - here's why people are upset
The team behind expansions for the hugely popular Terraforming Mars board game have announced that AI art is being used on the project, and this revelation has ruffled the feathers of both fans and industry competitors alike. But what's with all the fuss?
To get you up to speed on a discussion that's becoming increasingly prevalent in the board game and tabletop RPG space (as an example, Wizards of the Coast says it was unaware of AI art in its new D&D book), I've broken down the basics of the Terraforming Mars controversy below.
As you may already know, Terraforming Mars is one of the more popular board games for adults - it's sold absurdly well and is so influential that it was recently optioned for movies and TV. As such, it stands to reason that the latest wave of expansions and accessories has been incredibly popular on Kickstarter. In fact, the campaign is currently sitting at more than $1,524,844 (many times its target of $10K).
However, thanks to Kickstarter's new policy stating that use of AI art in a project must be declared, publisher Stronghold Games announced that it has and will "continue to leverage AI-generated content in the development and delivery of this project." More specifically, MidJourney, Fotor, and the Adobe Suite have been utilized.
The effectiveness and quality of AI art has skyrocketed over the past year or so, with it becoming easy to generate free pieces of artwork using just a few keywords. However, concerns have been raised just as quickly. For starters, many are worried that companies will see an opportunity to cut costs and bypass actual artists in favor of low-effort, AI-made alternatives. (Basically, it's about professionals losing their livelihoods.) What's more, AI art works by
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