Wizards Of The Coast Says It Will "Always" Side With Artists After MTG AI Art Drama

thegamer.com:

Wizards of the Coast has issued a statement on its latest AI art controversy, saying that it will "always" side with human artists. This comes after it concedes that its latest marketing images "may have" included "elements of generative AI", a claim it had previously denied.

This also comes after a prolific Magic: the Gathering artist, Dave Rapoza, announced that he has stopped working with the company. His response was in reaction to Wizards of the Coast's initial denial that its advertisement images were made using AI, insisting they were "created by humans".

Now, Wizards of the Coast admits that it's possible the images were AI-generated, but adds that they were made by one of its vendors.

"Thanks to our diligent community who pointed out a series of recent marketing images may have included elements of generative AI, we are rethinking our process of how we work with vendors for our marketing creative," reads the statement.

It continues, explaining how WotC will tackle the issue going forward. "We already made clear that we require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the Magic TCG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final Magic products," it reads. "What’s now apparent is that we need to update the way we work with vendors on creative beyond our products—like marketing images we use on social media—to make sure that we’re supporting the amazing human ingenuity that is so important to Magic."

"Our aim is to always come down on the side of human made art and artists."

WotC adds that it will "get better at understanding" AI art, so it can spot it before publication. It stresses that it "can’t promise to be perfect", but that it will "always come down on the side of human-made art and