Wizards of the Coast admits to using AI art

Wizards of the Coast has apologized after using AI in their latest marketing campaign.

Generative AI has become quite prominent in marketing and a lot of people are sick of it, concerned with the career of artists. Midjourney, the tool that was used by Wizards of the Coast and other brands, is currently facing a lawsuit surrounding fair compensation of artists since it often plagiarizes existing art.

When fans saw a tweet from WotC using what looked like AI, they started calling out the company. The image in question showed a set of cards against a steampunk-style background. A closer look showed some questionable details that had fans skeptical.

While Wizards of the Coast initially denied using AI images, its own artist, Dave Rapoza, announced he was leaving.

“And just like that, poof, I’m done working for Wizards of the Coast — you can’t say you stand against this then blatantly use AI to promote your products, emails sent, goodbye you all!” he tweeted.

Wizards of the Coast apologizes for AI art

After the controversy continued on social media, Wizards of the Coast finally admitted to using AI and issued an apology.

“Well, we made a mistake earlier when we said that a marketing image we posted was not created using AI. As you, our diligent community pointed out, it looks like some AI components that are now popping up in industry standard tools like Photoshop crept into our marketing creative, even if a human did the work to create the overall image,” they wrote.

The company went on to claim that the artwork was “from a vendor” but stated they should have checked more diligently before approving and using it. WotC stated that they are reevaluating how they work with vendors going forward.

Not everyone was happy with the apology, however. Many pointed out that the company laid off over 1,000 people before Christmas, including many artists.

Others are concerned that Wizards of the Coast will start using AI on card artwork itself. Or maybe they already have.