Artificial Intelligence is one of the most controversial topics nowadays, and Magic: The Gathering already knows why it is a double-edged sword. After the accusations and confession by Wizards of the Coast (owners of the brand) that AI was indeed used in one of their most recent publications, criticism has rained down on them from all directions, even losing artists who refuse to work in an environment where AI is used.
Social media has quickly picked up on Magic’s official account’s confession stating that the promotional illustration they had posted had been created by AI, despite going against their ideals. That is why they have publicly apologized and are asking their artists not to create artwork for their brand if it has been generated through AI.
Magic in front of the audience
However, users have been skeptical, as they were the ones who detected the use of generative AI in an illustration that passed the security checks that Magic has with its autonomous artists, casting doubt on whether they are truly committed to this or if they have backed down to reduce critical voices.
In fact, there are even freelance artists who will think twice about their future collaborations if they realize that clients are opting for AI-supplied services, as in the case of artist Dave Rapoza, who will refuse to continue collaborating with the company in the future. Likewise, other artists like Jason Rainville point to the growing difficulty of detecting the use of AI in illustrations, after constant training and progress.
AI and its discord
There is no doubt that Artificial Intelligence has become a huge focus of discussion since 2023. With large-scale advances in generative AI, which are capable of imitating human work (with better or worse results) in areas such as drawing, writing, translation, or even programming, many doubts have arisen about the risk it may pose to the job market if human capital is replaced by machines to perform these tasks, even if the outcome ends up being more erratic or soulless.
In fact, controversies surrounding this type of Artificial Intelligence are more than constant. Just recently, The New York Times has accused OpenAI, creator of ChatGPT, of allegedly using its content to train the AI without respecting the copyrights or the free reproduction of its contents. On the other hand, OpenAI has tried to justify itself with a detailed statement trying to provide more context to a problem that seems to be heading to court.
