There has come a point where it is starting to be difficult to avoid AI. At least when you are a multinational company. A large part of the reference software uses AI, many people try to pass off the work of the machine as their own, and even the best practices manuals and requests not to use it do not seem to be enough. And if not, just ask Wizards of the Coast.
The history of Wizards of the Coast, owners of the Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering licenses, and AI, is not new. A few weeks ago, they had a controversy because they published an image created by AI, which turned out to be an artist passing off such illustration as their own work. After those, and other minor incidents, Wizards of the Coast made their position clear: they will not use AI in their products, neither in the present nor in the future, under any circumstances. Something that users have been, at the very least, skeptical about.
To fuel that skepticism, recently the Twitter account of Magic: The Gathering posted an image to promote a new collection of cards that seemed to be produced by AI. With a steampunk style, although the cards were real, the rest of the image was suspiciously inert and lifeless. Although Wizards of the Coast consistently denied that there was no human element involved in the creation of this art.
Until yesterday. In an official statement, Wizards of the Coast have confirmed that, using Photoshop tools, at least part of the image created for marketing was made through AI. Something they apologize for and state that they will create clearer guidelines in the future to prevent such things from happening again.
Although Wizards of the Coast has been the one who has suffered from this, it is likely that this is a story we will see repeated throughout 2024. Management and art departments denying the use of AI only for the marketing departments to use them anyway. Therefore, from here, we can only wait and see how this first new trend of the year develops among the communication problems between different departments of companies.
