In case you haven’t been following the Pokémon Buying and selling Card Sport scene recently, a latest artwork contest for it grew to become mired in controversy when it was suspected a number of entrants had submitted AI generated paintings. Whereas The Pokémon Firm has not explicitly commented on the matter, it has since confirmed that a number of the contest’s finalists have been disqualified.

Over 10,000 items of fan artwork have been submitted for the Pokémon TCG Illustration Contest, with 300 of them making it to the primary spherical of the finals. A hyperlink to the outcomes was shared on June 14 by way of Twitter, and the replies have been quickly full of accusations that a number of the chosen items have been made with AI. It was even claimed that a number of entries had been submitted by the identical particular person going underneath barely totally different names, which is in opposition to the competition’s guidelines.

A follow-up put up from the Pokémon TCG Twitter account on June 25 states that choose entrants have been disqualified for violating the principles. Nonetheless, it stops wanting confirming it was as a result of these entrants submitted AI artwork, solely concluding with, “We’re dedicated to upholding the integrity of the Pokémon TCG Illustration Contest and respect followers’ continued help as we have a good time the inventive skills of the gifted Pokémon group.”

Regardless, the overall response from followers has been constructive, with most individuals assuming the AI generated artwork is being eliminated. What’s extra, new finalists might be picked to switch the disqualified ones, so those that missed out initially have a second probability. On the time of writing, although, the items of artwork generally alleged to be AI generated are nonetheless current among the many high 300 on the competition’s web site.

It’s completely comprehensible why the group bought up in arms about a number of the finalists doubtlessly being AI generated. So many individuals in all probability spent hours crafting and refining an artwork piece that might match the identical stage of high quality as a professionally made buying and selling card, just for their work to be handed over for one thing that was made in far much less time by somebody typing a immediate into an artwork generator. To not point out many artists argue that these AI artwork turbines successfully steal from others’ work since they scrape the web for current artwork to base their creations on.

Hopefully, there received’t be any additional controversy surrounding the competition. I can’t think about what the uproar could be like if an AI generated piece of artwork received one of many high prizes, which is to have your artwork be was an official card for the TCG.