Following fan speculation and outcry, Dungeons & Dragons publisher Wizards of the Coast confirmed this past Saturday that their newest book, Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants contains artwork made using AI art generation tools. This news comes shortly after the artist in question, Ilya Shkipin, took to Twitter in a now-deleted post defending his use of AI to “generate certain details” on existing illustrations before taking down his thread “as the future of today’s illustrations is being discussed.”
In the statement made via its D&D Beyond Twitter account, Wizards of the Coast claims to have not been aware of the use of AI art tools in the making of Bigby Presents until now, and specifies that Shipkin nor any other artist will be able to use AI for Dungeons and Dragons art. As is included in its statement, Wizards of the Coast has been working with Ilya Shipkin since 2014, with his work credited in multiple previous Dungeons and Dragons materials. Shipkin himself has notably been involved with using AI tools since 2021 and as reported by Gizmodo, has been quite active in the AI art generation and NFT spaces to the dismay of many fans of tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons. His Twitter bio explicitly reads “Deconstruction of the flesh through painting and AI.”
2023 has not been a great year for Wizards of the Coast, to put it lightly. Between the controversy over the proposed Original Game License changes in early January, which saw many fans threaten to stop playing the game altogether, and the use of literal Pinkertons to shake down Magic: The Gathering players, the Dungeons & Dragons publisher is making it increasingly hard to keep the trust of their fans. Not surprisingly, fans in the replies to the statement have been reluctant to believe Wizards’ initial claim that the company only just figured out that AI was used in the process of Bigby.
While speculation has also arisen that some of the artwork altered by Shipkin was pulled from artist April Prime’s work without consent, Prime herself has come out saying that any art she provided for Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants was made as concept art to be handed off to another freelance artist. Through Prime, we also have confirmation that work for another Wizards property, Magic: The Gathering, has a rule against using AI in any art submitted. With work for Dungeons & Dragons source materials taking place over years as opposed to Magic: The Gathering’s shorter turnaround time, it’s very possible that the tools being used for AI art generation and their prevalence were not as present when contracting artists for Dungeons & Dragons work.
Many questions still are up in the air, as the statement from Wizards makes no mention of whether the AI art in question will be replaced. A statement from Shipkin shortly after the deletion of his original thread claims that the “illustrations are being reworked”, although what exactly this means for the release of Bigby Presents is unclear. With the book scheduled to release on August 15th and digital content already available for D&D Beyond users, it’s safe to say the damage has been done and another printing will be required to replace any art made with AI. Notable as well is the choice by Wizards of the Coast for Shipkin to continue to work on Dungeons & Dragons art with seemingly no repercussions outside of apparently being told to just not do it again.
Wizards of the Coast has not responded to The Mary Sue’s request for additional comment at this time.
(featured image: Wizards of the Coast/Comedy Central/edits by the author)
