Wizards of the Coast Is Caught Up in Yet Another AI Mess

After initially stating that no AI art was used in its Magic: The Gathering promotional work, Wizards of the Coast has since backtracked to acknowledge that actually they … “made a mistake” with that claim. This has led many to believe that either the company is lying or simply being negligent when it comes to AI use.

AI is becoming harder and harder to spot as the technology rapidly improves but it is still possible to see where it has been applied if you really look. This was the case for a Magic: The Gathering promotional image, in which fans quickly spotted the telltale signs of dodgy AI mistakes. This has not gone down well given that Wizards of the Coast had already promised to do better with spotting AI and insisting that they did not want it to feature in their work.

When fans pointed out that it looked like AI had been used, Magic: The Gathering straight-up denied this was the case, calling fans confused in since-deleted tweets. If the company was aware that parts of the image had been made with AI, then this is just gaslighting. Some fans circled the exact areas where AI use is blatant, so even if they aren’t lying to us, they simply aren’t paying attention to a policy that they just implemented.

Now, it could be that the artist simply did not tell them they had used AI, but it is still on Wizards of the Coast to inspect the artwork. If hundreds of fans can spot it, individuals at the company should have been able to see it too before releasing it to the public. The situation has earned the company the ire of its fans, who celebrate Magic: The Gathering for its beautiful artwork.

It isn’t just fans of the game that are displeased, as one of the artists who works with the company, Dave Rapoza, quit on the spot and shared his displeasure on social media.

Magic: The Gathering released a statement on X, recognizing that it had “made a mistake” in a five-part post.

The company also released an updated statement on its site to thank its “diligent community” for spotting the errors, adding, “We are rethinking our process of how we work with vendors for our marketing creative.” They then finished off the statement by saying,

“We can’t promise to be perfect in such a fast-evolving space, especially with generative AI becoming standard in tools such as Photoshop, but our aim is to always come down on the side of human made art and artists.”

This is all well and good, but this is a statement it has already made, and yet, once again, AI has slipped under its nose. It isn’t just Wizards of the Coast that has come under fire for using AI art, with companies like Wacom and Respawn’s Apex Legends also being called out for AI work found in their promotional material.

We are entering a new world where AI is being used more and more often, especially in marketing, because it is cheaper for a business, but the fact of the matter is that it hurts the very artists who pay for those businesses’ products. Also, AI art is not created in a vacuum, it steals from real artists’ work to generate the art with those artists never receiving any compensation. If Wizards of the Coast and all these other companies want to regain our trust, they have to stamp down on AI once and for all, half-measures are not acceptable.

(featured image: Wizards of the Coast)