No, Please, Not AI-Generated Art Books!!

AI “artists” think they can create anything with Midjourney or Stable Diffusion. Never mind the fact that AI models can’t even properly generate Mickey Mouse from “Steamboat Willie.” The technology is in a state where corporations are willing and eager to use algorithms to create subpar content even if it comes at the expense of human artists and consumers alike. Case in point, just look at Wizards of the Coast’s attempt to use AI art for Magic: The Gathering.

So, what’s the next big travesty in AI art generation? It might just be AI art books.

AI art books? ‘God help us’

Super Evil Megacorp’s principal character artist Dan Eder sparked a viral Twitter thread on Jan. 7, after he found an extremely suspicious art book advertisement on Instagram. In the ad, a person flips through an book with a series of female character illustrations in a style that appears to be generated from an AI machine-learning model.

Eder revealed that the post’s account, called “comicpencil,” is selling a series of art ebooks for $29.99 each. These include two books instructing users on depicting “classic” and “caricature” styles, complete with tutorials. The website claims that “all products are created by artists who have studied portrait painting for many years.” However, this disclaimer failed to convinced Twitter that the art books were made by real-life artists.

“They’re making AI-generated art books now and selling them for full price,” Eder tweeted. “God help us.”

Artists were quick to point out that AI-generated art books would be a travesty for the art community. Dead by Daylight lead character artist Eric Bourdages mentioned how these publications take “monumental effort” from an artist. To AI generate art quickly and slap it together into a booklet is a travesty and a mockery of the field. Bourdages concluded the art book was likely created to snag easy money from “some well meaning aunt who heard their nephew or niece was interested in art.”

Meanwhile, artist Hidoi pointed out how comicpencil’s artwork had major issues. “Their book preview already shows nothing but mistakes in the facial anatomy department,” the artist wrote. “I can’t even imagine the amount of nonsense inside, not to mention stealing from Andrew Loomis.”

To be clear, comicpencil doesn’t explicitly state on its homepage nor Instagram that its books were created with AI. However, there’s one hint that AI was used in the books’ creation: In a comicpencil webpage written in Korean, the company said that it used AI to restore a drawing guide book. Sure, there’s a chance that these art books aren’t AI-generated. But it’s far more likely that the “artists” behind these books “studied” AI prompt outputs until they could make a quick buck through impulse buys on social media.

(featured image: Warner Bros. Discovery)