The future of art is under direct attack. The use of AI as a way to generate art puts real creatives at risk, so you would think that a company that caters and sells to such artists would have nothing to do with it, but you would be wrong.
Artists are mad—and rightfully so—as Wacom, the company that creates tools that allow you to create digital art easily, has used AI-generated art in its marketing. I myself am the owner of a Wacom tablet and stylus to aid my photography editing work so to see Wacom blatantly use AI is frankly insulting and also so stupid. The company released a promotional image featuring one of its tablets aiming to target people looking for new tools heading into the new year and the artwork is… well let’s just say it’s not real art.
Wacom’s AI art
The image features an illustration of a Chinese dragon to welcome in the Year of the Dragon but upon closer inspection, there is something a little ‘off’ about this mythical beastie. There are several very obvious errors in the design that no artist would have made, which raised the very strong suspicion that it was created by AI. That’s one way to piss off your entire market audience.
Artists are already fearful for the future of their careers and their earning opportunities as AI-generated art has started to invade all aspects of our lives. What we don’t want to see is businesses that create tools for us going ahead and utilizing such methods to create marketing material. Wacom literally exists for and because of artists, so to use a tool that places artists’ careers at risk—and that also only works by looking at and copying existing artwork without allowing those artists to receive any compensation or even exposure—is just ridiculous.
Many artists took to social media to express their disgust toward the company, pointing out that Wacom has plenty of money to afford to pay for real artists in the first place.
One artist shared their disbelief at the company on Twitter/X.
They broke down the issue on TikTok (crossposted to X) pointing out all the issues in the design that caught their attention and alerted them to the fact the image was most likely AI-generated.
Another artist who has worked with Wacom in the past was upset to see that a company that once gave her work a platform would stoop to this.
One artist proved how quick it would be to fix some of the issues with the design, posting a side-by-side and claiming that fixing the design only took them 30 minutes.
Some point out that the company should be fighting against the proliferation of AI art, not capitalizing on it and thereby devaluing the work of the people who buy its products.
This X user pointed out that there are other companies out there that create similar products without all this baggage.
Though the company has deleted the posts in an attempt to cover up this embarrassment, as we all know, the internet is forever. The threat of AI in the world of writing, art, entertainment, and many other creative endeavors is real and this shoot-yourself-in-the-foot blunder by Wacom proves it.
(Featured image: Disney+/Marvel)
