Dungeons & Dragons Team Responds After AI-Generated Art Sparks Backlash

Wizards of the Coast, publisher of the popular Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game, confirmed that one of its hired artists had used AI-generated art in one of its upcoming books. They also revealed that the updated guidelines are coming.

Dungeons & Dragons Team Responds After AI-Generated Art Sparks Backlash

The company said on Twitter that it had reached out to Ilya Shkipin, a California-based artist with whom they had previously worked. It now has reached an understanding that will apply to other contributors going forward.

“He will not use AI for Wizards’ work moving forward,” D&D said. “Artists must refrain from using AI art generation as part of their creation process for developing D&D art.”

The 34-year-old painter had used AI technology to develop illustrations commissioned for the forthcoming D&D sourcebook “Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants!”

Wizards of the Coast said it was not aware of the artist’s use of AI. It also suggested that the tabletop-gaming giant may have put its foot down before. The discovery comes less than two weeks before the release of the book, filled with maps, classes, and monsters.

Since its inception 1974, artistic depictions of spells, monsters, and mystical settings have fleshed out materials used to play D&D.

In a now-deleted Tweet, Shkipin defended his use of AI technology, describing it as part of his greater artistic process.

“AI was used in the process to generate certain details or polish and editing,” he explained, as documented by Gizmodo. “A lot of painted elements were enhanced with AI rather than generated from the ground up.”

Shkipin included images to show how AI played a marginal role. He later said on Twitter that the post was deleted because the illustrations in question “are going to be reworked.”

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