What we can do about AI art in games
AI ‘art’ has arrived, and frankly, I couldn’t be happier about it. This is my expertise; Before working on Inventures, I spent 4 years at Institute for the Future, where I researched the future of work. (I’m not affiliated with them anymore).
To be clear, I don’t think AI ‘art’ has any place in published media. Stable diffusion was trained on artists’ work without their permission, which is clearly unethical.
I’m happy, however, to be living at this time, because the the technology was inevitable.
And we get to choose how to respond.
The snowball
AI art is new enough that we get to steer public sentiment around the issue. It’s like a snowball rolling down the mountain, gaining snow as it goes; it’s far easier to steer now than it will ever be.
The snowball of AI art does need to be steered. According to this poll on Board Game Geek (small sample size caveat), a majority of users would be perfectly happy playing a game with art done by an AI. So we can’t assume that consumer preferences will naturally decide against AI art making its way into the industry.
Before stable diffusion, there were already board games being made with AI art; Discover, Lands Unknown used it for procedural generation of game tiles, characters, story, and more. At that point in time, the application of AI came across more as a ‘gimmick’.
Where should we steer this snowball?
Polygon has a great post on the ethics of AI art in board games. They propose uses of AI art that might be ok, like creating non-commercialized games for friends and using it for generation of characters in gaming sessions.
After all, nobody is going to hire an artist to attend their DnD sessions. I don’t think we should be financially rewarding companies who train models on art processed without the artists’ express permission, but individual consumers of games are harder to influence.
“it’s easier for us as to create ethical standards for the board game industry than to rely on consumers to make those decisions.”
How to steer the snowball
Steering the snowball is something we all have to do together.
Artists have had an (unsurprisingly) strong and visceral response to stable diffusion; Deviant Art now automatically tags all new pieces uploaded as #noAI, to communicate that using the images for AI violates its policies.
Norms are something we all have to establish; for board game publishers, adding a disclaimer if AI art makes it into the final project seems essential.
Here’s a short rundown of the best ways to steer the snowball.
Shape public opinion through social media
Help/encourage platforms (Kickstarter, DeviantArt, Etsy, etc.) to adopt clear policies around labeling AI art
Create ethical industry standards for use of AI in board games (it must be labeled, up to consumers to support or not, etc.)
Educate the broader public
It’s really our institutions that’ll steer the snowball, though. It’s things like DeviantArt taking a stand. Kickstarter should take a stand; already, backers are raising concerns about AI art projects on Kickstarter. The pushback has even led some creators to go back on using AI art, hiring human artists instead. If the platform took a stand, that would amplify these sentiments.
Conclusion
Human artists are good.
We can steer the snowball by shaping public opinion, helping platforms adopt clear policies, creating ethical standards, and educating the public.
There are important ethical questions to ask: if these algorithms had gotten permission from the artists to use their work, would AI art still be unethical?
In the end, the snowball will follow the path of least resistance excepting the force we put in. It’s impossible to tell where it’ll stop rolling, or if it will.
Alexander is the designer behind the upcoming adventure storytelling game Inventures. Learn more at BirtleGames.com and follow the project on Kickstarter.