Wizards Of The Coast Issues Apology For AI Art Ads
This past week, Wizards of the Coast published a Twitter advertisement featuring cards from their newest Magic: The Gathering set. This ad utilized generative AI technology to give the background a steampunk, roughly "Izzet" feel. This has not gone over well with many members of the Magic community online. Today, Wizards has pulled the ad from their Twitter and issued an apology over it.
According to Wizards of the Coast's announcement on DailyMTG, the retraction of this ad was "Thanks to our diligent community". The Magic community was vocal in reporting their findings in this, and quickly noted the use of generative AI. Their article goes on to say, "we are rethinking our process of how we work with vendors for our marketing creative."
Wizards of the Coast's thread apologizing to the community is below:
Well, we made a mistake earlier when we said that a marketing image we posted was not created using AI. Read on for more. (1/5)
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) January 7, 2024
As you, our diligent community pointed out, it looks like some AI components that are now popping up in industry standard tools like Photoshop crept into our marketing creative, even if a human did the work to create the overall image. (2/5)
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) January 7, 2024
While the art came from a vendor, it’s on us to make sure that we are living up to our promise to support the amazing human ingenuity that makes Magic great. (3/5)
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) January 7, 2024
We already made clear that we require artists, writers, and creatives contributing to the Magic TCG to refrain from using AI generative tools to create final Magic products. (4/5)
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) January 7, 2024
Now we’re evaluating how we work with vendors on creative beyond our products – like these marketing images – to make sure that we are living up to those values. (5/5)https://t.co/QemyE6DUI0
— Magic: The Gathering (@wizards_magic) January 7, 2024
Wizards has also completely deleted their ad from their Twitter page at the time of writing. Consequently, this means the removal of the reply they made doubling down on their claims that it was not AI-generated.
Last month, Wizards of the Coast also allegedly utilized generative AI art for their advertisement for Secret Lair x Tomb Raider. Players were also diligent in pointing out the quirks in this ad when it came out. @MTGSecretLair has since deleted their advertisement, but no apology was given for this ad's image, seen below.
However, it also prompted Wizards to make an announcement decrying the use of AI in art. The announcement did not mention advertisements, leading some in the community to presume that Wizards was acting on a loophole once this new ad went live.
One thing to note about their statement was they only said the artist would stop with AI for Wizards of the coast work and they would have artists "refrain" from using it for D&D artwork, so, you know, MTG loophole right fucking there.
— Clara La Flore (@ClaraLaFlore) August 6, 2023
Wizards' latest apology goes on to state the following:
Along with so many others, we also want to get better at understanding whether and how AI is used in the creative process. We believe everyone benefits from more transparency and better disclosure. 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.
You can find Wizards of the Coast's announcement expanding their restrictions on AI to include third-party creatives here.
