Wizards of the Coast, the company behind the Dungeons & Dragons and Magic: The Gathering series, has confirmed that artificial intelligence was indeed used to create a marketing image after initially denying that was the case.
In a post on social media, Wizards of the Coast said, “We made a mistake earlier when we said that a marketing image we posted was not created using AI.”
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
After fans pointed out that artwork for a Magic: TCG book looked like it was made using AI, Wizards of the Coast has now stated that “it looks like some AI components” were used to make the image. The company pointed out how Adobe’s popular editing software Photoshop now features a “generative AI” option that allows users to enhance and refine their creations. Wizards of the Coast added that “a human did the work to create the overall image.”
“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,” the company said. “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.”
Going forward, Wizards of the Coast said it is “evaluating how we work with vendors” on things things like marketing image and other creative endeavors beyond products alone.
In a since-deleted tweet, Wizards of the Coast stood by the marketing image, saying flat-out, “This art was created by humans and not AI.”
It’s not just Wizards of the Coast that found itself in hot water after publishing an asset made in part with AI. Xbox was blasted by fans for promoting indie games with what looked like AI-created art. Microsoft, for its part, is heavily financially invested in the future of AI and has said it wants AI to be a part of every product it creates in the future.
Wizards of the Coast is a subsidiary of Hasbro, which is in the midst of eliminating hundreds of jobs.
