Just in December, Wizards of the Coast, the "Magic: The Gathering" company, issued an announcement promising not to use AI art in "Magic: The Gathering" and "Dungeons and Dragons" games, and stated that it requires its artists, authors and other creative contributors to "avoid using AI generation tools" in the creative process. However, the company apparently made an omission. In the latest promotional image of a Magic card, the background was apparently generated by AI, but Wizards of the Coast denied this.
Wizards of the Coast recently shared images on Twitter showing off a series of "retro" card-edged versions of the cards. In order to match the "retro" element, the background of the card is also punk style, including Edison light bulbs, old-fashioned steam pressure gauges, etc.
However, many people were quick to question it, pointing out that there were many obvious traces of AI generation in the picture, such as common distortions. After a while, doubts turned to accusations, because for an established IP like Wizards of the Coast, it is very important to respect the creations of the artists, after all, the success of these games is largely attributed to them. However, Wizards later flatly denied these accusations.
The company responded: "We understand fans' confusion as the style differs from the card art, but we stand by our previous statement. This artwork was created by humans, not AI."
But that didn't convince anyone. In the comments section, many people pointed out all the apparent generation errors along the way, with some saying "Either you (Wizards) are lying to us, or your artist lied to you."
According to the results of our AI-generated image detection tool, there is indeed a "high probability" that this image was generated using AI.
Previously, in August 2023, Wizards of the Coast was discovered to have used AI-generated art in a preview of the new "Dungeons and Dragons" sourcebook. The company later admitted that it did use AI and said it would not use it in the future. But later another work of art was accused of using AI, and the misunderstanding was cleared up after the artist released screenshots of every step of the painting.