Wacom of all companies promoting their drawing tablets with AI got to be one of the most tone deaf marketing campaigns done with AI yet.
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2024
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whilst i kinda agree, i don’t think it was intentional on their part (as with most of these controversies)… i think they paid a 3rd party for an artwork, and then that 3rd party took shortcuts - whether whole cloth, or with things like content aware fill - and wacom didn’t ask questions (which they probably should have, because this image in particular is really obviously AI generated)
they should all probably update their contracts to ensure artwork is 100% done by a human with big penalties for infringement though - they just haven’t caught up because it’s a relatively new problem
This just show how ready and willing are many companies to replace human creativity with cheap AI. If anyone really thought that this wasn't the direction they were pointing to, he was just deluding himself. New creativity tools "my ass".
You're jumping to conclusions. The image was a mislabeled stock image they bought. This is just a case of poor quality control.
A lot of people think profit driven companies can be "good" or "bad" depending on how they are perceived. They don't understand that companies are not human and do not possess morals of any kind. They're just algorithms or robots that will work towards whatever goal the company was set up to do. For a publicly traded company this is to increase stock price at any cost.
Wow. Such a blatantly AI generated image as well. The nerve.
Maybe the go-to way of avoiding this would be for companies to actually divulge who the artist is; credit them!
Edit: Feels like "count the AI giveaways on this image" could become a good drinking game.
- Bizarre teeth arrangement
- Some teeth are gum coloured
- There are spontaneous toes in arbitrary places
- The spine tuft migrates to the shoulder
- There's some odd scaly and hairy shrimp-looking appendage next to the dragon
- Suppose it's the tail, but it's not attached
- Tail tuft is a different colour from the rest of the fur
- Random third horn sprouting from the back of the neck
You know, that's a good idea anyway.
I wonder though what that would mean for the copyright?
Right? There's so much talk about paying artists in exposure but how often do artists actually get exposed?
Don't think copyright should be an issue. We know for example that the soundtrack to the Disney film Encanto was composed by Lin Manuel Miranda, but Walt Disney still owns the copyright. Same could go for the rest of the entire film, they do give credits to people who contributed but Disney still owns the copyright.
Having a signature somewhere on an advert shouldn't be a big deal.
how'd you miss the tail? i don't think it's attached...
You mean the hairy shrimp? I didn't.
We’re soooooorry rubs nipples
Easier to ask for forgiveness than beg for permission...
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Several days later, and after this article was published, the company issued a contrite statement saying that the images in question had been purchased from a third-party vendor and had evaded being flagged by the online AI detection tools it used for vetting.
Despite this, the company shared a new marketing campaign for its Magic: The Gathering card game on January 4th that was quickly scrutinized for containing strangely deformed elements commonly associated with AI-generated imagery.
The company initially denied AI was involved, insisting that the image was made by a human artist, only to back down three days later and acknowledge that it did in fact contain AI-generated components.
AI detectors are notoriously unreliable and regularly flag false positives, and other methods like the Content Credentials metadata backed by Adobe can only provide information for images created using specific software or platforms.
Some creative professionals argue these are simply tools that artists can benefit from, but others believe any generative AI features are exploitive because they’re often trained on masses of content collected without creators’ knowledge or consent.
Wacom and WotC eventually provided similar responses to their respective situations: that the offending images had come from a third-party vendor, that the companies were unaware that AI had been used to make them, and that they promised to do better in the future.
The original article contains 1,181 words, the summary contains 223 words. Saved 81%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!
I'm surprised Wacom hasn't added ai to their tablet software like that google drawing program that guessed what you were trying to draw long ago and would make it for you
I get why people are upset, but isn't it kinda futile? Everything that can be replaced with AI will be. From arts to dev and anything else they can think of. It's only a matter of time until the tech is good enough for any particular problem. Trying up legislate against it doesn't seem useful either. People will get around it eventually.
We're moving towards a world where lots of us won't have viable jobs in these fields. We'll either find different jobs or need some form of UBI
Ah, yes, doomerism, inspirational. I think MLK said it best "I have a dream, but it's hard, so let's all give up instead"
Doomerism - I don't think that word means what you think it means (or you just don't understand what UBI could be the start of, don't know anything about MLK, probably all of the above).
Considering MLK's understanding and support of Marxist ideas, he'd probably be fighting for technological progress as long as it came along with UBI, since that's literally the basis of a better world for everyone, unlike systemic racism and capitalism he was fighting against, which really aren't comparable at all (sure, both could be used to fuck up the prospect and potential of technological progress and UBI, but that's the fault of systemic racism and capitalism, not technological progress and UBI).
We’re moving towards a world where lots of us won’t have viable jobs in these fields. We’ll either find different jobs or need some form of UBI
this is the comment. it's pure 100% doomerism with a "we have to find other jobs" thrown in. this isn't, "we should do this if it comes with UBI".
also don't really appreciate the giant paragraph where you claim MLK is in favour of AI, or would be, that's just weird. don't do that, don't put words in the mouth of dead people. You can make arguments without that.
Lmfao, says the person who invoked MLK in the first place, and literally put words in his mouth (words only someone who knows nothing about him would try to relate to him in this context)... 😂😂😂
Thanks, I really needed a good laugh to start the day with, and apologies for challenging you with two whole sentences, I won't put you through such hell again..
Clown
🤣🤣🤣🤣
and literally put words in his mouth (words only someone who knows nothing about him would try to relate to him in this context)
you realize i was using those words as an example of something he didn't say right? Specifically, I was pointing out how his message was against defeatism and doomerism by showing how he didn't use those words.
do you not understand this concept? In addition, why are you like this?
Loads of people have reading comprehension issues. They literally have trouble comprehending anything beyond grade school level writing
rude ._.
You're right about marxists favoring tech progress, but they traditionally oppose a UBI. That's generally true of the traditional left, not just the fringes.
They represented (or wanted to) the working class; people who did not just work for a living but took pride in being a worker and contributing to society. They tend to believe in a right to make a meaningful contribution to society (aka work) but also in a duty.
BTW do you know anyone who's hiring buggy whip makers?
Optimism about the future of AI capabilities is not doomerism. It's going to expand humanity's capabilities, not limit or reduce them.
Yes and No. That Wacom Dragon legitimately looks awful; its tail a messed up, nonsensical mess. I think the problem isn't as much just "AI art" as it is "awful art", because if a human had made it, it would have been absolutely better; it would have made sense at the very least. Instead you have middle managers trying to cut corners and the end result is an insult to creative workers everywhere; and the managers and marketers who approved this said "meh, good enough" and didn't even try.
That's the most insidious part of AI Art used in marketing, a race to the bottom in terms of quality that leads to crap being thrown in consumers faces because creative, knowledgable people aren't being included in the conversation.
It is, this is the equivalent of protesting the printing press. It would be most useful to find a way to transition gracefully, but most people are still in the denial stage.
The printing press didn't change the text inside the books and made books widely available to the public. Art is already everywhere, we don't need AI to have enough of it and it fundamentally replaces what is actually good about art.
AI is making it possible for everybody to create art (for certain definitions of art). That's the same thing the printing press made possible, it lowered the barriers to anybody creating their own publication. The parallels are extremely numerous and striking, for those without a preexisting bias.
Prompting a machine isn't creating art any more than commissioning an artist is creating art. Writers still had to actually write books to print, AI removes everything between the initial idea and the final product.
There's a thousand Benedictine monks who said the same thing at the thought of an unadorned, unillustrated stack of paper stapled together.
You'd have a point if the printing presses only put out randomized, meaningless chicken scratch, but instead you're conflating how art is presented with the art itself.