illustrator of Alchemy Stars under fire for possible use of AI
Illustrations of anime made by AI have come and gone and are already being used for official works, such as a animation that came out on Netflix that used AI to help in the production of the scenarios.
And we have a new case here, which started one way and ended the way no one expected. There is a game that is published by Tencent but developed by Tourdog called “Alchemy Stars”, it is a game for smartphones.
One day the official profile of the Alchemy Stars game published a new illustration of the character Azure in beachwear, the illustration is very beautiful, and at the same time the illustrator responsible for the illustration also published the art on his profile.
Check out the art below:
Fans soon noticed a strange thing, the illustration that the official profile of the Alchemy Stars game published and the version that illustrator Bu Er Q published had some differences, as you can see in the comparison below:
On the left we have the version that the illustrator made and on the right the version that was published on the game’s official profile.
Soon hysteria started on Twitter as people started to believe that AI was used to produce the illustration and that’s why the hands and feet were different, a profile published a story saying that companies had already started replacing illustrators with AI, and that Tencent reportedly laid off most of their illustrators and were already replacing them with AI:
最近中国のゲーム会社がAIイラストを採用し始めて、アートスタッフをリストラし始めているらしい。
それに伴いテンセントの白夜極光のメインイラストレーターが解雇されたとの話も上がってる。
👇イラストが実際に使われたAIイラスト pic.twitter.com/0FqO5ala57— 岸嶺ミミム@中国アニメ・ゲーム (@beijing_mimimu) February 20, 2023
The post has been viewed over 1.3 million times and has had over 5,000 likes and over 650 shares. The idea of an AI replacing humans in a very competitive area and that the salary is disputed is scary for everyone who works with it.
So when the first information was published, people really freaked out and started criticizing Tencent and Tourdog too much. It was nothing more than pure hysteria and the real story is quite common.
Tourdog and Bu Er Q Release Statements
Prints by SuperPixel. On the Tieba forum, a Chinese website, some people came up with their theories, saying that the illustrator used AI and that the Tourdog team tried to fix the illustration.
On February 16, Tourdog released a statement about the case, they said that Azure’s art was made to be used as promotional art and that it will not be used in the game, in addition they informed that they hired an external illustrator to produce the illustration . They also stated that: “We will not use AI-generated artwork in our products.”
On the same day, Bu Er Q, the illustrator who was in charge of making the illustration released a statement about the case, the artist says that: “The illustration was not created using code as some people claim, I shared the process of how I I created it, initially I wasn’t satisfied with it, so I tweaked the composition and did several revisions, which took me dozens of hours”.
“The staff of Alchemy Stars was affected and I sincerely apologize for the trouble I caused, I will save the illustration process of each art, and when my schedule allows, I will broadcast or show the recording.” So, we can assume the following, Bu Er Q sent a version of his illustration to the Tourdog staff and simply posted another version on his profile.
They Seek Other People to Accuse of AI Use
Situation clarified and problem solved? No, because these thirsty people wanted to blame others for using AI, they went after other illustrators, after all, someone must have used AI, right? So let’s go find and accuse everyone and they did it with Ame, another person who did illustrations for Alchemy Stars.
Ame in turn responded quickly by publishing drafts of all the illustrations he made and saying that “I’ve never used AI”: Shutting up the people who came to accuse him of anything.
AND IT DIDN’T STOP THERE OK? Not satisfied after being answered, they went after arts made for the game Arknights, some people published in their profiles that Arknights used AI to make some of the arts, obviously, accusations without proof, but the publications were deleted.
There seems to be a bloodthirsty crowd accusing anyone of using AI to produce illustrations.