In the wake of concerns about AI artwork on Artstation, parent company Epic Games released an official policy regarding AI artwork on the portfolio website.
Though Artstation won’t be banning AI art entirely, Epic plans to address artists’ concerns by implementing a tagging system so artists can choose whether or not to let their artwork be used for AI research.
“We believe artists should be free to decide how their art is used, and simultaneously we don’t want to become a gatekeeper with site terms that stifle AI research and commercialization when it respects artists’ choices and copyright law,” wrote Epic.
Should an artist find that their work is being infringed upon even after stating they don’t want AI to use their art, Epic encouraged artists to use Artstation’s infringement system.
Epic added that more features are in development to allow artists to control how their work is used.
The creative industry won’t let AI art win
AI artwork has grown popular on social media in recent weeks among non-artist users, while members of the art community have explicitly pointed out that such artwork can only be made by splicing art from human creators.
Discussions about using AI in a creative field often lead to concerns about ethics and companies using AI as a shortcut to avoid paying creators. Earlier in the week, book publisher Tor received criticism for using AI artwork as the cover for a newly released novel.
As art from AI has become more prevalent on Artstation in particular, Epic stressed that users should only be contributing work that they themselves created and made with their own imagination.
“The works on your portfolio should be work that you created and we encourage you to be transparent in the process. Please only publish work that either you own or that you have permission to publish.”