One of the artists working on Dungeons & Dragons’ newest book—Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants!, has stated that they used AI to help generate “certain details or polish and editing” in a recent post on X, on the site formerly known as Twitter. Ilya Shkipin, who drew the art in question, has deleted his posts, but records remain as screenshots.
Shkipin states that a lot of painted elements were “enhanced with ai rather than generated from [the] ground up.” However this does not change the fact that AI generated images were put into the book, and there is apparently no disclosure on the images at all. It is unclear if anyone involved in the production of Bigby Presents was aware that Shkipin used AI art in his process.
Additional screenshots received by io9 confirm that Shkipin used AI art generators, but at the time when this art was being developed and turned in, generators were not of a high enough quality to generate proper images, and Shkipin claimed to others via private message that “overall it was painted digitally.”
Shkipin is well known for using AI art generators like Pika Labs AI and operates an NFT marketplace out of superrare, putting him at odds with many in the D&D and TTRPG communities who do not hold with either NFTs or AI generated art. He has also provided early initial sketches on X, as a way to show what he used to prompt generators.
A source at Wizards of the Coast has said that Shkipin’s use of AI art was not something that the team was aware of. Further, they state that no text in the book was AI generated. Wizards has said that they will update their guidelines to more explicitly prevent these sorts of incidents from happening in the future.
io9 has reached out to Ilya Shkipin for clarification and comment. Shkipin has further stated on social media today in light of his confirmation and the deletion of his prior posts that “the future of today[s] illustrations is being discussed.”
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.