AI art continues to be controversial. It has been banned by Getty Images, used to win art competitions, and anyone posting on the portfolio site ArtStation can now refuse to allow algorithmic art generators to use their art as material.

And now an actual human artist is caught in the crossfire: Minh Anh Nguyen Hoang, who creates art under the name Ben Moran, has been accused by moderators of posting AI-generated art and has been subreddit r/Art He was banned from the subreddit r/Art.

The piece in question, dubbed "A Muse in Warzone" (open in new tab), was posted to r/Art two weeks ago and was soon removed for violating the subreddit's rules against "memes, AI, filters and other low-quality work." Moran was permanently banned from submitting to the subreddit. When they politely asked for an explanation (open in new tab), they received a less than polite response from a moderator.

"Unbelievable," the moderator replied. Even if you "drew" it yourself, it is clearly an AI-prompted design, not a problem. If you are a truly "serious" artist, you need to find another style. Sorry, but that's the way of the world."

You know what, just "find a different style". Easy, right?

I can see why someone would doubt Moran's photos. The moon looks a lot like the "Eye of Sauron" from Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movie, and the subject matter and style is common to much popular AI art: a big-breasted animated woman against a picturesque background, like the promo for "League of Legends." However, the fingers are not all messed up, so there is no tell, which is common in AI art. Plus, as Moran shared with BuzzFeed News, they have receipts that include PhotoShop files and sketches of their process (opens in new tab).

Moran is also a longtime professional. They are the lead artists for Kart Studio (opens in new tab), a Vietnamese company that creates art on commission; A Muse in Warzone is one such work, which was started by another member of the studio before Moran finished it. It was one of several options offered as a potential cover for the 11th book in a fantasy series called Beneath the Dragoneye Moons (opens in new tab) by Selkie Myth (opens in new tab).

When redditors learned of the ban, they began protesting on r/Art. Now r/Art has been reinstated, but the protests continue, and the image of a person holding a sign that reads "fuck r/art" while complaining about false accusations (opens in a new tab) currently has 125,000 upvotes.

An r/Art moderator told Motherboard (opens in new tab) that moderators are unpaid volunteers and that "sometimes we don't like things and we say them in the heat of the moment. We are all human beings. But they supported the ban, explaining that "if we were to change course now, it would be to say that online trolls have a say in the state of the community, and we don't think that's a good idea."

Moran is against AI art itself, telling Motherboard, "If you can create artwork that way, there is no passion. And the biggest problem is that I fear that as AI art develops, all artists will lose their passion for creating paintings."

You can see a gallery of Moran's art at ArtStation (opens in new tab). To round things off here, it was probably scrapped to form part of the database used by AI Art Tools before creators were allowed to opt out of the system.