Update 1/7/24: A few days after this article, Wizards of the Coast admitted that the Magic: The Gathering promo images were indeed created using AI tools. Read our latest article on the controversy and its aftermath.

Original article In December, Wizards of the Coast pledged not to use AI art in Magic: The Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons, asking its artists, writers, and other creative contributors to "refrain from using AI generated tools to create products to "refrain from using AI-generated tools to create their products," he said. Despite this, MtG fans have accused the company of using AI to create backgrounds for promotional images of new cards.

Withers shared the image on Twitter on January 4, writing, "It is truly shocking how well these lands look in the retro frame. And frankly, I think it looks pretty good: the Edison bulbs, the old-fashioned pressure gauges, the out-of-focus books and pipes on the background wall definitely add to the atmosphere, and I like it.

But so many others feel differently. As soon as this image was posted, people began to wonder if AI was used to create the image. The complaints stemmed from perceived discrepancies in the gauges, light bulbs, and various other retro technical trinkets in the image. Withers, however, flatly denied the accusations.

"While we understand fans' confusion given the different style from the card art, we stand by our previous statement," the company tweeted.

However, that denial did not convince many followers.

The doubt is somewhat understandable: in August 2023, AI-generated art was discovered in a preview of the upcoming "Bigby Presents: The Glory of the Giants" sourcebook for Dungeons and Dragons. Wizards of the Coast acknowledged the use of AI in this case and subsequently issued a statement pledging not to use AI in the future.

Only a few months later, another publication faced new accusations of using AI art, but in this case the claims were false.

Despite the misconceptions, it is clear that people continue to be on high alert for the use of AI, especially in commercial projects such as magic and D&D. That is understandable, but it will cause headaches in the future as Internet detectives struggle to determine whether a particular work of art (or text for that matter) was generated by an AI, or whether it is merely a bit yank, or in some cases, completely malicious This is almost certain to be a problem in the future. As technology improves and machine-made art becomes increasingly indistinguishable from its organic counterpart, it will become even more difficult in the future.

The waters will be further muddied by the fact that there are often layers to such a process: while Wizards contracts artists for games, it probably does not monitor every step of their work. Wizards contracts artists for games, but probably does not monitor every step of their work. While it is not realistic to prove point-by-point that not all images appearing in the company's products are generated by AI, what happens when, as in this case, fans refuse to take the company at its word?

I hate to say too much, but perhaps at some point in the not-too-distant future it will cease to matter, either by us losing interest in the whole thing or by it simply becoming impossible to tell what is AI art and what isn't. AI generated Believe or not believe the word of companies that they don't use art, and ...... Well, that's the tricky part." some future "features" are easily avoided if we so choose (I'm looking at you, self-checkout), but others are much harder to deal with.

In this particular case, Wizards of the Coast doesn't work; in a statement provided to PC Gamer, a rep reiterated an earlier message on Twitter: "We stand by our original statement: this art was created by a human, not an AI." .