this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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Fuck AI

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  • Police were called to Dragon Con after an artist was accused of selling A.I.-generated artwork at their booth.
  • Vendor Oriana Gerez faced backlash and was asked to leave, sparking heated debate across social media platforms.
  • Dragon Con currently lacks a clear public policy addressing A.I. art in its Artist Alley or exhibition guidelines.
  • Controversy follows past A.I. art incidents, with the Dragon Awards and Fan Expo Canada grappling with similar issues.
top 24 comments
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[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 38 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Is that illegal?

It’s shitty, for sure, but cops don’t usually arrest people for just being shitty.

[–] hedgehog@ttrpg.network 85 points 2 months ago

Per the comments on the article:

  • The DragonCon policy explicitly states AI art cannot be sold and that violating that part of their policy is grounds for immediate dismissal
  • The artist refused to leave
  • The cops were called to get them to leave
[–] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 56 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Probably refused to leave, or the situation in general was getting heated.

[–] hperrin@lemmy.ca 38 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Perfect ad placement. No notes.

[–] mojofrododojo@lemmy.world 12 points 2 months ago

give it more of your business data!

<chef's kiss>

[–] Blackfeathr@lemmy.world 33 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Good. AI garbage does not belong in art spaces.

[–] prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 months ago

Hurr durr but engineering prompts is an art!

[–] BlackLaZoR@fedia.io 29 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Shit clickbait. Police had nothing to do with AI and everything with that guy refusing to leave

[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago
[–] quick_snail@feddit.nl 2 points 2 months ago

But why were they asked to leave?

[–] errer@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Meanwhile Dragon Con’s vendor area is still half “mystery boxes.” Not much moral high ground amongst whoever is divvying out vendor spaces.

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

What kind of stuff is in the boxes? Action figures?

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The stuff they couldn't sell the last few times before that.

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago

Makes sense.

[–] errer@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Yeah and other collectibles. Think loot boxes in real life.

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

I bet the kids eat it up.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's not art. AI doesn't create art. It generates images.

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

I call it “AI output.”

Art is something made by a person as a form of expression. AI output is just AI output.

[–] unconsequential@slrpnk.net 10 points 2 months ago

They definitely seem to have real art on their site like the article says. I wonder if they had a mixture of things and rather than remove their AI generated stuff they fought with the management. Or they were just flat out asked to leave instead of given opportunity to fix it. I know a lot of traditional artists using AI now for posing and composition layout but they still do the panting etc. But it does look stifled sometimes. Like you can tell it’s been influenced by AI. It makes me sad. Especially since one of the artists used to be super fluid and expressive and now everything feels like they’re painting vectors :( which their merch distributor loves and encourages because it’s easier to print but I think it’s literally killed their business. I don’t think it’s “competitive” I think it’s convenient for a select few and killed their creativity. Fuck AI art.

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Yeah, throw him out, you also don't let people to run with cars on running competitions, so why would genAI art be better?

[–] HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 months ago

How do we know they sold AI generated images? Seems all the images on their site is hand made at least.

[–] BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I am bothered by this. Has there been any confirmation that this vendor was trying to sell AI output rather than art, or was it just an accusation? I’ve seen too many witch hunts, false positives, and worse to blindly accept an AI accusation, and even the article doesn’t seem clear on it.