A controversy erupted over Genshin Impact 's recent “ Enchanting Summer ” art contest on July 19 , when it was discovered that several of the winners had used AI-generated or traced art in their works . miHoYo, the developer of the game, made the decision to disqualify these contest participants in response to this scandal.
Traced art and art generated by artificial intelligence are practices that are generally frowned upon in art communities. This is because a person responsible for such actions is copying someone else's work or allowing a computer to do it for them. Art contests, such as this one, often offer prizes to the winners, so immoral actions like these can lead to negative consequences, as became evident in this situation.
It was a post on Reddit that sparked the controversy, showing significant evidence indicating that several of the winners of the “Enchanting Summer” art contest may have copied works by other artists, either through tracing or AI-generated art. In this post, seven different fanarts were shown that apparently copied the work of others:
The text of the publication mentioned that one of several of the illustrations in question presented the characters in poses very similar to those of another existing work. Although the shading and color were different, the outlines were alleged to be suspiciously similar, leading to accusations of plotting or generating unofficial art.
It is important to note that one of the rules of the contest established that the submitted works must be original fanarts created during the last month and have a high degree of completeness. The submission of incomplete sketches, works edited directly with graphic design tools (such as Photoshop, etc.) or works with combined non-original elements was prohibited. Therefore, those who broke this rule would see their participation disqualified.
Faced with this situation, the official Genshin Impact Twitter account (Japanese version) issued a statement: « "Charming Summer". We received feedback that some of the winning entries violated the rules in a summer-themed doujin illustration contest. To ensure the fairness of the contest, we have decided to remove some of the works displayed on the results announcement page and cancel the entrants' eligibility to win the prize. Some users who have voluntarily removed their published works will be considered as giving up their rewards ».
The same tweet mentioned: “ In the future, we will continue to improve the prize selection system for the contest. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused ." Consequently, Genshin Impact disqualified certain people who were found to have violated the rules.
It is important to note that the official statement does not specifically mention plotting or art generation by artificial intelligence, but it is relevant to mention that this statement was issued after the allegations surfaced online .
Source: Reddit
