I've noticed a flood of AI-generated assets for sale. Many of the people publishing them don't disclose that the content was AI-generated, which feels misleading.
How do you feel about AI-generated assets being sold here?
I feel like if the assets were marked as AI-generated, it would be cool if a message would be displayed at the top of the project page disclosing that. It could look something like when you purchase a project here, an element saying: "You own this asset pack" appears at the top of the page. This would give a clear disclosure, so people could make an educated decision while considering to purchase it, because I see many people just not knowing that they're purchasing AI-generated products, so it feels immoral.
I feel that there might be an announcement due, when the grace period is over and any asset not filling out the disclosure is automatically unindexed. About 20k are not disclosed about their ai status.
But the assets on sale are pretty much all disclosed. 5255 total, 4614 no-ai and 624 ai-gen. Makes like 20 without disclosure.
As a reminder, the ai and noai tags are invisible. The ones you see, are not done so by disclosure, but by manually chosing them as a regular tag.
If Itch.io didn't allow it, it would still be here, just not openly promoted as AI.
There are still too many ongoing copyright issues and cases for me to trust AI or AI-generated graphics. If those are ever resolved, I'd be happy to use AI graphics, especially those where the artists touched up the graphics.
I wouldn't know. I haven't researched that aspect of it. The games I play, are because they're original and fun - the graphics are neither here nor there.
Think of it this way: If I'm stuck on a piece of code for C#, I ask Bing (search engine), and Bing tells me exactly how to code it. It saves me hours of trying to figure how to program one small part of a script. Why now would I draw a line and deny graphic artists the same shortcut? And if I hired a graphic artist, how would I know whether or not they used AI to produce the graphics?
Same with translators: They now run their text through software that auto-translates it. They only need to edit it. Is the result of their labour worth less because they had help? Nobody has vilified translation software (which most likely was also trained on "stolen" works).
(The one or two fully AI Generated games I tried to play failed dismally because so many aspects of the game was missing. I found the games unplayable and not fun.)
If you're asking strictly about the commercial angle, I wouldn't buy AI-generated assets if I was rich. What am I supposed to pay for, glorified scalping? There are so many real artists looking for work. Heck, even with my limited skills I made so many good-looking games over the years. There's no excuse for trying to sell AI slop as if it was real human creativity. A child's doodle is more valuable.
Good point!
Even seeing AI-generated art in a project page discourages me from playing the game. Even simple and pretty unprofessional graphics feel much more authentic and made with love. Even games with programmer art or drawings of a child look so much more inviting.
It feels like people take the life away from their games by using AI-generated art in them. The spark is gone, even when "it looks better" :'(
Well, it's not because I'm against AI in general, but I do think it's swindling. Anyone can give up some pointers to AI and see if it produces some usable art, so selling that is just a lazy way to get money out of other people's pockets. Sites like itch should ban the practice (revoking the responsible account on the spot).
Games using AI assets, is also an idea I don't like but if the game itself is at least a creative piece of work, at least we got something.
An entire art bundle with AI pictures, that is just cheap. If I were to buy art bundles I would pay for the effort it took to create such a bundle.
Bit iffy on AI assets being sold individually. AI assets in a game is a bit different. I have used some heavily modified AI cover art a few years ago in the earlier days of it before there was a pushback. I inadvertently used a public domain 30 seconds sound sample (Once again I edited it heavily) I think that may have been AI aswell. I found this out later on.
I'm on the fence. I avoid it for the most part. I like to make everything from scratch.
Hi eveyone!
Personally, I use AI as little as possible, and only for things I simply cannot do, no matter how much time or effort I put in. In my case, that mostly applies to art and illustrations, because I honestly draw terribly and I can’t afford to hire artists to design a game that might not even bring me any profit.
If I knew how to draw properly, or if I could afford to hire a professional, I wouldn’t even consider using AI.
That said, this is just my opinion, but I believe that any creative work that involves AI loses value, no matter if it's visual art, music, writing, or anything else.
And regarding selling AI-generated assets, I don’t see the real problem in the person selling them, but rather in the person buying them. I just can’t understand how someone can be so detached from their own project that they not only rely on AI for the design, but even go as far as to browse a catalog of AI-generated assets and buy them from a third party…
Honestly, with AI and just a bit of effort, you could probably create better designs yourself than the ones you’re paying for.
But hey, everyone is free to do what they want... have a great weekend and best wishes to all!
I think it's a hard one.
I don't use AI for my musical or graphical stuff, but I'll use AI when I'm coding large or new projects... I don't get it to code for me, but I'll either explain a system that I'm planning to code to it, to get some feedback and help me think it through, or help me with research and working examples.
Though I'm hoping to move into selling assets and trying to get some commissions; I can see why developers using AI generated assets that they generated themselves might be extremely helpful, whether it's due to a sense of control or a lack of budget. I'd rather a developer make and release a game than not do so, because they can't afford an artist or find one that shares the same vision.
But selling asset packs that are AI generated? I obviously feel a personal discomfort with that. I think if it became common that the expectation would be that if an asset pack was made using AI generation; it was clearly stated, as well as the tooling used; I think I'd be a bit more comfortable with that.
I guess the real fear might actually be the "race to the bottom" that artists might feel. Let us assume the person selling AI generated assets isn't overpricing their work (I literally wouldn't know, I don't think I follow any), and the pricing is based on time required to generate, minimal touch up (maybe just even converting to an optimal format), time required to set up store-page and a small extra like $1; If the buyer perceives something I make to be of even a similar value; I can't compete with that pricing at all.
I think the reality of it all is that once the razzmatazz of AI fades, it will eventually just be seen as common tooling, which will help it be refined. Currently I see it more as a way of producing highly detailed, but somewhat bland placeholders with a lot of iffy copyright issues. The removal of it from itch would just create a secondary market place, where people could find cheaper assets, but possibly never stumble upon the charm of a hand crafted asset pack.
Sorry for the long rambling comment... I think I'm somewhat putting off some homework, but I've sort of been thinking about the subject recently, so I thought I'd try to contribute.