Artificial intelligence used for the sprites? (which one was used lol)
Yeah, everything except pixelart items(which I am lazily making), is ai generated. I am just running local models in stable diffusion webui. I mostly have a utilitarian stance on the AI - the game as it is now wouldn't be possible to done without it. And when the game will gain the funding it needs, we will hire actual artists to cover the areas, ai can't cover.
I would say we would consider it. But there are different levels of ai usage in our game.
Characters are made with ai, handmade would be naturally better even if it would be different style. But there is a pipeline around it and a lot of art already made for the game. But if we would have hired person to do all of that on full time - most of the work on changing the game around it is would be pretty doable.
Backgrounds are made with ai as well. And it would be a much bigger hustle to have it be replaced with handmade. And would require god knows how much people... Also they seem to be in the weird sweet spot were they are non important enought and well "background" that they seem to us alright to be left as they are, as long as character art is replaced.
But speaking of the investment, what scale are we talking and what would be the obligations?
$1000 USD over a 2-4 month span.
EDIT:
My obligations would be full, but gradual removal of AI generated art assets. The investment would be solely used for the replacement of AI assets with human-created art and the facilitation of that specific process (ie, hiring and funding artists). If all assets are replaced and funds from the investment remain, the remaining amount may be used to produce/procure more human-made artwork. If there is no further need for art but funds remain, the remaining balance may be used for other aspects of game development.
In short, I'd paid for you guys to get human-created, handmade images. You'd replace the AI "art" with human work as often as you get it. Whatever money you have left is pretty much up to you to use, so long as you don't include AI art assets in future builds.