At Agents of Game, we recognize that, while technology can be a wonderful thing, the manner in which it is created and used can be…troubling, to put it delicately. As such, we will continue to pay human artists for artwork we use, we will continue to adhere to ethical standards for the content we create, whether it be the written word, video content, or images.
Specifically referring to images, while we are aware of some smaller scale projects who have paid artists for the artwork on which they train their models (MythWeaver is a good example of doing things the right way), that seems to be the minority. As such, we do not intend on using AI images, or images we believe are AI generated, unless we are using them as part of an article that is specifically related to that topic, and if we do so, we intend to specifically label that as such.
Full Policy:
We at Agents of Game love and embrace technology, but given some of the moral, ethical, and even legal issues surrounding the creation of various AI models, we do not wish to support companies that are engaged in extremely problematic behavior. Unfortunately, one might argue that includes virtually all companies across the entire spectrum of business, which is a fair point, but it’s difficult to completely avoid entanglements.
Specifically, we do not intend to use AI generated artwork, unless it is specifically the subject of an article in which AI artwork is the topic. We have always attempted to pay artists for quality work, and, where possible, rather than haggle for lower prices we often pay more than the artists initially asked for their work. We aren’t made of money, but we believe people should be compensated for their work, especially when it’s good work that few have the talent to achieve.
The same principle will largely apply to the written word as well. We expect all of our contributors to generate their own work based on their own thoughts and in their own words. We do not necessarily object to using AI to help reduce the time necessary for formulaic and purely informational posts, such as non-opinionated segments such as, perhaps, a post about upcoming game or movie releases, but we do ask any contributors to note if and when that is the case, and verify that they have reviewed the information for accuracy.