San Diego Comic-Con changed an AI art friendly policy following an artist-led backlash last week. It was a small victory for working artists in an industry where jobs are slipping away as movie and video game studios adopt generative AI tools to save time and money.\u00a0Every year, tens of thousands of people descend on San Diego for Comic-Con, the world\u2019s premier comic book convention that over the years has also become a major pan-media event where every major media company announces new movies, TV shows, and video games. For the past few years, Comic-Con has allowed some forms of AI-generated art at this art show at the convention. According to archived rules for the show, artists could display AI-generated material so long as it wasn\u2019t for sale, was marked as AI-produced, and credited the original artist whose style was used.\u201cMaterial produced by Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be placed in the show, but only as Not-for-Sale (NFS). It must be clearly marked as AI-produced, not simply listed as a print. If one of the parameters in its creation was something similar to \u2018Done in the style of,\u2019 that information must be added to the description. If there are questions, the Art Show Coordinator will be the sole judge of acceptability,\u201d Comic-Con\u2019s art show rules said until recently.These rules have been in place since at least 2024, but anti-AI sentiment is growing in the artistic community and an artist-led backlash against Comic-Con\u2019s AI-friendly language led to the convention quietly changing the rules. Twenty-four hours after artists called foul the AI-friendly policy, Comic-Con updated the language on its site. \u201cMaterial created by Artificial Intelligence (AI) either partially or wholly, is not allowed in the art show,\u201d it now says. AI is now banned at the art show.Comic and concept artist Tiana Oreglia told 404 Media Comic-Con\u2019s friendly attitude towards AI was a slippery slope towards normalization. \u201cI think we should be standing firm especially with institutions like Comic-Con which are quite literally built off the backs of artists and the creative community,\u201d she said. Oreglia was one of the first artists to notice the AI-friendly policy. In addition to alerting her circle of friends, she also wrote a letter to Comic-Con itself.Artist Karla Ortiz told 404 Media she learned about the AI-friendly policy after some fellow artists shared it with her. Ortiz is a major artist who has worked with some of the major studios who exhibit work at Comic-Con. She\u2019s also got a large following on social media, a following she used to call out Comic-Con\u2019s organizers.\u201cComic-con deciding to allow GenAi imagery in the art show\u2014giving valuable space to GenAi users to show slop right NEXT to actual artists who worked their asses off to be there\u2014is a disgrace!\u201d Ortiz said in a post on Bluesky. \u201cA tone deaf decision that rewards and normalizes exploitative GenAi against artists in their own spaces!\u201dAccording to Ortiz, the convention is a sacred place she didn\u2019t want to see desecrated by AI. \u201cComic-Con is the big mecca for comic artists, illustrators, and writers,\u201d she said. \u201cI organize and speak with a lot of different artists on the generative AI issue. It\u2019s something that impacts us and impacts our lives. A lot of us have decided: \u2018No, we\u2019re not going to sit by the sidelines.\u2019\u201dOritz explained that generative AI was already impacting the livelihood of working artists. She said that, in the past, artists could sustain themselves on long projects for companies that included storyboarding and design. \u201cSuddenly the duration of projects are cut,\u201d she said. \u201cThey got generative AI to generate a bunch of references, a bunch of boards. \u2018We already did the initial ideation, so just paint this. Paint what generative AI has generated for us.\u2019\u201dOrtiz pointed to two high profile examples: Marvel using AI to make the title sequence for Secret Invasion and Coca-Cola using AI to make Christmas commercials. \u201cYou have this encroaching exploitative technology impacting almost every single level of the entertainment industry, whether you\u2019re a writer, or a voice actor, or a musician, a painter, a concept artist, an illustrator. It doesn\u2019t matter\u2026and then to have Comic-Con, that place that\u2019s supposed to be a gathering and a celebration of said creatives and their work, suddenly put on a pedestal the exploitative technology that only functions because of its training on our works? It\u2019s upsetting beyond belief.\u201d\u201cWhat is Comic-Con trying to tell the industry?\u201d She said, \u201cIt\u2019s telling artists: \u2018Hey you, you\u2019re exploitable and you\u2019re replaceable.\u2019\u201dOrtiz was heartened that Comic-Con changed its policy. \u201cIt was such a relief,\u201d she said. \u201cGenerative AI is still going to creep its nasty way in some way or another, but at least it\u2019s not something we have to take lying down. It\u2019s something we can actively speak out against.\u201dComic-Con did not respond to 404 Media\u2019s request for comment, but Oreglia said she did hear back from art show organizer Glen Wooten. \u201cHe basically told me that they put those AI stipulations in when AI was just starting to come around and that the inability to sell AI-generated works was meant to curtail people from submitting genAI works,\u201d she said. \u201cHe seems to be very against genAI but wasn’t really able to change the current policy until artists voiced their opinions loudly which pressured the office into banning AI completely.\u201dDespite changing policies and broad anti-AI sentiment among the artistic community, Oreglia has still seen an uptick of AI art at conventions. \u201cAlthough there are many cons that ban it outright and if you get caught selling it you basically will get banned.\u201d This happened to a vendor at Dragon Con last September. Organizers called police to escort the vendor off the premises.\u00a0\u201cAnd I was tabling at Fanexpo SF and definitely saw genAI in the dealers hall, none in the artists alley as far as I could see though but I mostly stuck to my table,\u201d she said. \u201cI was also at Emerald City Comic Con last year and they also have a no-ai policy but fanexpo doesn’t seem to have those same policies as far as I know.\u201dAI image generators are trained on original artwork so whatever output a tool like Midjourney creates is based on an artist\u2019s work, often without compensation or credit. Oreglia also said she feels that AI is an artistic dead end. \u201cEverything interesting, uplifting, and empowering I find about art gets stripped away and turned into vapid facsimiles based on vibes and trendy aesthetics,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"