Japanese Art Sites Say No to AI Art
By Yung Namahage • 1 year ago


Artificial intelligence is getting smarter every day, but the pushback against it is getting stronger. Artists are concerned about the AIs being trained using their work, producing similar images and flooding art sites with what they see as cheap, soulless knock offs. And now four major Japanese art hosting platforms have recently announced a ban on AI-made images.



DLsite, Ci-en, pixiv FANBOX, and fantia have all issued bans on AI-generated art with slightly different terms. On DLsite, where people can purchase art, games or videos etc, and Ci-en, which is more like a Japanese Patreon, AI can still be used by artists to assist with novels and games, but otherwise any manga, videos or images generated with AI are banned. pixiv FANBOX is another Patreon-like site that's part of popular Japanese art platform pixiv, and fantia works in a similar way. They both have a blanket ban on anything made with AI to any extent.


All sites claim the bans are temporary, and were put into effect due to the recent masses of AI-made art made for monetary gain making it hard for artists to show work they've put their heart and soul into. A lot of artists seem to be celebrating this decision, but others who think AI can be used by artists like any other tool think it's stifling creativity. What do you guys think of banning AI art? Leave your thoughts below!