Are they using AI instead of making real art?
Summary:
- Spice and Wolf’s OP and Kaiju No. 8 ED cover arts were accused of being AI-generated.
- It caused quite a controversy among anime fans.
- The situation hasn’t been addressed officially.
Spice and Wolf (Ookami to Koushinryou) and Kaiju No. 8 (Kaijuu 8-gou) don’t sound like two series that are often mentioned in the same context (perhaps only when it’s time to talk about great anime this season), but they’ve recently become the “stars” of controversies of the same nature. The AI ones.
AI Cover Arts
On April 11, 2024, the official X (formerly Twitter) account for Kaiju No. 8 posted the cover art for the series’ ending theme by OneRepublic. On April 15, 2024, the official X account for the Spice and Wolf remake did a similar thing, posting the cover art for the opening theme by Hana Hope.
It didn’t take long for fans to start accusing both cover arts of being AI-generated, and they were outraged. The replies under both twits were mostly negative, and people felt like they’d been lied to.
Fans noticed weird contouring and unnecessary blurs in both of the arts, leading them to believe that they were entirely generated with AI or created with the help of it. No one believed the pictures were works of real artists.
The topic of AI-generated art is a very hot one nowadays. Modern technology keeps progressing every day, and it’s frightening. Real artists feel threatened by AI and feel that they will be replaced by soulless machines.
Moreover, AI art is often presented as real art, which artists are fed up with tremendously. That’s why it’s so infuriating for them to see big companies doing the same thing and trying to promote the use of AI.
Technically, There’s No Proof
The worst thing about AI-generated art is that it’s not always possible to say whether it was really done with the help of AI. A number of real artists have faced various AI accusations online, but have managed to prove them wrong by recording the process of their work.
No matter how confident fans are that Spice and Wolf and Kaiju No. 8 used AI to create their arts, there will always be people who don’t believe it, since nowadays you can find AI allegations under every other fanart.
The thing that angered fans the most was that the AI situation wasn’t even officially addressed by any of the anime’s teams. People would love an official explanation or at least a confirmation, and the silence is making it worse.