AI generated artwork – it’s wondrous in it’s potential, but outright problematic in it’s execution. We have firmly entered a timeline where people are absolutely trying to leverage this superpower of technology into whatever hole they assume it fits.
One of the more entertaining AI trends of late includes a practice where people are using AI to generate artwork that they then claim is “definitely original artwork and not AI” before getting totally trounced by the emerging AI identification experts – or as we previously called them, Artists.
During my morning ritual of a hot coffee and a quick scroll of Twitter, I managed to notice that the most recent hilarious example of this was someone producing ‘artwork’ for an upcoming remaster of Duke Nukem 1 + 2 for a system known as the Retrocade.
Only the discussion wasn’t about playing these classic games again:
Of course a first glance simply shows you a neat looking artwork of Duke doing Duke things – but a slightly more involved look will start to reveal the telltale signs of AI bullshittery:
come the fuck on dude pic.twitter.com/6SKIVIUsVl
— Meido 2.0 💾 (@MeidoIDKFA) May 31, 2023
four fingers on left hand, robot left leg, foot falling OFF said leg leaving him with a stump. cyborg stump nukem known for his famous move the mighty stump. pic.twitter.com/LhwBpOOwx6
— wesker (@whyreks) June 1, 2023
Of course, one might simply chuckle and move on – because surely this farce of an artistic submission was lambasted and rejected by the company responsible for the release, right?
Well, no. Apparently a series of tweets from the Evercade Retro account (long since deleted) initially defended the artwork, claiming that it was not AI generated. I have to imagine that this was done in good faith, believing the commissioned artist when the claim was made that the art was wholly original.
While these tweets have now been lost to the shadow realm, a statement has replaced them covering the matter, where Blaze Entertainment addresses it and does seem to confirm the use of AI in the artworks creation:
An artist was commissioned to produce a lead image for the new Duke Nukem 1+2 Remastered game developed by Blaze Entertainment. It is abundantly clear from the response on social media that the work on this commission has fallen below the expectation and standards demanded by fans due to the artists’ use of AI in the process.
We are immediately removing the art where possible to do so and will be announcing a replacement commission in due course that better meets the high standard expected.
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And so now people can hope that the next Duke they receive is lovingly rendered from scratch.
Perhaps the funniest thing about all of this, is the realisation that the Duke Nukem seen in the AI artwork is a very modern depiction of the Dukester. People seem to forget that in his original outings in the side-scrolling shooter space had him looking like a great deal more Flash Gordon-esque – something AI would struggle to replicate with a generic ‘DRAW DOOK NOOKUM’ prompt:
Side note, he didn’t even look like that until Duke 3D. pic.twitter.com/aL1b02IhYr
— SinfulBehaviors #DemBoysForever (@SinfulBehaviors) June 1, 2023
And so with the matter mostly resolved, the dark knights of the internet can turn their gaze to other instances of AI villainy. For now, I will leave you with the most ironic of memery – using an AI voice to dunk on the AI Duke Nukem.
If that isn’t meta irony, I have no idea what is.
— 𝙈𝙞𝙜𝙪𝙚𝙡 (@Migu3e__) June 1, 2023
Have you seen any examples of AI silliness on the world wide web? Was it resolved before things for too out of hand? Let us know in the comments or on social media!
Full disclosure: The feature image for this article was AI generated. It felt fitting. Source: https://www.craiyon.com/
Known throughout the interwebs simply as M0D3Rn, Ash is bad at video games. An old guard gamer who suffers from being generally opinionated, it comes as no surprise that he is both brutally loyal and yet, fiercely whimsical about all things electronic. On occasion will make a youtube video that actually gets views.
