This was originally posted as unpopular opinion but received its own thread: With how insanely fast AI progresses, it’s only a matter of time before a significant chunk of TCG artists will be replaced by AI-generated artwork. AI is almost for free and the artwork it produces already outmatches many real artists.
Edit: I should mention that I don’t approve of this trend, but in a free market, it seems inevitable.
I dislike modern copyright terms but this is taking it way too far.
Using other people’s work as data or rather swallowing their skill up into some database to be spat out with no credit or acknowledgment is disgraceful.
Also, no one should need to justify their existence to society, so this further cost cutting to fatten the insatiable greed of the myopic elite is only going to end in physical violence - not that that violence doesn’t already happen to minorities, labour, journalists etc.
I definitely find this opinion off. AI can create a piece that reflects an image, but it can not create mood, feeling and go outside the box. Ask an AI to create this from nothing.
We all have to justify our existence. At work, to our families, friends, partners etc. nothing is free.
Dont have much of an opinion on AI, but if art like that never existed id be just fine. Idk wtf is going on there. That art reminds me nothing of the games or pokemon
Agree. I get that the Pokémon is doing the Godzilla move and it’s cool, but that art is very blah.
That’s society and the status quo telling you that.
I think you’re right especially on low end TCGs and new non TCGs products. Ai simply allow people to try getting in the market without paying a team of artists, so I’ll expect that. Also it can be used to quickly produce things like stickers, topps, lamincards and so on.
If I were a YGO artist honestly I’ll shit my pants since they’re not credited and Ai is fenomenal on anime style. Being ygo far more consistent in art style than pokemon wouldn’t be too difficult to create an entire set: then you let a junior artist do some minor corrections.
I think for now ai can only approach pokemon and mtg like a ‘novelty’, I can image reading something in 2025 like “the first mini set entirely created by midjourney”. Also, this is speculation obviously, but I feel japanese are far less open to technological advancements.
TLDR; i think PTCG is safe for many years, the others only partially.
This all day long. The Pokémon should be the main focus on a Pokémon card, not really a fan of those full arts where it’s more about the setting and surrounding than displaying the Pokémon itself
The only people excited about AI creating art are people who aren’t artists or creative.
Just another way to squeeze and disrespect labour for the hundredth yacht.
Unfortunately I think that the vast majority of people will not understand this, until the 80% of their beloved product (manga, comics, cards, tv shows, books…) will become ai content. Then maybe they’ll start wondering ‘why is everything generic, superficial, okayish, always the same’, and why they feel nostalgic for decades old contents.
Unfortunately we havent had too many inspired games or movies in a long time. Its the age of rereleases. I say give ai a shot, theyre not doing much with the human talent anyway
Ai could have created scarlet and violet 10x better. The pokemon game developers are the first people that should be using ai since gamefreak may be the laziest AAA developers ever and theyre clearly content with changing nothing to break record sales
I’ve yet to see any AI art that doesn’t look like AI art. Art is supposed to invoke a feeling. The only feeling I’ve had so far with AI art is, “oh that’s another ai art”. As cliche as it sounds, It feels soulless.
That’s how that Pokemon - Baxcalibur - does its signature attack. It’s in the Pokedex entry, it’s animated in the game. Just because you didn’t play it or didn’t like it doesn’t mean it’s not accurate.
SWSH has probably been the best era for card art, so it’s hard to take you seriously.
Do you even know what “AI” is? It’s consolidated human knowledge and skill, so for you to write humans off is ridiculous.
I played the games. That card is not going to appeal to a lot of people. I also have a MS in engineering and am fairly familiar with ai. When the recent trends for games and movies is redo old stuff that is exactly what ai is good for.
Cards i probably should not have lumped in but still, saying swsh is a gold mine just because maybe 3 or 4 alts per set are good while the rest is forgotten isnt exactly ideal
My heart is zen and peaceful but I still need to pay rent, take care of my mother and contribute to my very fulfilling relationship. Two things can be true at once.
I work in AI. I have also built generative AI art models for my art and others over the years. The results can be quite moving. However, AI art is still like the taco bell menu. You just get an amalgamation of previous creations, like the “quesarito”. It is “new” but not really.
While AI can generate amazing Pokémon cards, you wouldn’t get anything truly creative, just reimaginations or combinations of things we have already seen. A human spark is still needed, for now, to get things like rainbow rares, modern full arts, or Komiya’s unique style. Plus, artists will still be needed to review, modify, and curate the mass of AI images.
I could see AI replacing the commons/uncommons, but who cares about those anyway? Truly inventive art will still require some artists, maybe just a lot less of them in the future. Future copyright laws may protect artists, but companies like Pokemon are in a great position where they already own all the IP and previous works to generate new works from. They wouldn’t need outside data sets or permission. They own everything already.
No, in my opinion AI art at the moment is used to save money on hiring / paying an artist a fair rate. Pokemon has too much money and too much talent behind them to need to rely on it.
Also, creating truly good AI art takes a lot of time, just makes sense to use that time to pay an artist you know is high quality rather than re rolling and endlessly tweaking AI prompts.
