The Controversy of AI Art in Book Cover Design
<p>Recently, I had an AI art experience that left me stunned and bewildered. It made me think more deeply about the complexity of AI ethics.</p>
<p>But before we get to that, here’s my backstory.</p>
<p>For a while, I had cross-posted my serial novel, <a href="https://medium.com/prismnpen/anastasia-the-nonbinary-dragon-92f00f859bcb" rel="noopener">Anastasia the Nonbinary Dragon</a>, onto Tapas, a platform for web novels and webcomics. I like to be optimistic, but Medium has a small audience for fiction, especially serial fiction.</p>
<p><img alt="A cool red dragon with wings outspread, overlooking misty mountains. “Anastasia the Nonbinary Dragon” is written in blue text at the bottom." src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:300/1*koQEr0UW2EoFh3_Z2q8jVA.jpeg" style="height:450px; width:300px" /></p>
<p>The book cover I used for Tapas. I based this on an image by <a href="https://depositphotos.com/portfolio-1756968.html?content=photo" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">estebande</a> on <a href="https://depositphotos.com/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">DepositPhotos</a>, where I have the standard license for commercial use. A friend helped me modify the image with Midjourney AI.</p>
<p>Tapas felt like a miracle, because readers there actually enjoy serial fiction, and our novels are packaged neatly into little bundles. We don’t have to awkwardly link blog posts together like we do on Medium. Tapas has monetization options, too, which </p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/u/bd45a291dd8d?source=post_page-----5efd0b68b8a7--------------------------------" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Bradan Writes Stories</a></p>
<p> explains <a href="https://medium.com/creative-writing-101/tapas-mediums-successor-for-fiction-642440990ee1" rel="noopener">in his article here</a>.</p>
<p>But alas, good things never last.</p>
<p>Near the end of January this year, <a href="https://tapas.io/newsfeed/224" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Tapas announced</a> that AI art is now banned from book covers. We had to remove all AI art from our work by Feb 6, or we would be penalized.</p>
<p>For context, lots of creators on Tapas are comic artists. Many believe that AI generators will steal their jobs.</p>
<p>While I can sympathize, I don’t think AI could ever replace human artists. To me, AI is like Adobe Flash for animators. The program helps you make all the frames between the main pictures, but you still need to do the basic creation and direction yourself.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/the-generator/the-controversy-of-ai-art-in-book-cover-design-5efd0b68b8a7"><strong>Click Here</strong></a></p>