Our world is on the cusp of a revolution. That revolution is Artificial Intelligence. But whereas at least we Americans always envisioned AI as helping us do things like design better cars, calculate trajectories for Mars landings, and even clean our houses like in the old cartoon "The Jetsons," it turns out one of the first places that the incorporation of AI has become highly visible is in the arts. Here, some people are already envisioning all the ways that AI can be used to reduce costs. AI images of people to replace fashion models. AI-generated music that will do away with bands, song writers, and singers. AI writers to write books and screen plays. And, unfortunately, AI art, which takes the artwork of thousands of artists and modifies it to claim originality.
When we designed the cover for "The Demon's Guide to the Apocalypse," we didn't know the background image was AI-generated. Using the Adobe filters to exclude AI-generated imagery, it appeared to be genuine. Then we found out it wasn't. Without hesitation, we dropped the cover in favor of a new one. After all, we believe in the fair remuneration of artists.
As we barrel into this new AI-powered age, mistakes like this will likely become very common...at least until better filtering and restrictions are put into place, which will take a little bit of time. In the meantime, all we can do is try our best to protect the creative domain and fight back against the AI encroachment. Finding a new cover has been hard, but we're trying. And that's what matters.
