A Professional Artist Spent 100 Hours To Create An Image, To Only Be Accused Of Using AI

When it comes to 2D art, the major differences between a work from a professional artist and some amateur is how they use the brush, the stroke, the color choices, and above all, how they put their "emotions" onto their work.

But in the world where artificial intelligence products have creeped themselves into, and the society where people began to realize the "terror" and the "promises" of generative AIs, like OpenAI's DALL·E 2, Google's Imagen, and Stable Diffusion, some people began to look down, if not question the works of real artists.

Ben Moran is an artist and illustrator.

They had spent more than 100 hours working on the piece art. And after finishing the astonishing work, they wished to share it with the world, starting on the r/Art subreddit, which is one of Reddit’s largest art forums with 22 million members.

“I want to show my hard work to the community,” they said.

But the responses he received have been mixed. On one hand, he said that:

But on the other hand, Moran felt unappreciated:

Moran shared his experience on December 27 on Twitter, saying that he was told that he violated the subreddit's "no AI art" rule.

Moran tried to explain that the work, titled “A muse in Warzone,” is actually the result of his own hard work, using his own hands.

But still, the moderators only considered that as an excuse, and immediately banned Moran.

And when Moran again tried to explain to the moderators by sending them a link to their portfolio, still, Moran didn't receive the response he expected.

"I don’t believe you," said one of the moderators.

They went on to say that even if Moran had painted it, it’s "so obviously an AI-prompted design that it doesn’t matter."

"Sorry, it’s the way of the world,” said moderator, signing off the message.

The moderators then muted Moran, in order to prevent Moran from continuing the conversation or make the case further.

Following Moran's ban, a number of other subreddits have started covering the controversy.

And because many rallied and started showing their support towards Moran, the moderators of r/Art briefly made the subreddit private, claiming they were being "brigaded," or attacked coordinately by other subreddits.

"The level of mod abuse is absolutely shocking," one redditor said.

"It's not just that the artist was wrongly banned. It's that when they appealed, the mod doubled down, called them a liar and insulted their art."

While Moran is clearly displeased, ironically, Moran and the moderators of r/Art seem to agree that arts generated by AIs can be detrimental.

"In my opinion, the development of AI is good for industry, not for the art community and artists,” Moran said.

"AI, of course, is stronger than our brain. It's a mix of a thousand, or a million human brains of artists all over the world, so AI can do a ton of work in a short time. But as I said, it can cut off all the artist's passion and break the art community."

Moran hopes that future artists won't be discouraged by the technology, even if the technology can create their work in seconds.

"Stay strong artists," they said. "Don't let the AI stop your drawing career and passion."

Ben Moran is a pseudonym for Minh Anh Nguyen Hoang, a lead professional artist working for Kart Studio, which is based in Vietnam.

Hoang learned how to draw since 2019, soon after graduating from university, majoring in economics.

"Drawing was just my hobby when I was a child," said Moran. "I started getting serious about painting when I realized I could be good at it. The artists that mainly inspire me are Ruan Jia, Huang Guangjian, and Piotr Jabłoński."

Moran is a fan of contemporary fantasy illustrators.

And this time, his “A muse in Warzone” artwork, is a piece Moran were commissioned to produce.

Moran was paid $500 to create the artwork, meant to be the cover art for the fantasy fiction author Selkie Myth’s books.

Myth plans to use the artwork for his forthcoming eleventh title.

"I've ordered a lot of artwork with [Moran], because they are very, very good at what they do," said Myth, who lives in Nebraska. "They are an absolute steal for that quality and commercial use."