A.I. Is Exploding the Illustration World. Here's How Artists Are Racing to Catch Up

It's a scenario that would have been unimaginable a few years ago. Earlier this month, a popular Korean-language artist who goes by @ato1004fd on Twitch livestreamed an 11-hour sketch session, letting their 22,000 followers watch as they built up an image of a popular character from the video game Genshin Impact. But by the time @ato1004fd had completed the digital painting, a rogue viewer had already grabbed a picture of the work in process from the stream, used A.I. to "complete" it, and posted their own version to social media--before turning around and accusing @ato1004fd of being the copycat. "Bro, when you ask your fans to cry about art stealing, [be] reasonable," the forger wrote. "So you took as reference an AI image but at least admit it."