ArtStation is removing anti-AI protest artwork from its homepage

ArtStation claims that the content on its website violates its terms of service. Members of the ArtStation community have been protesting since the beginning of the year. Protestors are concerned that the use of artificial intelligence in art is not in keeping with the work of humans.

ArtStation said in a statement that they are taking down posts that violate their terms of service. Concerns about the impact of artificial intelligence on the industry are understandable. Users will be given more control over what they see and how they use ArtStation as a result of the improvements we will be sharing.

ArtStation has the power to remove content if it is found to be in violation of the platform's Terms of Service. We reached out to ArtStation for clarification and should hear back from them.

ArtStation is the leading online portfolio and community for artists working in video games, film, and comic books. As Stable Diffusion and Midjourney became more popular, artificial intelligence-generated imagery began to appear more frequently. Many artists wanted Artstation to ban this content, but the company refused. When ArtStation announced that artists would have to opt-in to a new feature designed to prevent their artwork from being used to train artificial intelligence tools, the situation got worse.

Many artists consider the use of AI-art generation tools unethical as they are often trained to use datasets that contain artwork from the internet without their permission.

There are criticisms that artificial intelligence undermines the skills of human artists and that prompters exploit the work of other artists. ArtStation is used by creatives to display industry portfolios and find paid work, and the community has objected to the apparent acceptance of artificial intelligence on the platform.

Different art platforms have different approaches to technology. While rival stock image database Shutterstock has embraced the technology, it has banned the uploading and sale of illustrations generated using artificial intelligence over legal and copyrighted concerns. When companies express support for the sudden popularity of generative art, they allude to its potential as another tool to be utilized by artists, not as a means to replace them.

The decision to remove protest imagery from ArtStation went down poorly with the site's community, with many users now declaring their intention to abandon the platform. ArtStation was accused of removing anti-war and pro-Ukraine content earlier this year. ArtStation said that they support political discourse on ArtStation so long as it follows their policies.