Pokémon vs AI: finalists who used artificial intelligence in an art contest have been disqualified

Several finalist entries in an art contest for the Pokémon Trading Card Game have been entirely disqualified after it was found that they used generative AI to create the images, instead of drawing them up from scratch. After fans noticed these pieces made it to the final stretch of the competition, criticizing the company for allowing it to happen, The Pokémon Company has reviewed the entries and removed them from the list of finalists, allowing other pieces to compete.

Multiple AI images have been disqualified from a Pokémon TCG contest

Between October 2023 and January 2024, The Pokémon Company opened an illustration contest in which the winners could not only obtain cash prizes, but could also see their art on official cards from the Pokémon Trading Card Game. Taking into account such incentives, many artists from around the world were encouraged to try their luck and send their works in pursuit of glory.

Nevertheless, When The Pokémon Company did a first screening of the 300 finalists on June 14, 2024, alarms went off in the community: there was a worryingly high number of participants who had used AI when it was explicitly prohibited in the contest rules, where It is mentioned that the works must have been created solely by their respective authors.

AI-generated images are not only not your own, but they are created from huge databases from which they take creations from thousands and thousands of images, commonly without the express consent of each legitimate author, which has several ethical and moral implications.

In particular, the supposed illustrations of a single author who used variations of the name “Vigo K.” to imply that they were individual drawings of different people, not only flagrantly ignoring the strict limitation of up to three illustrations per author, but also used AI, as pointed out by other professional artists, noticing details such as a similar composition and subtle flaws in the anatomy of the creatures shown.

On June 25, 2024, the official Pokémon TCG account on X announced that several of those who passed the screening and reached the final phase of the contest have been disqualified for violating the regulations, which will allow some who did not reach the finals to enter this last phase.

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