Vietnamese artist’s Reddit account banned for alleged use of AI

Nguyen Hoang Minh Anh, aka Ben Moran, 30, who works in a Hanoi art studio, last month posted one of his works on r/Art subreddit, which has over 22 million members.

Anh said the admins of the subreddit deleted his work because they believed it was generated by AI. When he sent proof he had created it himself, one of them said: “I don’t believe you. Even if you did ‘paint’ it yourself, it’s so obviously an AI-prompted design that it doesn’t matter.

“Sorry, it’s the way of the world.”

Anh said he still has the original artwork and references for drawing.

He sent images of his past works to prove his art style, but to no avail.

His post was removed and his account was banned from the network for 28 days.

He said the work in question was commissioned by a customer and had taken him about a month to finish.

AIs could be powerful and useful tools if appropriately used, he said.

“Nevertheless, the fact that AI has developed too quickly and encroached into the field of art will greatly affect artists of the next generation. It may cause them to lose motivation and passion to study art and create works.”

Several artists have voiced discontent about AI-generated art, saying it could result in copyright issues and cause art to lose its beauty.

Leo Dinh, CEO of game studio Sun Wolf, said AI is helping artists by inspiring them and speeding up the process.

“However, AI cannot replace humans when it comes to creative content.”