XPPen, a popular drawing tablet retailer for digital artists, is now under fire for supposedly stealing an artist's works and using generative AI for its latest promotional material.
Several users, primarily artists, went against XPPen Canada on X (formerly Twitter) after the account posted greetings for Family Day.
The original artist where the supposed promotional material was based, @walayssa, claimed that XPPen "just mish-mashed different elements" of two art pieces they made.
they just mish mashed different elements of these 2 pieces I made?? a literal brand?? jesus christ pic.twitter.com/BxTSkDBJht
— layssa 🍎🐝 ʕ ·ᴥ·ʔ commissions closed! (@walayssa) February 19, 2024
XPPen Canada has since removed the post.
Digital Art Tool Retailers Fall into AI
This was not the first time XPPen was involved in AI controversy, a topic many of its customers have spoken against.
Last year, the company also posted a promotional material featuring a conspicuous image on its main X account.
It did not take long for artists to find out that the image was generated by AI. XPPen has since removed the image and cut contracts with the commissioned artist for the promotional material.
It is also worth noting that XPPen's parent company, HanvonUgee Group, also delved into AI technology for its digital hardware products.
Shortly after the first XPPen issue, its biggest competitor Wacom was also caught using AI images for one of its New Year's promotion campaigns.
Unlike XPPen, Wacom denied using the technology at first but later redacted its earlier statements along with removing the images that caused the controversy.
There was also that time ibisPaint, an art software, adding generative AI feature on its app. Its developers also later removed the feature after receiving a "strong response" from its users.
AI Seeps Into Art Industry
AI remains a sore spot in art communities amid increasing layoffs and dwindling open job positions in the industry as AI becomes more streamline among companies.
It does not help that recent documents from Stable Diffusion showing that it is collecting artworks from thousands of artists to train its AI.
Many artists have since started to call for regulations on the technology amid the rapid growth of AI development.
