getting SCAMMED by ai (and how YOU can avoid it)

digital artist gets owned by ai art bros...woo
app: procreate
brush: www.viyaura.com/product/gloss...
device: ipad pro 12.9 inch (4th gen) and apple pencil
canvas size: 3873 x 4814 pixels
editing app: final cut pro / capcut
anyways ty. watch till the end, like, and sub, and ill send a dove to your window carrying a flower and 'thank u' card as a token of my gratitude.
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timestamps:
0:00 - 0:28 ~ weird email (red flag 1)
0:28 - 1:16 ~ more weird emails (red flag 2)
1:36 - 2:14 ~ final emails
2:15 ~ 3 months later...
2:20 - 2:40 ~ THE SCAM EXPLAINED
2:40 - 3:10 ~ my thoughts
3:11 - 3:43 ~ HOW TO AVOID
3:43 ~ so what now?
---
#art #drawing #digitalart #artprocess #draw #procreate #ai #aiart #illustration draw with me, procreate, illustrator, beginner artist, tips tutorial tricks drawing draw artist speedpaint viyaura

[@PurPurAstie]

the fact they literally were talking to you, an artist, like an AI prompt, is frickin insane.

[@nonyabusiness3619]

Right? Do people give real artists "keywords" as if they are prompting an AI? I always thought that people just told artists what they wanted. As in, using descriptions. Not straight up word prompts.

[@matiascrispim1371]

if they didn't have a problem stealing art, I don't think they have a problem treating artists in an insane way

[@Noizzed]

It's probably a request from someone else, they're basically intermediaries, between their clients of some site like Fiverr, and the artist they steal from.

[@dynogamergurl]

Yeah that was a major hint that they were gonna use it to train AI and abuse this. I’m not any kind of artist by any means but I can recognize those kinds of prompts

[@soundrogue4472]

Language shapes the way we interact with others; this is why as a failed writer I STILL HARP ON the fact how you talk and what words you use MATTER. It is odd to say but the words you use does influence how you're interacting with others on a day to day basis from typing to writing.

[@bye_byemonkeyyt]

Damn we got ai scammers before gta6.

[@Ibloop]

not suprising

[@bye_byemonkeyyt]

@@Ibloop fr

[@warmmilk9480]

AI scams have been around for many years.

[@wb1073]

​@@IbloopDRINK WATER

[@WolfSpiritArt]

lol

[@nonyabusiness3619]

Prabably should've ended communication when they literally fed you prompts and keywords as if you were an AI generator. Even if they weren't scammers, the fact that they didn't talk to you like a human, couldn't be bothered to use full on sentences and take the time to describe exactly what they wanted, shows what kind of client they are.

[@TealTheCuteness]

Could be bad english, but still that list of words is enough for me to ignore it

[@deltaxcd]

To me it sounds more like some mockery. as if client was trolling the artist

[@Ashley-cj6dw]

This is 'protect yourself from phishing attempts' 101. There's broken English, then there's this.

[@theanonymspysandwich]

Kinda sounds like a 4chan psyop tbh.

[@Stroggoii]

​@@theanonymspysandwich 4chan's art board is flooded by 24/7 AI demoralization campaigns. They're too busy telling aibros to kts to pretend to be aibros.

[@blind_aggression]

even their messages sound like an untrained ai chatbot

[@gosucab944]

Even then the chatbot would have better grammar.

[@deltaxcd]

ai chatbots talk very well actually

[@blind_aggression]

@@deltaxcd that's why i said untrained

[@WallySnarling]

Literally-

[@aliciaandrade1148]

In fact, prompts and training are used to create grammatical errors and fillers in order to make it appear natural.

[@fatimamusawy]

Even if it wasn't an ai scam, people could sell your drawing in any other way. So if someone feels suspicious in any way ask them for more stuff such as more details, or social media, because that would either bore the scammer or give you the chance to make sure they're legit (or catch them through their accounts if they ever do anything wrong) But the best way is to completely ignore them if you find anything that seems wrong.

[@squirrelhallowino29]

I feel like if i buy a painting i can sell that painting. That makes the most sense.

[@reivell3699]

The scam part is abit weird, its not like there's billions of art you can feed to your AI all over the internet. Also they can just reuse your art from your posted gallery.

[@squirrelhallowino29]

From what i gathered, feeding too much stuff to Ai does not make it better. The best models people use apparently are usually trained with under 200 images. It's not called inteligence for nothing i guess@@reivell3699

[@RaspBerryPies]

@@reivell3699Yeah that’s my thought idk how big this scam actually is I feel like most people would just grab an artist free work and then just use AI to edit it anyways. I mean it’s still a scam but I feel like it’s not as common and AI bros will use other easier ways to get money since that is their whole thing haha

[@ThatBugBehindYou]

@@squirrelhallowino29 An artist still owns the copyright of what they drew so technically it's their right to prevent you from selling what you've bought. In order to own the full copyright of the work you bought you have to negotiate a price and have then sign their copyright over to you. If you have a physical piece of the work the waters get a lot more muddy and you selling that specific physical item is almost always going to be alright. Think of it this way, if you buy a game you can't then rip the game and sell copies to others, but you can sell the physical item to someone else generally.

[@yeoldegrayCat]

Always take payment first! You can choose not to give refunds after you've started it, or offer to refund 50% refund after you've already started on it.

[@jan_harald]

that, or just plaster some watermarks on it ;P a person could see through the watermarks, and have an idea what it will look like, but it would totally ruin the AI trying to "enhance" it, lol, and if you want watermark-free image, then pay up, best of both worlds, if they're gonna scam, they're unlikely to want to actually pay up, but if they are really interested, they can still give feedback what they want changed

[@yeoldegrayCat]

@@jan_harald you'd still be working for free if you give out a rough draft, watermarked or not, without taking any payment first. However I guess that's up to the artist and how much they value their time.

[@IZZYCHAN13]

Artists run with your money and you never see the result, so no

[@yeoldegrayCat]

@@IZZYCHAN13 True there are scammers, but those can be found everywhere in all different freelance categories, if you fall for one that's on the buyers bad judgement. Do your research first.

[@cutecats532]

It's difficult because artists can scam people too. Asking for paypal friends and family so they don't have to pay you back. That happened to my friend once. And if you do paypal normally there are fees and there's a chance people will take the art then ask paypal for the refund of services anyway... or if the art gets delayed for certain amounts of time and people get impatient....

[@Lylactal]

IMO it is a problem but at some point the ai drawings that are stolen are going to inbreed which means you can much more clearly see the ai's flaws and thus we come back full circle

[@viyaura]

interesting, i've never thought about it that way

[@StillNoClue22]

Inbreed is crazy 😭

[@pluto13x2]

@@viyaura ai programmer here - the internet is becoming more and more packed with ai generated images. the models are being trained on images from the internet, so now the models have ai generated images in their datasets. the more the ai is getting trained on it's own output, the worse it performs, and eventually it will pretty much start generating only solid colors

[@Releo0]

Well there is a solution such as handpicking them yourself but that'd take alot of time but it's possible, I can imagine a group of people eventually doing that and then recreating people's styles to get money out of it, but again I'm pretty unaware how much data it takes for it to copy someone's style

[@pluto13x2]

@@Releo0 insanely massive amounts of data. plus the people engineering ai have really good salaries, selling bootleg ai art is everything but worth it to them

[@Lichan525]

The nerve of ai artists to tell us our artworks are trash and that's why we're scared when the entire foundation of their art is based of stolen hard work that the same "trash" artists made💀💀💀

[@SugarbirdyOvO]

Anyone who makes the effort to put out even the most simple, inexperienced art piece is already 10x more artistically valuable than AI shitheads.

[@xzizy]

You can do commissions but always get a deposit. Even for the sketch, since it's still your time they are asking for

[@kyer9677]

I would say to just ask for the full amount straight up. Unless its something in the hundreds of dollars then 50/50 is reasonable ask. Douche bag customers have always been known to just take the sketch and run. So send only a low quality, watermarked sketch to show them to protect against these kind of people.

[@reflectingPastChoices]

@@kyer9677 from my experience, most clients will pay the whole amount u^front anyway. Unless it's very expensive as you said.

[@Konprise]

I wouldn't even answer that email even if starved for work, they sound like a child

[@neurofiedyamato8763]

I agree it was red flags right from the get go. Heck I seen downgraded ChatGPT generate better text than that.

[@rightwingreactionary]

Or an Indian.

[@arishaxml]

@@rightwingreactionaryoh…

[@rightwingreactionary]

@@arishaxml Stereotypes exist for a reason. Don't take it to heart.

[@somthinwrong]

Some more advice: 1) Do upfront payments. Let the commissioner pay first before you start any work 2) Stick with reputable commissioners. New fresh accounts without any content/artwork will sound fishy 3) Situational but never be afraid to use callout posts on scammers. You can warn your watchers and artist friends to avoid that user

[@BrotherHood-xh9sg]

Not an artist, and never commissioned art, but can someone tell me if it's common to get a lot of weird keywords that mean nothing, and then you give a sketch that almost looks done already? Because first of, damm, that looks nice. And second, people feeding you keywords for art sounded like they think you are one of those ai generators (to me). I honestly thought her story was going to go in that direction. "This random person thought I was an AI art generator, look how I messed with them".

[@nextombz]

They literally sound like a fucking ai art generator user trying to commission an artist for the first time in their life

[@stygianoatman]

Never done commissions before, but I find that coming up with keywords actually helps me draw better, to stick to the concept more. If it's a person/character I'll think about their personality. Let's say an almond for example, maybe I come up with "wrinkled" or "creased". I dunno, even though I'm not a machine I do feel like having some keywords is helpful. Not sure if it's common, but whenever I draw something for someone I definitely make a habit of asking them for descriptive words like that.

[@BrotherHood-xh9sg]

@@stygianoatman I get that. For example for the character, I can understand you saying; "it's a female, she is wearing plate mail, colors of her outfit, maybe a symbol, hairstyle, weaponry, a bit of her background and personality for posture and facial expression etc. But I do think what I just described and what you said, is different from these AI generator keywords that she recieved. Those seem just weird to me, but again, it might be common for an artist to be treated like an ai art generator.

[@stygianoatman]

@@BrotherHood-xh9sg I think it's definitely common. My brother works freelance jobs in the game industry (creates armors and stuff), and his bosses have had a tendency to ask for things and just expect immediate results or estimations. Or they ask for one thing and then another, as if forgetting what they already pitched. People treat artists like that, I think, because they view art as a product/commodity and not as a process. It's pretty dystopian, but that's how a lot of people see things. Probably why things like AI art even exist, they view it as a product and want more. Products are made by machines, experiences are made by people. Art is an experience, not merely a product.

[@BigTatasEnjoyerr]

I used to get art commission before but I have never met art clients that treat me like a freaking A.I generator. All of my past clients were conversing with me normally by uploading their refs and actually talk like real human to human.

[@wolfgangd3653]

This and the fact that huge, rich companies that regularly work with artists (Wacom and Riot) actually hired scammers/AI "artists" recently is so scarry and dissapointing

[@Pollicina_db]

Wacom supports this shit? Sad… i have one of their cheaper tablets

[@wolfgangd3653]

@@Pollicina_db they used AI graphics on their ads recently, then quickly removed it after people realized and got angry, there are still videos about it though if you are interested.

[@another_361]

Wacom? That's a sad and dissapointing irony

[@alvinvalentino5797]

You should come to SEA, people are hiring these AI bros left and right

[@wolfgangd3653]

@@alvinvalentino5797 what is it? I can't find information

[@EchoJ]

NEVER, EVER work for free. Drafts /concept sketches are work. Get paid for them. Hopefully, other novice artists can learn from this negative experience and avoid getting snookered 😊 Thanks for sharing what happened as well as ways to prevent it👍🏾

[@echogodzilla837]

They can take the money for a sketch and if somebody don't decide to go with the full commission, the work is not done for free. But if somebody likes it and want you to finish, you can deduct the price of the sketch from the final price of the ready product.

[@RosieRosePetal]

The fricking typos though 😂😂😂 whole bodyml got me so hard

[@blackjam2683]

Girl, don't just go sending off samples without putting up a wall of "sample" on the image and make it low resolution. did it before this AI was a thing.

[@BrotherHood-xh9sg]

Since "Don't do commissions" is apparantly an option, might I suggest; 1. Go back in time and don't become an artist. 2. Go back in time and become the president of the world. Thus granting you the power to protect people from this scam. 3. Go back in time, hire a hacker and scam the scammer. 4. Become GOD. I have other suggestions if you want to hear them.

[@ano.spectator]

AHHAHA ID LOVE TO HEAR WHAT ELSE YOU HAVE

[@hyde5213]

5. Ask for cash first 6. Get a stable job

[@OfficeDuck-]

Ok… what do i do now?

[@sodalite5294]

Don't do commissions? Then real artists won't get supported

[@BrotherHood-xh9sg]

@@OfficeDuck- you choose a path to walk upon. Suffer through the hardships this path provides, and with hard work, determination and some thought, you might set your eyes upon a beautifull sight. As for specific steps, that's up to you. I mean, you can't expect me to do all the work. I already gave you some "super valid" options.

[@guntereisenherz9102]

IMPORTANT: Glazing does not help with this type of scam. AI can still "finish" glazed images. Detailed explaination: Usually Generative Image AI uses noise as base images and runs the model in combination with text prompts over to, to transform it according to the model. With Image to image used in this scam, the noise is replaced by the image of an artist, tweaking the weight of the model, so the model manipulates it less, to not overwrite everything. Glazing does also not stop AI from reading what is displayed on the image, in terms of keywords. I tested this with stable diffusion/ comfy UI and the example images form the glazed website.

[@PuffTastic]

Thank you for this!! I'm considering starting commissions for the first time this year and avoiding scams is gonna be crucial since I'm not experienced with identifying them, the advice at the end was extremely useful since I was worried about people using sketches I produce in a way I don't condone

[@viyaura]

I'm glad it was helpful!

[@deBrawnyo]

I have the best defence to fend off scammers. I'm so fucking bad at drawing that nobody even commissions me

[@empty-voiid]

To add to Glaze, there's Nightshade now, that also poisons your illustrations! AI Bros are going crazy because of it, saying it's unethical (destruction of property, I've read. But OUR drawings are OUR property so UMH?????) So have fun with it, people.

[@nandanthony]

If only glaze didnt add weird artifacts to your drawings 🥺

[@thebookofive]

Oh, the irony of AI bros calling something unethical

[@botarakutabi1199]

I've already heard there's ways around glaze and nightshade. If I were an ai programmer intent on training on peoples art, I'd make a bot to screenshot all the glazed/nightshade art before it becomes training material, basically turning it back into a normal picture.

[@ImmacHn]

Both of those are scams to get grant fund money, giving artists false hopes.

[@nandanthony]

wait i dont get it@@botarakutabi1199 Screen shot the art before you give it to the ai for training? or before they put it into glazed/nightshade converter?

[@Ocha431]

these ai bros have hit a new low man🤦‍♂

[@darkzeroprojects4245]

And yet we're the irrational bad guys. Keep that in mind. This all is just a big joke.

[@Kokose]

This is sort of important to charge for sketches too. Not full price of course, but if it takes you 3h to make a sketch and present idea for the final painting - charge for it. This way anyone who tried to scam you will retreat because - you can still press charges and file lawsuit if the art was sold to a third party especially if the art was sold using theft (claiming that you're the OG artist is theft even if you mauled the sketch with the AI) as you're not forfeiting your copyright by default unless you signed a legally binding document that the drawing will have a new copyright holder the moment financial exchange completes. You have a lot of evidence of the wrongdoing and I highly recommend everyone to remember that you're not defenseless in this whole fight, and the scam is not able to sustain itself for much longer - you're the OG artist, you can prove any minute that you're the creator, the person stealing cannot.

[@jan_harald]

that, or just plaster some watermarks on it ;P a person could see through the watermarks, and have an idea what it will look like, but it would totally ruin the AI trying to "enhance" it, lol, and if you want watermark-free image, then pay up, best of both worlds, if they're gonna scam, they're unlikely to want to actually pay up, but if they are really interested, they can still give feedback what they want changed

[@Kokose]

@@jan_harald watermarks don't work as proven many times, the work could have your name plastered all over it and they'd still use it and someone still would pay for this crap. I think we've handled enough of the mistreatment and nonsense, and I highly encourage any artist who has ever been mistreated to take matters into their hands and force real consequences either by using small claims court or no win no fee copyright lawyers.

[@taylorgoldman130]

Ngl neon purplish divine sounds like a cool idea, imagine a cyberpunk deity

[@restlesssheep2453]

Sorry to hear this happened. AI "artist" clowns are a new plague.

[@jan_harald]

the worst thing is they hurt the real AI artists, who make actually great art using AI but don't you worry, AI being trained on AI-generated images will ruin the quality ;P

[@bigbaguette4860]

@@jan_haraldI don’t think “real artist” and “AI” belong together lmao

[@TerrariaLp1]

@@bigbaguette4860 theres people that use it as a tool in that case i think the artist term still applies since its just a tool for these people and not the entire thing is ai made. like the more human control and human effort is in the end result the closer it comes to real art. theres even artists that have also started using ai so that they can skip the sketch phase and have more time for details and etc. so imo it depends on how you use it

[@TerrariaLp1]

@@jan_harald i agree but that second statement is only half true. yes, when poor AI generated images are being fed back into the ai it will make worse images. BUT when you make ai images and then refine them to the point of it actually being a good art piece then it can be fed back into the machine without worsening the quality since it IS a good art piece because of the refining(aka no bad hands, correct anatomy, correct proportions, detail is good etc.)

[@LordTchernobog]

"real AI artist"? What kind of crack you smokin'?

[@Evil_SIMP]

I'm not even surprised anymore.

[@williamn_246]

Thanks for the warning. I find it funny how much AI relys so much on taking work from humans. Like why couldn't the scammer just prompt the art out of thin air instead of DMing actual artist for sketches.

[@aaronhunyady]

This is a good question.

[@chubbydunkers78]

Hey, as someone who trains AI models for personal use, I just want to say that the big, obnoxious watermarks is the only way you're gonna get around people using your art. They found a way around glaze and I'm sure that if I had enough time I could even get the AI to ignore a lot of the small watermarks. But big ones are a pain and people will usually just skip over those images.

[@deltaxcd]

watermarks also can be removed with inpainting

[@chubbydunkers78]

@@deltaxcd yeah, that's why I said the big, obnoxious ones. the kind you can't magically scrub that away with photoshop in one click. if you have to spend more than 10 minutes getting rid of it, it's a no-go imo. more trouble than it's worth.

[@canelitaa5337]

Maybe Low quality art with a big watermark can help

[@deltaxcd]

@@chubbydunkers78 Why do yu even mention photoshop? watermark are removed with for example llama-cleaner or you can use stable diffusion too

[@chubbydunkers78]

Yeah it just sucks that you have to essentially post a lesser version of your art if you are really adamant about not getting your art put in a dataset@@canelitaa5337

[@CapucineNighly]

Omg thank you for the advice. I usually put heavy watermarks on my artworks and always ask for 50-50 for commissions. 50 before and 50 after it's done.

[@Zinlor]

In such a world so full of horrid people. I'd always say at the very least ask for half pay if not full pay upfront.

[@GalaxyArtStream-qd1qc]

Welcome to the AI wars! Its tougher than ever to be an artist now! Im still up for it however!

[@botarakutabi1199]

Same, lowkey, none of this ai stuff personally bothers me as an artist. But then again, neither did tracing. I'm going to keep making art, no matter what ai does. And the best part, I can even use ai as a tool sometimes. Making collages with ai images is fun, like cutting and pasting magazines, but the magazines are real;y weird.

[@ImmacHn]

LOL, sure tougher than ever? I wish all of the unrecognized and even recognized after death artists could hear you now.

[@GalaxyArtStream-qd1qc]

@@ImmacHn if they could hear me, what would the reply be? 🌝

[@GalaxyArtStream-qd1qc]

@@botarakutabi1199 that's the spirit!

[@fairplex3883]

no references = no commission, that's how I would solve this problem

[@novantha1]

But like...Why...Do they even need to scam somebody like this? If they're finding it difficult to get a specific image they can just use controlnet and some sort of posing software, as well as custom models and LoRAs. I'm not really sure what the point of this is, it's just incredibly unproductive for both parties.

[@botarakutabi1199]

Another reason I'm skeptical of this story.

[@nephanims8273]

what are you skeptical about they showed proof@@botarakutabi1199

[@dewyeyed]

This is so gross :( I'm sorry you dealt with this at all. I can 100% attest to the reliability of demanding full payment upfront, but I would also look into creating a terms of service and including that in any invoices you send. And on that note, use invoices if you can! I've never experienced anyone attempting to file a chargeback after receiving a commission thanks to my terms of service explicitly stating that by paying the invoice, clients are agreeing that no refunds will be issued once the art is completed and sent. Of course, it helps to have an established online presence so that people are willing to trust that you'll deliver on your end, so I know a lot of artists who are new to taking commissions may be reluctant to take that approach. Just wanted to share my experience and hope it helps anyone else who may be wary of scams while taking commissions

[@ArcadeChan]

Thank you so much for this info! “saving this video as a reminder” 👍

[@Drawperfectcircles]

Thanks for talking about how to prevent it. Now I know glaze exist. Hope they can make it cloak images from all types of models

[@ReptilianJackster]

I have AI locally installed on my PC. I have no idea why these guys go into all of that trouble when nowadays you can draw a stick figure yourself and AI will make it into a masterpiece. If you know how to use the tool its pretty simple.

[@GLIXCH1812]

Ai actually gets people’s art then jumbles it up into another piece of art and if it continues art will never be original again AND it will continue to go through this rabbit whole of weirdness

[@neurofiedyamato8763]

@@GLIXCH1812 That's the main issue with current AI systems. Even if they iron out the errors, due to how it floods the internet with its own images, it can never be original and it will start to feed its own garbage into the system leading to pumping out even more garbage that gets fed back in. And its not like actual artists aren't out there anymore, but they get overwhelmed by AI that any AI algorithm would just not weigh actual artwork appropriately. For something unique and creative, you would have to start approaching actual general intelligence(ie. capable of wide range of tasks). That would be a HUGE breakthrough but would be even more disruptive than robotic manufacturing or the current AI art/text/voice situation.

[@GLIXCH1812]

ik that i’m just explaining it to this guy but i’m not that good in explaining Sorry! qwq@@neurofiedyamato8763

[@Incatnito-insane]

thanks for the heads up! i was looking towards opening commissions

[@geologyjohnson7700]

This kind of scammer floods my inbox when ever I am trying to commission. I always wondered where they got their "work" from.

[@Hurricane047]

I've been doing comms for a couple of years now so I'd have declined after that second email with the weird keywords because that's weird as hell. But why would you send such a detailed sketch before receiving any payment at all from a total stranger? I don't understand, that looked good enough to be used even without AI tampering tbh, as suggestions said at the very least do half payment upfront unless you're dealing with someone you trust very much.

[@botarakutabi1199]

Makes me think this story isn't completely true, but i guess the warning is still good.

[@timewcue]

i've seen people count other things as sketches and not just the base idea, though they probably were never scammed before (in commissions) so they didn't think to just do half and half or full payment on front.

[@CristianNazare]

I am not an artist. You did that sketch in 2 hrs? Now i am flabbergasted!

[@ai-aniverse]

this honestly seems like more work than it was worth. wow.

[@Fastrox]

These kind of "hustlers" are getting out of hand.

[@DustieBunni]

I literally commented about my thoughts on generated art in a separate video and holy crap I was right. As an artist, I am absolutely baffled at the audacity of these types of people who do these types of things. So many people don't understand the process, pain, or love that goes through making art. The people trying to not make this such a big of a deal just don't understand that stealing art is stealing art and it doesn't matter if it's with ai or not, the artist spent time and effort on that and it should not be so soullessly recreated or taken.

[@maysdays-po8gb]

As an artist that wants to start commissions, (and is doing research to have good commissions) I'm glad you made this video

[@Lamaskff4x0z2]

This is sad, This is one of the many reasons why I don't like or consume absolutely anything made by AI. People will type "autumn winter", AI will generate STOLEN ART, and they will think that the AI is a very good at generating art. Feels bad, I hope this didn't affect you too much.

[@ririkorin]

Thanks for this

[@viyaura]

of course!

[@koopaqueen6769]

You are so entertaining, keep using this voice and talking about interesting topics

[@corrinflakes9659]

I mean the emails are sus AF. But I don’t get how winter and autumn are polar opposites, they blend into each other.

[@LeviAckerman-cl6iy]

When drawing stuff they often end up using opposing color palettes or moods and atmosphere that clash into each other is more the problem, like from the standpoint of the first image you think of when you first see those words is probably mid autumn and mid winter. So warm toned saturated palletes and sunny patches and snow and clouds or cold, dark lighting. You get me? It would take a couple thumbnail sketches and ref pictures to get that late autumn, bright winter vibe right if you don’t immediately already have something in mind. It’s tricky and uncommon but not impossible! The whole list is literally just AI prompts though- it was probably copy pasted from a prompt they tried to get an AI to do but when they didn’t get what they wanted they contacted an artist to steal because apparently stealing from thousands of artist already wasn’t enough lmfao.

[@begonestink2956]

Half payment up front then send sketches. 😭 Never start on something without payment!!! That's how I've avoided getting scammed.

[@jackmakmorn]

What a story; it feels so surreal, as well from the viewpoint considering AI as from the point of the scam itself. Sorry you experienced this and thank you for your warning about this art scam 👍

[@Killingbaby]

Got scammed as well, glad to see someone speaking out!

[@poilapan]

When it comes to commissions, it's usually standard practice to have some form of upfront payment first before fully engaging the artwork process. Also, the way the email was worded was really suspicious like they were thinking that they were "feeding prompts" to a human artist like they would with a computer... that's irksome in all sorts of ways possible. :/

[@Nako3]

"whole bodyml"

[@rockheartqueen]

I'll make sure to never commission someone with bad grammar.

[@styrqxz]

I got scammed like this once, and I think the best solution is if they pay first imo

[@Tiriris]

How you can avoid your art being stolen by AI: 1. Try classic drawing lessons. Find people to model for you, draw still life, draw what you see. 2. Avoid Deviantart like hell. Even if you make art friends online try to meet and draw together in real life. This way all your styles evolve past the texture skills easier and, maybe, you can collaborte making bigger projects and not just commisions. Try to be a team person. 3. Do not imitate anime art nor copy any other already existing art styles. Do it only as an exercise. You don't chose your style, your style choses you. If you love manga style and japanese culture try to learn from the best and not any online deadface "artist". 4. Study Art History This way you are avoiding your drawings (your art for Americans) looking already like AI drawings.

[@Jordanxk]

Man, I hate AI. I just wish this shit didn't happen in my lifetime, and it's only going to get worse from this point on... anyone else feel really discouraged becauase of AI?

[@user-dw5pf6pe2g]

you are an artist , viyaura !

[@absence9443]

The sketches were so neat :c

[@nom_nom3448]

It’s always easy to tell someone ‘why did you even do xyz and fell for the scam??’ while in reality these scams work because we get conditioned from a young age on to do what others tell us for example in school or through or parents. Your entire childhood you hear ‘be polite and listen to what others say’ while, in comparison, we oftentimes don’t get enough education on how to think out of the box, think for ourselves or question what others tell us. These kind of experiences often come with a lot of shame for the person who got scammed so thank you for sharing your experience with the internet and thus creating awareness for the topic. We need to hear about this issue again and again so we can, even unconsciously, be aware of it when it happens to us.

[@RobertStoll]

I've also heard charging for sketches. Although that may be less and less reliable as machines can do more with less. Either that or hike the rate by 80%, and then add tons of hidden middle fingers to it.

[@viyaura]

charging for sketches is also a smart way to go definitely!

[@jan_harald]

@@viyaura that, or just plaster some watermarks on it ;P a person could see through the watermarks, and have an idea what it will look like, but it would totally ruin the AI trying to "enhance" it, lol, and if you want watermark-free image, then pay up, best of both worlds, if they're gonna scam, they're unlikely to want to actually pay up, but if they are really interested, they can still give feedback what they want changed

[@marijo268]

my stupid bilingual brain read the thumbnail as "i stole my art" and I was very confused

[@onesyphorus]

christmas in autumn goes hard ngl

[@Wonderhoy-er]

If I was in this situation, I'd make the most purposefully awful art, anatomy problems, incorrect shading, uncanny facial features, all on purpose, so I could mess up the AI software as much as I can 😈😇

[@lefourbe5596]

I'm from the ai "bro" side of thing. I just fallen in love with it cause it was just a fun toy. I do feel that problem as an "artist" did the same to me in some way. Like he knew i did AI but i sucked at drawing. So i asked a lineart/sketches of his preference for 15$ so i could complete it with my 3D reference. (I would have asked more if the job were made) i got refunded by Paypal since he goested me 7days. I had never done a commission before ai or even 1 year after. Good platform and feedback is king for trust.

[@costelinha1867]

Honestly this scam here is just even more evidence that these AI bros are just stealing from artists in general. Like, good luck trying to convince me that this IS NOT theft. They're even trying to steal art that ISN'T already in the datasets.

[@LoneWolfMikoto]

Thank you for telling about the service that protects images from AI training, that's useful

[@zinzolin14]

This is scary, especially as somebody trying to start commissions. Better business practices and awareness are needed amongst creators to protect themselves.

[@emeraldlotus1]

That's awful! And your work is so beautiful! Thank you for showing us your experience so we can learn from it 💖

[@Sleezy.Design]

The fact that you even spent time of your life on this topic after receiving that initial message is mind blowing. I would have ignored this message immediately. I would not waste any second of my precious time on this earth on something like this, not even to make a video like this. Wow. I would never ever draw something, not even a rough sketch, if the client doesn't pay upfront.

[@kuuluna]

Giving someone with vague traits or physical appearance to describe said character is the worst thing you can do to have an actual accurate depictions or results

[@lbozox5040]

Ah yes we as artists should definitely stop doing commissions because ai as if we are the problem 💀 I don't do commissions but that made me a bit irritated.

[@thegamingillustrator]

Ikd about ai as a whole for art, but i use it in 3 key ways. Generating character reference sheets of characters i want to make but have zero idea how they would look, for coloring my work since i am bad at colored art, and hyper detailed promotional covers for my own projects i did draw. Heck, my current pfp is an ai rendition of my vtuber model i made myself, that i couldn't draw because my tablet is busted.

[@F_E_U]

yeah getting scammed by AI bros must feel really bad :/

[@Aloysius_OHare]

The lesson I got from this was....avoid people with bad typing.....also trademark your art....

[@Riley_MDS]

I literally never had made a commission sheet, most of my commission received are purely from word mouth to mouth... But then again, I'm aware of the kind of people that wanted to commission me, I usually never asked people to pay me first before i finish my work, cause then again, if they want my permission to use it, they gotta pay up first, if not, I'll post it on my pixiv without any care, sure i might lose money but this is the same as me doing my usual work, but i still own the work. With the current uprising of AI Art, us artist gotta be more aware with the internet more than before.

[@SaintsROB]

even if ai steals your art you can tell its ai just by looking at it closer or inspecting the metadata,also ai is mostly used for smaller projects like textures for an indie game or meme videos as far as i know.I use it to get reference for my 3D work.artists will always be needed.

[@hafunui]

I've seen people use proofs and drafts as final products, watermarks and all, lol. A problem as old as time itself. I used to work in print, and having low quality black and white proofs were good enough to get the idea across to the client, but shitty enough to be useless as a final print.

[@aznbrownie]

Jesus Christ, I'm so sorry this happened to you! I wish every scammer (especially AI A-holes) a very bankruptcy

[@Nexiusify]

I usually do a gradient and VOID on top of my art if I give references, it is sadly common for people to steal drafts as well.

[@ruthcanawayarts]

Open the pod bay doors, Dave. I don't think so, HAL.

[@nozenkyuzero]

and here I am an artist where to start art commissions

[@bac9217]

What I’ve started doing is drawing those Ai pictures right in order to show Ai who’s boss.

[@onesyphorus]

thats a real reverse card that your MOM sent YOU a warning for scammers. you have a great mom ❤

[@krish-ut9de]

thank you

[@rain4675]

You can't really copy an artstyle or character with just one sketch, their only option is to use controlnet to make an image based on a sketch. There's no way to make this stuff financialy sustainable, cuz you will need a constant stream of dumb people to buy low-quality stuff.

[@shimmiart4118]

Payment upfront is so important! They’re paying for your TIME as well as your skill as an artist. They don’t pay upfront, you don’t spend any time on their artwork. They’ve not commissioned you until they’ve paid you

[@BaguetteWithRizz]

Im sorry but the way they typed their messages made me laugh so hard bro 😭

[@pennyjpie]

AI bros really be like that “You made this…I made this” meme 💀

[@forvsol]

I've heard that putting weird tags when posting on social media is good idea too. eg. when in the picture you have cute female portrait tag it as "bald donkey" "winter view" "fighting moths"

[@pr0fain]

Just do what I do - be so terrible at art that no one wants it. Works for me - my art hasn't been stolen once :D

[@GorFrag]

I've had non english speakers type like that, or machine translate like that, but yeah, beware.

[@JohnSmithIlIlIlIl]

Never pay upfront. Too many thieves out there.

[@quanlinglingdingle6122]

if you ever feel useless and stupid, remember that there are people who do comms with ai cuz "writing is hard :("

[@michaglas6404]

That’s horrible, I got no other words for it, I feel so bad for you :(

[@VaffReverie]

i instead got scammed on 3 out of 8 artists i did request the commissions...

[@lil_doggo_of_doom]

I love the way ur mom texts

[@viyaura]

me too :')

[@OffiGameWave]

what is your opinion on people who order a commission and give AI images as reference for the base concept of the character (but tell you that it's AI? Would you be mad or would you be fine with it because the person used AI for the idea but wants to pay for an human made version.

[@kounyia]

omg thats crazy wtf. i usually do what one of these suggestion says - i just throw big ass watermarks on them rofl