A source at Wizards of the Coast has said that Shkipin’s use of AI art was not something that the team was aware of. Further, they state that no text in the book was AI generated. Wizards has said that they will update their guidelines to more explicitly prevent these sorts of incidents from happening in the future.
io9 has reached out to Ilya Shkipin for clarification and comment. Shkipin has further stated on social media today in light of his confirmation and the deletion of his prior posts that “the future of today[s] illustrations is being discussed.”
I believe Shkipin confirmed in a tweet that the illustrations would be reworked. No idea if this was caught in time to change the first printing, or if it will only be changed for the second run forward. Also no word as to whether or not they will be reworked with/without AI. I suspect they will, given how prolific Shkipin is in the AI/NFT front, but I hope WotC will take a closer look at things to prevent that from happening.
