Also just another AI generated art pack popped up on the marketplace: Ultimate Fantasy and RPG Icons Mega Bundle in 2D Assets - UE Marketplace - which clearly has no extra work being done on it.
@Unreal_Josh @TJ_V can we please get a statement from you? Are you guys fine if the marketplace will be flooded with these AI asset packs?
As someone who makes a product in the texture/materials category I have loved it being flooded with low effort AI content. As if it were difficult to get visibility in the current marketplace browsing situation, this takes the cake 
Midjourney is not free.
[quote=“spacegojira, post:5, topic:665686, full:true”]
The thing in this case is that AI generation software like Midjourney are free and so easy to use, you can generate more than a thousand images in a day if you really wanted to.
[/quote]
Technically correct, it has a free trial plan and after that you pay 10 dollar a month. Other AI generators like Dall-E or Stable Diffusion are free though (with limitations).
Doesn’t change a thing though about that the images can not be copyrighted. Nor that the AI generators are used to spam the marketplace with low quality assets.
And just looking at the 2D section of the marketplace you see like 80% of the new assets are AI generated.
Why would real artists even bother to submit to the Epic marketplace if they get drowned out by mass AI generated assets?
They need a better filtering system for the market. ‘I want to block this vendor’ would be a hot contender…
Filtering system… is technical solution, to non-technical issue. We just need what should there be in the first place - better quality control.
There’s also a particular someone who’s flooding the market with basically the same character asset, over and over again… Ok the clothes are different but…
And yet we read about people who’ve had perfectly good content blocked for no reason.
Better quality control is good, but that would have to mean that no AI generated assets should be allowed on the marketplace - which would really be the best option.
It’s really questionable why Epic allows these assets in the first place, considering that the sellers don’t own the images and anyone can just grab & redistribute them for free.
Alternatively Epic could just create a new category “AI generated” so that the real work of other 2D artists doesn’t get drowned out. Though in this case we also need an option to block such a category from showing up.
I think the best we can hope for, is the lack of response from Epic means they are getting around to having a meeting about it.
At some point they have to make a decision, either they ignore the copyright status of AI assets and let people just rip and share the assets freely AND risk normal 2D artists not submit to the marketplace anymore - or they forbid AI assets on the marketplace.
I don’t really see how else that is going to play out.
This didn’t happen last week. It was going on for some time. I think lack of comments from them here is a form of communicating the decision they have at the moment.
This seems to be the same argument that happened when sampling music started to really take off. The whole is it “theft” or “creativity” argument. At the time I personally thought it was theft and should be stopped, and basically that’s what happened. The music industry pushed for copyright laws and charged huge fees to sample music. Creativity stopped for the most part and that was that. Until later in life I have gone back and listened to more of the music that was “in the wrong” and find that in my own opinion a lot of new ideas were stifled because of the mass hysteria of stomping out the samplers. They added something new and had a unique idea. Was it all good, NOPE!
AI generated works, are easy to make but what I find fascinating about them is the different perspectives they offer. I would never come up with some of those ideas. I use the idea as inspiration and as the beginning of the rabbit hole. As for the copyright, it seems fairly straight forward. So those items should, in my opinion be allowed, but have a big asterisk next to it stating that they are not copyrighted so use at your own risk. If you’re upset that someone is selling “easy to create” assets, that’s your problem. How many interface button sets are basically simple shapes in six colors? Are you going to tell me someone slaved over that? If the people don’t like AI generated content it won’t sell, problem solved. The other option is to try it out and see if it can inspire you instead of making you angry. This is of course just one guys opinion in a sea full of them, so I could be wrong.
Well it looks like we know what Epic think if this is on the verge of being published
https://forums.unrealengine.com/t/ue5-stable-diffusion-believe-it-is-like-that/672052
@Unreal_Josh @TJ_V Can we get some input here on this discussion thanks?
Is an assistant that generates images
It will be very good for everyone
If you have no resources
If you are a concept artist will save time
If you are a level designer is a tool to say: ey I want something like that
…
Improves the workflow → better quality → faster deployment → more content → more people
I think there is a big difference between high-effort plugin that enables you to use AI in-engine vs just taking output of a system and publishing it…
I’ll do a video about the workflow
So, can someone tell me why this is going to be bad?
I think it’s cool to get some ideas and inspiration. The problem is when people just use the AI output and sell it like @VertexMachine said
About the marketplace I think they have no criteria at all, please some guidelines and minimum quality…
The generated AI images cannot be copyrighted…