Totally valid concerns, and yeah, AI-generated content definitely sparks debate. But I think it’s important to separate the tool from the misuse.
AI is just that, a tool. Photoshop was controversial once too. It’s how it’s used that matters. Banning thumbnails just because they were made with AI, regardless of whether they violate copyright, seems like a blanket move that punishes responsible creators and stifles creativity.
Most of these models are already being retrained on cleaner datasets, with licensing baked in. Two years from now, what we consider “AI-generated” will be vastly different. Are we gonna retroactively penalize creators based on how the tech used to work? That’s a dangerous precedent.
Plus, quality is subjective. Some AI art is bad. Some is stunning. The idea that AI images inherently lack the “UEFN look” is more of a taste issue than a rule violation. Shouldn’t it be up to the creator to decide how their thumbnail reflects their map? Discovery metrics will sort out what players respond to anyway.
Unless Epic explicitly bans AI content in thumbnails, there’s no grounds to act like it’s off-limits. The bigger issue is stolen IP, not the medium used.
Until we see a real policy shift from Epic, I think the focus should be on what content shows, not how it was made.