It's Bonnaroo time, baby! Look at that lineup! The Strokes! Noah Kahan! Rüfüs Du Sol! Kesha Presents: Superjâm Esoteríca: The Alchemy Of Pop! It's about to be an epic weekend, one that you will surely want to commemorate with the purchase of a $45 festival T-shirt that depicts some skeletons on an acid bus! The vibes are magical! Until you find out that a computer spat those skeletons out! Allegedly!
Personally, I have no idea how people tell what is and isn't AI-generated anymore. This is a problem! I don't want to get hoodwinked! But certain corners of the internet are abuzz with speculation that Bonnaroo, specifically, is using AI-generated imagery on its festival merch. The Instagram account @the_aicop has pointed out a couple of examples. In the case of the skeleton bus shirt, artist Dave Van Patten shows up in the comments, making a convincing case that this particular shirt is an AI-generated rip of his cover for Dave's Picks Volume 24, a three-CD live collection that came out in 2017.
There are other examples, too. The Bonnaroo subreddit is not happy about it.
Bonnaroo kicks off tonight with a four-act pre-show bill that's honestly pretty sick: Skrillex, Four Tet, Vince Staples, and Spiritual Cramp. But that's not good enough to make up for this kind of bullshit. Other festivals have used AI-generated art, and more will almost certainly do it in the future, but it sucks. The least we can do is publicly shame them for it.
UPDATE: On Instagram, Van Patten has issued a statement about Bonnaroo's alleged AI-abetted theft of his work. Here's what he wrote:
@bonnaroo used AI to rip off my design I drew in 2017 for @gratefuldead “Dave’s
picks volume 24”. Released on @rhino_records @warnermusic . And they’re selling the T-shirt for $45.(And if I’m being honest, I think the AI version is actually better than my original, which is humbling. My design was a bit too maximalist with a bad color scheme, i’ll admit) but that’s beside the point.
This has happened to so many artists around the world. I don’t even take this personally as much as I’m disturbed that this slop took a job from one of many working artists who could have gotten the gig. A company making millions every year can’t spend a measly fee to hire an illustrator?
This is not about Bonnaroo being bad, as much it is an opportunity to clarify to ALL companies out there: if you use AI slop to rip off an artist, you may have found a legal loophole to avoid plagiarism, but it doesn’t mean it’s ethical. It’s an insult to all professional illustrators. And even from a company standpoint, it’s bad for your optics.
Be better!
