Inside the heated subreddit where AI-generated art is celebrated over ‘pencil slop’

One of generative AI’s earliest applications remains among its most controversial: AI art. Its proponents celebrate the chance to create the images in their head, no time or traditional skills necessary. Its critics argue that AI images lack the soul of human-made art, steal the work of other artists without permission, and take opportunities away from working artists. 

AI-generated art often draws ridicule across social media, whether it’s being used for advertising, like Gucci’s recent series of AI-generated posts, or in the fine art world, like the immersive AI-generated works of Refik Anadol, which caught flak on X last week after being featured on 60 Minutes. (“This is not an artist. He makes screensavers,” one user wrote.)

But there are internet forums where AI art enthusiasts can celebrate their passion free of ridicule—or at least know that there will be people in their corner to back them up. On the sister subreddits r/DefendingAIArt and r/AIWars, AI art lovers are encouraged to post freely about their controversial hobby (and talk trash right back at their critics).

Though the two subreddits espouse similar philosophies on AI art, r/AIWars encourages debate between the tech’s supporters (known as “pro’s”), and its critics (known as “anti’s”). Meanwhile, r/DefendingAIArt flat-out bans debate.

One of the latter subreddit’s pinned posts is a compendium of court cases where AI copyright claims were dismissed. Another is an infographic arguing that AI art isn’t copying the work of other artists: Training an AI off the work of another artist, it says, “is like looking at someone’s finished work and learning.”

“You look at other people’s work all day, and learn from them for free,” the post continues. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

r/DefendingAIArt isn’t a space for AI artists to share their work, but a place to “speak Pro-AI thoughts freely,” per the sub’s rules. The most upvoted posts of all time include “gotcha” moments of tricking anti-AI folks into thinking human-made art is AI-generated; callouts of the other side’s apparent hypocrisy; and, naturally, memes about not caring where a piece of art came from. Every comment section is entirely free of argument.

For that, Redditors are redirected to r/AIWars, where debate reigns supreme. On r/AIWars, posts are designed to be picked apart and argued into oblivion. There are examples of AI clearly plagiarizing copyrighted works, like generating an image of Sonic when asked for a “blue hedgehog videogame character.” And there are real-world legal and moral dilemmas, like the ethics of a vendor being banned from a convention for selling AI-generated artwork.

Some posts simply argue to let everyone make art however they please, without deriding it as “AI slop” or, as the subreddit’s users satirically call traditional art, “pencilslop.”

While comment sections on some social media platforms have been dominated by AI’s critics, r/AIWars’ user base seems to be closer to a 50/50 split. That might make sense: Reddit has always been a place for niche fandoms and communities to connect, and in the age of AI, that includes the folks who love to fight about it.

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