VirtuaCon's Controversy

Conventions are usually a time where people can go to meet other nerds and either cosplay, take part in the concerts or events or come home with some swag. Sometimes the biggest controversy is people forgetting to take a shower and bathe themselves. Though after Twitchcon’s controversy, it’s proven that’s not likely the case.

Enter Virtuacon. A brand new convention that seemed to center around vtubers, much like Offkai did. While I am a vtuber on a very long hiatus, however, there’s a lot going on in the vtuber space that I really don’t know about and will admit I’m ignorant on. This is the first that I’ve heard of VirtuaCon to be honest. There was also them supporting the Immune Deficiency Fund which was the one good selling point I guess. What I do know is that several weeks it was announced and a lot of big name vtubers were announced to be attending like Vexoria.

Though for some vtubers and fans alike it seemed like the writing was on the wall so to speak. Which is what normally happens when something bad happens, you always have that one that wants to farm for clout.

So what was so bad with VirtuaCon that made a lot of the big name vtubers decide to drop out.

Well one of those things was the use of AI Art or generative ai art when it came to promotions. Which for anyone in the art community or even in the vtuber community using generative AI art is a big no no. You’re probably there left scratching your head thinking, well why? To start with AI or in this case to not obfuscate AI, generative AI, is trained off of already existing artwork.

For example if one were to take this drawing that I did maybe two or three years ago:

(Now mind you I hate using AI, this bit is just to as a learning tool. Do not send me hate for using generative AI. Again this is just as an example. Probably the second time I’ve used generative AI as visual tool.)

Now if someone were to feed the drawing into generative AI, it would come out looking like this:

(Which looks nothing like what I drew and I didn’t even put in a background. I’m more of a character artist than I am anything else.)

It doesn’t just make something from scratch, but for whatever is being fed into it, will come out and look like a thousand different artists works to look like one singular drawing. Which is fucked up.

Artists can spend anywhere from hours to days working on a product that is to their liking. It’s something that they put their whole heart and soul into it. Whereas generative AI well…doesn’t. All you have to do it feed in an image or type up a prompt and there you go. Not to mention I think that AI is worse at drawing hands than I am. There’s also the other moral implication aside from plagiarism that it takes a lot of resources in terms of water and electricity to run AI. Which essentially would mean that continued use would kill the planet.

There were also reports of them using crypto and NFTs which are just as bad in that both utilize a lot of resources much like generative AI does which would assist in killing the planet as well.

Now, this convention could have been great if it weren’t for all of that. And while big name vtubers and other content creators dropped from the convention at the last minute. Let’s be real for a minute. I honestly don’t blame any of them. Whether you knew about the AI or not, a lot of them have other jobs or obligations to take care of. And even if you want to mention their staff, again, they’re all running in twenty different directions so it’s possible that the signs were missed.

I mean hell, even I didn’t even know about it until a few days ago.

That being said I don’t think that it’s right to try and dog the vtubers and other content creators from bowing out at the last minute. As I said before sometimes shit happens and life slaps you in the face. And you have to make a more claim in terms of what is right for you and your brand. It’s also not right to try and say “Well I knew about this, I can’t believe so and so didn’t know?!” because again, some people have lives and aren’t glued to their phones or computers. Even those who are able to employ people aren’t glued to their phones or computers. Sometimes things get missed.

But what do I know?

What do you think? Do you think it was right for VirtuaCon to use generative AI on their promotional work? Why or why not? Let me know in the comments below. Like this post? Don’t forget to share it with your friends! Want to keep up with the latest? Hit the subscribe button. Want to support the blog? Check out my tip jar!