Found out my coworker was selling AI portraits as hand-drawn at a craft fair

Last Saturday at the downtown Eugene market I walked past a booth and recognized the telltale wobbly lines from Midjourney v6, sure enough the guy had a stack of prints he was claiming took "8 hours each." Has anyone else run into people passing off AI work as their own original art?

4 comments

4 Comments

henry_ross11h ago

That "8 hours each" claim is a dead giveaway since AI output takes minutes. If you have a decent photo of his booth you could send it to the event organizer, most craft fairs have rules against reselling digital work as handmade.

keith27411h ago

Not wrong Henry, but here's the thing. If someone is actually dumb enough to claim '8 hours each' when we all know that's bs for AI stuff, what else are they lying about? @henry_ross, you think the event organizer would actually do anything about it? I've seen craft fairs where the organizer barely checks who got what table, let alone investigates a booth. Half the time they're just collecting booth fees and hoping nobody complains. And if this guy has a decent setup with lights and displays, he might look legit enough that the organizer brushes it off. Still worth trying with a photo though, because that's the only real proof you have. Nothing worse than watching someone rip off both the craftspeople and the customers at the same event.

nina_taylor4h ago

Take the photo and skip the organizer, just post it in the event's Facebook group instead.

wood.uma4h ago

Oh come on @henry_ross, I gotta push back here a little. Some people actually do take hours on AI work, depends on how much they're tweaking the prompts and doing manual cleanup in Photoshop. I've seen digital artists spend a full day generating and refining before they get something they'd sell. And honestly, event organizers are swamped, they're not gonna investigate every "8 hours" claim unless there's a line of people complaining. Half the time they just want the booth fee and move on. You really think they'd kick out someone with a fancy setup and a good story just because of one photo?