Paizo bans AI-created art and content in its RPGs and marketplaces

Paizo, a RPG publisher, created the game “RPG Publisher”. Paizo Paizo is the creator of RPG Publisher Paizo. Pathfinder Starfinder, took a hardline stance against AI-generated work, with posts on social media and the company’s blog committing to “the work of human professionals” and promising a contractual ban on AI-generated art and text.

Paizo was the first company in tabletop role-playing games to unite, and it did so in 2021. Pathfinder and many other Dungeons & Dragons-inspired games possible, and promising to help create and support an open-source “system-agnostic license” that could replace the OGL if Dungeons & Dragons owner Wizards of the Coast changes the license.

In the new posts, Paizo states that it’s changing its contracts to add language ensuring all content is created by humans rather than machines, and that it plans to ban AI-generated work from its community marketplaces as well.

The world has witnessed a significant increase in algorithm-generated text and imagery over the past few months. Paizo was founded in 2002. Since then, the reputation of the company has been built with the help of many traditional artists and writers. These people are as important to our success as our in-house editors and art directors. The ethical and legal issues surrounding “AI art” and writing prompt programs—and the serious threat they pose to the livelihoods of partners who have helped us get to where we are today as a company—demand that we take a firm position against the use of this technology in Paizo products.

Paizo will soon add language to its creative agreements that requires that any work submitted for publication must be written by humans. Further guidance will be added to the Starfinder Infinite and Pathfinder program FAQs, clarifying that AI-generated material is prohibited on any community content marketplace.

We expect our customers to feel human in all of our communications. However, as long as there are ethical and legal questions surrounding the programs, we won’t associate any brands with them.

Stated plainly—when you buy a Paizo product, you can be sure that it is the work of human professionals who have spent years honing their craft to produce the best work we can. Paizo will not use AI-generated “creative” work of any kind for the foreseeable future.

Thank you to the writers and artists who made our past success possible. We look forward to continuing to work with them in many years.

There is still the problem of AI-created text and art, as well as the challenge of managing a tsunami of AI-generated content. For the moment, the Paizo statement is more about intent and creators’ rights than about execution. But given the conversations now being had about how easy it is to mimic human artists’ signature creative styles with AI, coming out of the gate with a strong, specific policy sends a meaningful message that other companies are likely to take up as well in the near future.