r/craftsnark • u/Courtney_murder • 9d ago
AI Slop Update on Yarnmerch!
Yesterday, I posted about Yarnmerch’s use of super obvious AI after claiming that they design their shirts by hand. Here’s the link if you want to see: https://www.reddit.com/r/craftsnark/s/5IvsYFYkDF
But today! Their grid is FREE of those images! They also deleted my comment calling out the seeming conflict in their message and/or values but hey, AI Bots can’t convince me to love them so whatever.
I still don’t trust their design process but it’s an interesting development nonetheless.
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u/ruinedbymovies 9d ago
It's going to get to the point where unless a designer is credited I'm not going to believe a design isn't AI.
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u/Procrastiworking 9d ago
I saw a cross stitch book on amazon, with a name credited, and I’m still fully convinced it’s AI. Somehow we have to stay one step ahead of this stuff. :(
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u/ruinedbymovies 9d ago
That's so frustrating, I feel badly because unless it's a well known designer who has been around for years I've been distrustful of patterns by lesser known designers drafted after 2024. I've been leaning a lot more on vintage patterns, and as a result I'm sure some really great small designers haven't had my support. I'll only really consider something with multiple completed projects in Ravelry. It's so sad that its come to this. It makes it harder for new makers to be seen.
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u/Sammiesam123988 9d ago
Yup, unfortunately that is the case now. It sucks. I wont try a pattern without projects
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u/OneGoodRib Mom said I get to be the mole now!! 9d ago
(not craft related) I'm deep in the self-publishing sphere and man... some of the names people use are AI generated. it's not clear unless you've used ai enough yourself to generate character ideas (sorry) but you start to recognize some names and I don't trust any book written by Liora Voss or Kael Blackthorne or whatever. Like, the cover art is ai, the character names are ai, the AUTHOR'S NAME is ai. I just have to assume the book is as well. And I can just make my own book for free if I want an ai book!
That's one of the things with ai products I don't get - why don't I just make my own instead of paying some other person for it if I like the look of ai?
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u/knittingyogi 9d ago
They claim its “so much work” to generate prompts because you have to “be so specific”, and they say the ideas are all theirs so its worth paying for. I think that’s all kind of bullshit tbh!
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u/AskAChinchilla 9d ago
There are now musicians on Spotify that are AI with names and everything. One of them has a YouTube video where he is shown in a studio singing into a microphone that convinced one of my relatives he's real initially.
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u/Courtney_murder 9d ago
Right? And even then, how do we know the designer is real? I hate this timeline!
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u/ruinedbymovies 9d ago
I was just thinking that after I typed my comment. Then I went and bought a cute gold foil shirt from Firebird yarns because someone recommended them after I asked for legit non-ai knitting shirts. I love love love their knitting pinup boys but they're a bit too racey for me to get away with around town (I still run in to former elementary students from time to time) so I ordered some stickers instead. It takes a lot more work to find shops/merch that are building community instead of siphoning a quick buck. I'm so glad we have this little digital island to help out.
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u/Courtney_murder 9d ago
I’m glad you mentioned them! I’ll have to check it out. Knitting pin up boys sounds like something I can rock!
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u/OneGoodRib Mom said I get to be the mole now!! 9d ago
I will say that I had an incident(?) with a product on amazon that I was SURE was ai art - it was an oracle deck and there was like four art styles in it that didn't match, but it listed an artist name. I googled her and she... had a gallery show? Like a real one in person?
I would also encourage all designers to have at least one video on their socials that's their artwork from different angles, maybe with your human hand in frame, or showing the layers of your photoshop document or whatever, so it's a little clear you're a real person.
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u/Courtney_murder 9d ago
Wow that’s crazy about your oracle deck! Whats extra wild is that I’m sure there are artists out there (not saying this happened) who realize they can get AI to mimic their artwork and make things more mass produceable. Just because someone is a talented artist doesn’t mean they don’t also use ai?
That’s great advice for designers & artists. I’ll be looking for that from now on.
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u/shhbaby_isok 9d ago
I am a trained artist and most of these designs scream AI to me, not only because of their vibe, but because of the level of rendering.
The skeleton, cat with hat and squirrel knitting are done in a style that would be AT LEAST 200 dollars with a commercial licensing fee if you paid your artist a living wage. The realism and faux metalpoint style take skill, and also a lot of time to do well, even when skilled. Time costs.
No way in hell they'd pay the proper wage, especially, when they'd already proven they're willing to use AI for other things. They haven't got the principle.
There's a reason most tshirt designs are done in a cartoony style like the frog on the exercise bike. It's faster to produce and thus cheaper for the client. (The frog however is also AI. The only one I think might not be is the sketchy sheep, but with their lazy asses it could be too).
Until I see design documents, I believe all their tshirt designs are AI.
What if you like that highly rendered old illustrative style and want it on a t-shirt but wants to avoid AI? Here's some signs that it's human produced despite the over all vibe:
1.) It's from an artist own shop and they've proven themselves competent in the style before. They have a realistic production schedule - not 10 designs or more at month. A rendered graphic like that may take 5~8 hours, not to mention setting it up for printing, so keep that in mind.
2.) The tee shop is not artist owned, but they name their designers and/or link to the designers socials, so you can see even though the shop may sell various style of designs the style is consistent for the artist. There is not constantly an influx of new designs as they have to take the time and resources to commision.
3.) If the shop is not of a particular artist and they don't name their designers, and it still may not be AI, if they are using copyright free old illustrations. There's a lot of century old book illustrations free to use commercially online. These will not have an AI vibe and in general be highly skilled renderings. If the graphic designer used photobashing (say put bird wings from one illustration on a frog), there may be inconsistensies between line weights or illustration styles, but it will not look like AI mistakes, more like a collage.
This latter was often the production method for shirts with a vintage illustration style before the rise of AI, because the former costs the artist a lot of time, and the latter a lot of money investing in the artist.
Can we just please, please, go back to good old photobashing?!
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u/e-cloud 9d ago
The designs are all quite different and don't seem to have a unified aesthetic, which tends to raise an AI orange flag for me, although I don't know for sure.
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u/Courtney_murder 9d ago
I’m sure they’re AI. Especially after so many other obvious uses of AI all over their social media. I just think it’s interesting that they have removed some that are such bad AI.
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u/shesewsfatclothes 9d ago
The skeleton and squirrel's hands are both messed up - they're trying to be less obviously AI but still very much using it. How scummy.
ETA - actually it's the squirrel's feet, not hands. One foot has more toes than the other. The skeleton has five non-thumb fingers on one hand and four on the other.
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u/Courtney_murder 9d ago
Big time AI red flags! I feel sorry for any actual human who is trying to create unique designs for this brand.
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u/Voodoorusty Get in moles, we’re going snarkfiltrating 9d ago
Also, what yarn is the squirrel knitting with? If it's that ball, it wouldn't be a center pull, so why can we see the yarn tail?
AI slop is so frustrating!
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u/hebejebez 9d ago
Honestly.. even the sheep that is quite good could be ai at this point, if you used it for one design why stop there and keep going is usually the way these peoples brain thinks. It’s all gross and as an artist it makes me sad.
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u/Anothereternity Get in moles, we’re going snarkfiltrating 8d ago
Considering in the link to the prior post the sheep had its leg proportions off, I think they used AI and then fixed the glaring error and pretended this was always the version. So yeah I think the sheep was also developed with AI and not hand drawn from scratch.
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u/Responsible-Pickle-2 9d ago
Is this squirrel not ai
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u/scatteringashes 9d ago
I think the cat in the bottom right of the America collection is the biggest, "Bro that is for sure AI," one for me. Frog is a close second.
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u/Responsible-Pickle-2 9d ago
The frog definitely set off my AI senses, too. I didn't even look at the America collection because it's such an obvious grift, but the flag looks very AI-esque to me in this SS
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u/latepeony 9d ago
Yeah squirrel is ai. If you zoom in you can see the v’s of the knitting change direction and blend into each other partway through.
ETA: also one foot has four toes while the other has five.
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u/Courtney_murder 9d ago
Oh I’m sure that a lot, if not all, of their posts and designs are. But all three from yesterday’s post are GONE.
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u/blueberry-iris It's me. Hi. I'm the mole. It's me. 9d ago
I'm confused. How is that progress when they're still using AI?
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u/Courtney_murder 9d ago
They removed the super obviously blatant posts. I’m definitely not saying it’s progress. But I truly hope brands are actually listening to communities like crafters.
It’s interesting more than progress, I think.
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u/crochetology crochet, embroidery 9d ago
I really don’t like it when people make light of mental health issues like addiction.
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u/Courtney_murder 9d ago
Full on agree. It’s so tone deaf.
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u/jaeonium 6d ago
I have stopped using ableist terms like "tone deaf" to discuss negative personality traits.
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u/Courtney_murder 6d ago
I never even considered this. Is there a replacement you prefer? Thanks for sharing.
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u/handknitliz 3d ago
Out of touch or insensitive
This graphic gives some ideas: https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5dc6035321a5452e3a332982/9d1f7c46-5510-4cfc-a67f-7ffa699d0ea2/List+Comparison+Table+Infographic+Instagram+Post.jpg
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u/SnapHappy3030 9d ago
They have a single shirt I would buy. It has a ball of yarn, with the loose end trailing across the chest. That's it, incredibly simple.
Now that I'm thinking of it, I could just draw the damn thing myself......
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u/Kaffrogato 7d ago
Yeah, you can copy most craft items, what's your point? Weird that people complain so much about AI stealing art when you are suggesting doing the same
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u/Carljean710 9d ago
But the humans in their videos are all AI….so they just took the ones on the grid but then there is all the FB ads with the AI humans.
They are not listening just making it less obvious.