Pokémon Art, Content Creation, and Ai. LETS HAVE THE TALK

Pokémon Art, Content Creation, and Ai.

LETS HAVE THE TALK

Editorial by The Crown and Card Co.

First! This article is not intended to tell my personal opinions on using Ai to assist in creating Pokemon art and content. I’m writing this to help educate YOU on the use of Ai.

I was inspired to write this after seeing a person discuss how horrible Ai is while using auto captions and a very obvious face filter. Yes, auto captions and beauty filters use Ai. Many things we use are Ai generated and sometimes we don’t know.

Feel free to skip to the end where I break down and bullet point several ways we are using AI that some of us might not know of. THIS ARTICLE IS LONG.

Let’s get my personal artistic background and content phases out of the way before diving into this topic that everyone loves.

I have a degree in Studio Art with a Focus on Sculpture from Saint Edward’s University in Austin Texas, Class of 2007. Yes I’m 41.

If I saw someone take credit for something I created with my hands, mind, and skill… I would raise hell. However, I have definitely experimented with AI content in several ways. The most heavy would be a few years ago where I made posts that were 100% AI generated by using my words to form a prompt. I found it interesting until those posts went viral and I felt like a phony despite marking them as AI. They were not items from my collection or anyone’s collection. Those posts were things that did not exist. I moved on using AI to add a fun element to some content by taking photos of my collection and using prompts like “make the Pokemon Dance” or simply explode.

I rarely create Pokémon art myself other than coloring with gel pens (5 years ago) or gluing sparkles to stuff that already exists. Not because I don’t want to create Pokemon art, but because I’m honestly not very good at it. Every time I try to draw a Pokemon, they end up looking somewhat deranged. I’m just not great at recreating them.

I’m not here to push my personal opinions on the use of Ai when it comes to content creation. You just read some of the phases I’ve gone through with content and my background.

I’m here to discuss the full spectrum of Pokemon Content Creation and the use of Ai and point out some things you might be missing.

Whether or not you support Pokemon Creators who use Ai should be completely up to you…

What I do love is supporting artists. All types of creatives have a place in my heart whether it’s hand made or digital.

Fan art is one of my favorite things to collect. I buy prints, commission artwork, SO MANY AMAZING AND ADORABLE THINGS, and I share the work of talented creators whenever I can. Some of the most creative people in the Pokémon community are artists, and they make this hobby more colorful, personal, and fun.

Which is also why I’ve found the conversation around AI-generated art so interesting.

Not because I have all the answers, but because I think the discussion is more complicated than social media often makes it sound.

Most debates about AI eventually become debates about originality. People argue about who created what, what counts as art, and where inspiration becomes imitation. But there’s one question I don’t hear asked very often:

How original is Pokémon fan art to begin with?

Before anyone gets upset, I’m not criticizing fan art. I love fan art.

But it’s worth acknowledging that if I draw Pikachu, I didn’t create Pikachu. If I paint Eevee, I didn’t invent Eevee. Fan artists bring their own style, imagination, technique, and personality to characters that already exist.

That’s what makes fan art special. That’s why I spend more money at conventions on hand made items than actual Pokemon Cards.

The artist’s interpretation is what transforms a familiar character into something unique. A watercolor Pikachu, a gothic Sylveon, or a realistic drawing of Charizard can all feel completely different despite being based on the same source material.

But it also makes the conversation about originality more complicated than people sometimes admit.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that Pokemon content creation has always existed on a spectrum.

Now let’s move beyond the obvious hand created Pokémon art.

Here it is… I would never knowingly purchase something that was Ai generated (example: a pack of custom cards that someone made using ChatGPT)… but I will reshare, comment, and be amazed by someone’s content who might use AI to enhance something in their collection. (There are definitely things I’ve seen created on social media using AI that I feel is wrong but I’m not here to push my opinions).

At this point you should be picking up on a common key factor that separates two forms of creation.. content. Yes, content is an art.

Someone takes a photo of a Pokémon card. Someone edits it. Someone uses Photoshop. Someone uses Canva. Someone purchases stock assets. Someone uses automatic captions, templates, filters, background removal tools, or AI-powered editing features.

Most creators use tools that help them create faster, better, or more efficiently.

The debate is rarely about whether tools should exist.

The debate is usually about where each person chooses to draw their line. Example: “Ai content is lazy and wrong. I only use it to give myself cute nails in posts while I’m holding a Pokémon Card”.

Some people are comfortable with stock graphics or photos saved from Google and Pinterest but not AI. Some are comfortable with AI-assisted editing but not AI-generated artwork. Others reject AI entirely.

None of those positions are automatically right or wrong.

They’re simply different places to draw a line.

Another part of the conversation that often gets overlooked is the environment.

AI requires significant computing power and energy. That’s a valid concern and one that deserves thoughtful discussion.

At the same time, traditional art and content creation aren’t environmentally neutral either. Physical artwork requires the use of natural resources.. the list is long depending on what type of art is being created but it goes all the way from paper to toxic chemicals. Digital content requires phones, computers, servers, cloud storage, and electricity. (I don’t love this paragraph but I’m remaining biased haha).

What makes the conversation even more complicated is that many of the platforms we use every day already rely heavily on AI.

Instagram uses AI to recommend content. TikTok uses AI to power its For You Page. Search engines use AI. Automatic captions use AI. Content moderation systems use AI. Translation tools use AI. Recommendation engines use AI. Many photo editing apps now include AI-powered features by default.

Most creators who oppose AI-generated artwork still use platforms and tools that depend on artificial intelligence every single day, often without thinking about it.

That doesn’t make their concerns invalid. It simply highlights how difficult it can be to separate ourselves from technology that has become deeply integrated into the internet and content creation as a whole.

The reality is that nearly every form of modern creation has some environmental impact, and nearly every creator is interacting with AI in some capacity whether they realize it or not.

The older I get, the more I find myself valuing transparency over absolutes.

If something is AI generated, say so.

If it’s hand drawn, say so.

If it was made using templates, stock assets, licensed graphics, or editing tools, there shouldn’t be any shame in that either.

Let people understand how something was created and decide what they value.

Because at the end of the day, people don’t follow creators because of the software they use.

The tool has never been the most interesting part.

The person using it is.

I don’t know where the perfect line should be drawn, and I don’t think there is a perfect answer.

What I do know is that the Pokémon community is full of creative people using different tools to express their love for the same hobby… and a lot of us are unclear where we stand with Ai or we don’t know exactly how hypocritical we look when we post a reel stating “Ai is bad” while using auto captions and a beauty filter.

Allow me to break this down:

Which piece of content requires more AI processing… A post on instagram made solely from entering a prompt to produce an image or a 30 second long reel using a beauty filter and auto generated captions?

Ai generated Instagram Post:

• You type a prompt.

• An AI model generates one image.

• You upload it.

The heavy AI work happens once: generating the image.

Reel with Beauty Filter & Auto Captions:

• AI detects and tracks your face frame-by-frame.

• AI identifies facial landmarks (eyes, nose, mouth, jawline).

• AI applies skin smoothing, reshaping, lighting adjustments, etc.

• AI performs speech recognition on your voice.

• AI converts speech into text.

• AI timestamps and syncs captions to spoken words.

AI is working continuously throughout the entire video.

So there you have it. Draw your own line. ChatGPT cannot draw your personal line; only you can. Whether it’s about originality, the environment, the loss of creative jobs.. you are the only person who can choose where to draw the line.

Here is a list of other places AI is used in content creation:

Content Creation Tools That Commonly Use AI

Video Editing

• Auto captions (CapCut, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube)

• Automatic subtitle translation

• Silence removal

• Auto-cutting dead space

• Automatic highlight detection

• Auto-generated B-roll suggestions

• AI voice cleanup

• Background noise removal

• Voice isolation

Photos & Selfies

• Beauty filters

• Skin smoothing

• Teeth whitening 🙋🏼‍♀️

• Face slimming

• Eye enlargement

• Portrait mode blur

• Low-light photo enhancement

• Auto color correction

• Auto object removal

• Background removal

Social Media Platforms

• Instagram Explore page

• Instagram feed ranking

• Instagram Reels recommendations

• TikTok For You Page

• YouTube recommendations

• Facebook feed ranking

• Search suggestions

• Spam detection

• Comment filtering

• Community guideline moderation

Accessibility Features

• Auto captions

• Auto-generated alt text

• Speech-to-text

• Live captions

• Voice dictation

• Translation tools

Design & Graphics

• Canva Magic Design

• Canva background remover

• Photoshop Generative Fill

• Photoshop object selection

• Adobe Firefly features

• Auto-resizing graphics

• AI-powered design suggestions

Smartphone Cameras

• Face tracking

• Smile detection

• Portrait mode

• Night mode

• HDR processing

• Subject detection

• Automatic scene recognition

• Computational photography

Audio

• Voice enhancement

• Noise suppression

• Echo reduction

• Automatic leveling

• Podcast cleanup tools

Search & Discovery

• Google Search ranking

• YouTube Search

• Instagram Search

• TikTok Search

• Pinterest recommendations