All AI images need to be flagged: how we failed for an unverified image.

What happened?

On April 2^nd, International Children’s Book Day, the EWC published a corresponding photo statement. We then received information that the graphic used could be AI-generated. We investigated this, as we do not use any generative AI within the EWC and reject these applications for any artistic-like production. The image in question was sublicensed by us within a very popular social media content drafting program.

When we sublicensed it, no label or flag signalled if the image was AI-generated. Instead, a photo/graphic credit of an existing human company was given.

Despite our efforts and contrary to our original used source, the origin of the graphic could not be totally cleared.

What we learned, understand & regret

We understand that illustrators and visual artists felt disappointed and upset. We regret very much that we caused this, also we regret that even being not able to be sure about a source happened. We felt betrayed, too, as we expect from professional stock photo libraries to check and to flag any AI output, and to not cover AI products with human credit names.

We apologize for hurting you and like very much to assure: this was never our intention.

What does this mean for us?

We will go on supporting art created by humans and increase our efforts checking sources to clarify the provenance of images. We will rely in our own photographic material, typographical compositions. We will use authentically declared human origin images, commercial licensed ones and will commission artwork to human artists, where needed.

We will increase our efforts in championing authors’ and creators’ rights.

Nevertheless, we see this lack of transparency as a growing problem across the entire web: what happened to us, to fall for a non-declared possible AI output, could happen to anyone.

We would like to thank all those who drew our attention to this critical image and helped us to learn, and to investigate.

We appreciate your clear and well-intended feedback and strive to act for the best interest of our stakeholders: including not only writers, but everyone creating art. We consider them our fellows.

The EWC Board