Intro about Deviant Art is Full of AI Trash

Back in the days when the internet was immature, places such as DeviantArt provided a center for artists to post reviews and appreciate art. But looking toward the new year, 2024, things are very different. Thanks to AI, DeviantArt has turned into a gallery where pathetic variations of pictures swallow up real art and genuine creativity.

As someone who has been using the platform for years, I am rather sad about things as this was previously my happy place. Now, it is filled with what most people refer to as AI trash— “content” that makes one doubt whether there is any point left for the creation of genuine art.

For those who have been active on DeviantArt recently, it will come as no surprise. The least I can do is explain what has befallen this cherished resource.

Key Takeaways

AI-generated images introduced on the site due to its rapid availability have altered DeviantArt’s landscape for the worse.
DeviantArt, just like the other galleries with artificial intelligence, finds itself experiencing a lack of original content, with trash widely available.
Community agitation is increasing due to artists strongly concerned with the free nature of AI-related warmongering.
DeviantArt so appears to care less for art and more toward business.
As artists look at other places, the site indeed struggles to cope with AI abuse.

The Invasion of AI-Generated Art on DeviantArt

A website launched in the early 2000s for creative communities, DeviantArt was once a website for real artists. However, now, even AI images begin to be in the time the focus of the audience, and the primary purpose of AI is to enhance creativity is ridicules.

Surely, there is a saturation that barely lets anyone look through the front page without coming across millions of pathetic AI uploads.

Key Issues with AI on DeviantArt

Issue	Description
Overwhelming Quantity	AI-generated images are uploaded in bulk, often drowning out real art.
Low Quality	Many AI images lack quality control, displaying glitches and inaccuracies.
Moderation Challenges	DeviantArt moderators struggle to filter out questionable or poor AI content.
Tag Overload	AI-generated art clogs the tag system, affecting visibility for real artists.

Around 2022, which was pretty bad, was the beginning of this trend. By 2024, which is now, it’s reached epidemic proportions. The website is swamped with AI-generated posts, which are regularly, I guess, uploaded, making it hard to find people still looking for ‘real’ work.

The daily feed at DeviantArt has been repopulated with AI-centered works, and none of the real artists still exist, or even the older community members find it productive.

Issues with AI Content on Art Platforms

There was a time when practitioners of bubbly art, e.g., AI, Wrote posts about themselves here. Such a situation never occurred for ‘real’ artists on m like Deviart, especially done by solely one person, and now it appears owned by a collective of mediocre mechanics that aim to automate everything.

And because literally, all their posts completely lack value, such powerful AI screenshots, and artwork completely switch the offering of the platform upside down, which is why everything has begun to fall apart: the usability, the community, and the reputation itself. It has systematically dismantled the sites.

Dilution of Genuine Art

The most explosive and harmful impact of AI Art generation on DeviantArt has got to be the dilution of authentic works of art. For every single image that’s made manually by a real artist, there seems to be an avalanche of AI-generated images—many of which are stripped of the subtleties, ingrained technique, or personality an artist puts into his or her works.

Such applications that generate images have resulted in an abundance of such works that paved the way for less effective and meaningful work.

Overwhelming Tags

DeviantArt once used its tagging system to improve discoverability, but the uncontrollability of the AI generation influx has turned it into a tag war zone. Tags such as AI art’, ‘AI generated’, ‘AI garbage’ are rampant on the platform. Tags have stopped being useful as an element of organization and have instead turned into noise that is frustrating to use.

Popular search terms are constantly filled with tags like “AI trash” as opposed to traditional art tags. The mess means the end of the line for users who appreciate human art as a search for a picture created by a person will result in an avalanche of generative paints.

For the users of DeviantArt who are interested in the artistic aspect of the platform, the chaos within the tagging system has set a bar lower than intended, so the audience is left frustrated.

Impact of Tag Overload	Description
Increased Search Frustration	Users face difficulty filtering genuine art from AI-generated noise.
Decreased Visibility	Real artists’ tags are overwhelmed by the volume of AI-related tags.
Diluted Artistic Categories	Tags like “anime,” “fantasy,” and “portrait” now pull up mostly AI-generated art.

Reduced Discoverability for Artists

The increasing number of artificial intelligence-generated images on DeviantArt loses the chances of being able to find traditional art. For this audience of DeviantArt, which is a certain category of artists wishing to present and promote their works, promotion is of primary importance.

If traditional artwork is buried beneath the heaps of machine-created images, it is next to impossible for any human-created craft to be served or even be seen by any potential audience.

Comparison with Other Platforms

The problems that DeviantArt is having with AI content are not unprecedented; other sites have also experienced a rising tide of AI art inflow, including ArtStation, Tumblr, and Reddit. However, these sites took some measures for additional moderation in AI versus Human content ratio. This is how these sites are different from DeviantArt:

ArtStation

ArtStation is a household name amongst professional artists’ communities. They understood the risk and have taken steps to combat AI art leaks into the platform, reducing the competition between real art and AI fakes.

Tumblr

Tumblr does contain some posts generated by either an AI or a person, but it is generally more community-focused and has a greater emphasis on content moderation. While AI posts do exist, Tumblr’s many human artists and specific communities help ensure that it never completely takes over.

Reddit’s community-based format makes room for specific subreddits that focus on traditional art. Many art-related subreddits either disallow or limit AI artwork’s usage, thus allowing users to look at only human-created art without AI-generated images popping up.

DeviantArt’s ineffective moderation, on the other hand, has led to the rise of many AI-generated bots and generative models, which has made users feel overwhelmed by bots and generative models.

Platform	Moderation of AI Content	Impact on Human-Generated Art
ArtStation	Maintains strict AI tagging policies	AI art is separate, keeping traditional art visible.
Tumblr	Community moderation helps balance content	Niche communities prevent AI dominance.
Reddit	Many subreddits restrict AI content	Artists have dedicated spaces for visibility.
DeviantArt	Minimal moderation and AI tag overload	Human-created art is buried under AI content.

Effects on Artists and Community

Artificial Intelligence is a brilliant technology that drives efficiency in doing various tasks across numerous sectors; however, its integration into art creation has brought mixed feelings about it. One of the most alarming concerns is how AI will affect artists around the world:

How AI Affects Artists

Demotivation: It can be frustrating to see an overwhelming number of mediocre pieces of art on the platform generated by AI bots.
Loss of Community: DeviantArt was about exchanging ideas, giving and receiving constructive criticism, and improving skills in practice. Nowadays, the space seems patent as a result of so much bot art competition.
Privacy Concerns: There are many ethical parts of users expressing anxiety that their artwork may get scraped without permission by AI algorithms.
Oversaturation: The Dirge of Artificially Created Artwork implements no marketability of niches and therefore lacks the scope of activities needed by that portion of the audience.

The apparent concern from the concerned individuals is for the future of the art as a whole, and people are disconnecting from the site, renowned by the art community, which is now filled with AI-generated trash without soul, and claiming the site once felt like home.

Personal Experience

There are times when I use DeviantArt that I want to use an alternative phrase and quite literally ‘exile myself’ from the platform. I am shocked to see the repetitive and uninspiring craft on the website rather than providable creativity.

The beautiful, vibrant community’s motto is now “Schrodinger’s image,” which is such images that are synthesized and visually represent a number that is strikingly trademarkable. This upsets me as an active user, and I wonder if the “report” button will continue to serve its purpose.

Moderation and Policy Failures

DeviantArt’s Struggle with AI Policy and Moderation

The moderation team at DeviantArt has lagged behind the rapid expansion of the artificial intelligence (AI) content marketplace. A glimpse of some of their challenges includes the following:

Privacy Policy Gaps: Apparently, artists have no protections against their art being included within the scope of data that trains out AI models.
Lack of Human Review: Revealingly, the AI art still invades the homepage with a great deal of coverage because there are very few checks.
Inconsistent Enforcement: It is also true that although checks are conducted, they are done in an inconsistent manner and often completely ignore the very obvious low-quality AI art.

Take, for instance, in November, DeviantArt introduced new policies, but they do not seem to address the problems related to the inflow of AI-generated imagery.

Policy Failure	Impact
Weak Privacy Protections	Artists fear their work is being scraped by AI for generative training.
Insufficient Moderation	The site struggles to filter out gore, pornography, and underage content.
Lack of Human Oversight	Without actual moderators, the site becomes a free-for-all for AI trash.

Attempts at “Improving” the Platform and Failing

Whenever DeviantArt tries to shake things up and look different, they certainly face a backlash. Despite the fact that they rolled out some new features with the launch of the Eclipse update, many users believe it did more damage than good.

Unwanted Features: The users who had gotten used to the previous layout have been somewhat cut off with the new Eclipse redesign.
Dilution of DeviantArt’s Identity: Even these updates do not sit right as DeviantArt seems to have lost its purpose as a place to share art.
Increased Complexity: For a user of such a long time, the new design attempts to be user-friendly but fails as it has a lot of features that seem more for greed monetization.

As a user, it is not very hard to comprehend. No, these updates achieved what users believed to be the underlying problems of the platform. Realigning the model to focus solely on corporate revenue generation is an unfavorable strategy.

The Financial Aspect – Profit Over Community

As the community would probably agree, DeviantArt has moved away from its roots and become a business:

Greedy Monetization Tactics: People have noticed a growing trend to use AI and not artists, as exemplified by the integration of paid services.

Corporate Direction: Even though it is the cheapest option, the platform does not care about the quality and actively tries to push AI-generated art.

Ad Revenue Priority: The amount of AI advertising or marketing on the front page of DeviantArt seems to be too much at the expense of real artists’ exposure.

The fact that the site prioritizes profit over the requirements of its users is a feeling of betrayal. As someone who creates, one can easily understand why people are stating, “I’m leaving”.

DeviantArt and the AI Influx’s Harmful Content

AI-generated content is not only degrading the quality of art; it is also lowering the bar even further by adding new, more sinister ‘features’:

Unchecked Nudity and Fetish Content: The onslaught of AI has introduced all sorts of vulgarity that goes unfiltered.
Disturbing Trends in AI Art: Some AIs have also been found to contain graphic violence and child portrayals that require reporting at once.

Harmful AI Content Concerns

Concern	Description
Nudity & Fetish	AI-generated fetish content is easily uploaded without proper oversight.
Underage Content	AI images can include disturbing themes that should not be visible.
Inconsistent TOS Enforcement	DeviantArt’s lack of action leaves such content visible on the platform.

It’s better that sites like TikTok and Twitch have algorithms that filter abuse than a place like DeviantArt, which feels like a dumpster fire.

Alternatives and Future Steps

As the deviantArt community has waned, many creators are searching for other communities:

Switching to ArtStation or Pixiv: These websites have stricter policies regarding AI usage.
Exploring Smaller Communities: Focused art websites provide an opportunity for engagement with like-minded individuals.
Building Personal Sites: These days, it is not uncommon for people to buy a domain and maintain a personal site for the website content.

To begin with, here’s a quick list of alternatives:

ArtStation – A site with a reputation for hosting professional art with flare.
Pixiv – One of the top destinations for anime artists for its improved control over AIs.
Tumblr – Keeps the most traditional art and digital art but with the help of the community.
Reddit – Contains subreddits dedicated to particular art styles.
Personal Website – Buy a domain to display any artwork unscrutinized by others.

This would allow the artists to post on different platforms, expand their reach, and cut their dependency on AI nonsense.

My Opinion

DeviantArt has lost touch with its origins; the users are now more concerned about the monetary side of the platform, as well as the more innovative AI-centric artworks. The surge of artificial intelligence garbage onto the site has obliterated the genuine artistic vision that was once behind the promotion of DeviantArt as a refuge for creators.

If you’re a creator who views the site with despair because it has been overrun with AI, perhaps you should seek out other environments that appreciate art, originality, and creativity. After all, there are still places where art is not just another asset– rather where it is still crafted by people.