“In the early 2000s, we had watermark wars. In 2022, we had style laundering.”
— Wing
It’s December 2022.
You’re browsing Etsy, Gumroad, or even a local convention artist alley. There’s a print of a fox samurai under cherry blossoms. It’s striking. Detailed. Ethereal.
You buy it.
But hours later, something nags you.
Was that… AI-generated?
And if it was—shouldn’t they have told you?
🎭 The Invisible Flood
By late 2022, generative AI art had become too good. Midjourney v4 and Stable Diffusion with custom models were cranking out pieces that mimicked human imperfections: rough brush textures, faux pencil strokes, even “digital signature” scribbles in corners.