Bradford Literature Festival: Illustrator pulls out over AI use

A book illustrator has pulled out of Bradford Literature Festival because artificial intelligence (AI) was used to produce its publicity images.

Chris Mould was due to hold a masterclass at the event, but now says: "How can I stand under their roof and tell people they can go to art school?"

He said as a "Bradford lad" he had felt honoured to be booked, but withdrew once the use of AI was confirmed.

The festival said it was committed to "supporting creative careers".

Sir Lenny Henry, Sir Michael Palin and Lemn Sissay are among those due to speak at the event, which will run between 23 June and 2 July.

Mr Mould, who now lives in Liversedge, West Yorkshire, said: "People had called me out for appearing at a festival where they were using AI-generated artwork.

"I could see their point but it wasn't something I was aware of; I'd seen the images and I thought they were digital artwork, I hadn't scrutinised them".

The artist and author said he asked someone at the festival to confirm if its images were generated by AI, and as soon as it was confirmed he emailed them to pull out.

He said: "My issue was that at my events I talk about my working life, the books I have illustrated and the books that I have written.

"When I work in schools and when I'm on the road, I also like to push the idea of creative careers, because I work in a lot of deprived areas and there are a lot of kids that don't have the chance to get into creative work.

"My issue was how can I stand under their roof and tell people they can go to art school and work in these disciplines, if the material used to publicise that event is generated at the push of a button?"

Nicola Solomon, chief executive of The Society of Authors (SoA), also wrote to festival director Syima Aslam to air her concerns.

She said she had received a "constructive response" along with "an invitation to discuss and engage further on this complex issue".

Ms Solomon wrote: "We (and many SoA members) were extremely disappointed to learn that Bradford Literature Festival, a cultural outreach programme encompassing the best of literature, music, theatre, cultural discussions, lectures and family events, is promoting this year's line-up using AI-generated images".

In response, Ms Aslam said the festival "routinely commissions and employs artists of all varieties, including illustrators and digital artists, and pays the market rate for all services".

She added it used a small, local commercial design agency to work on this year's campaign and that it "should have been more explicit about the use of AI tools and the potential issues that this entailed".

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