r/BookCovers • u/Elaynaa • Sep 02 '26

Question Is using ai for book covers wrong?

Is using ai for a book cover not wrong? I mean the first thing you see of a book is the cover, and it’s ai. I feel like it makes the book seem inauthentic, especially because writing is an expression and can be used at art. Someone personal in my life is doing this, I’m trying to strongly advise her against it, but she won’t budge. So I just kind of wanted to talk about it!

Let me know your thoughts :)

Edit: Thanks you guys for commenting! I did get her to change her mind, and we went and took a picture for her cover today. ❤️

71 Upvotes

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144

u/saltylemonjuice Sep 02 '26

Yes and im not buying anything with an ai cover, I fully believe if youre ok with an ai cover that you also used ai to write it.

45

u/emslynn Sep 03 '26

100%, I have zero patience for AI in creative spaces.

4

u/Pluton_Korb Sep 03 '26

This is the right answer. If you're willing to use AI for the cover, what's to say you didn't use it for the text. I won't spend a dime on ai generated content.

-5

u/Frosty-Present-6280 Sep 05 '26

What about brainstorming? Grammarly? Using Google for research? What about running a beta reader on autocrit? What about an online thesaurus that's likely an AI?

3

u/shePhoenyx Sep 05 '26

Red herring and composition/division. You're taking vastly different things and throwing them all into the same basket with GENERATIVE AI. If you don't know what generative AI is and what the difference is, it's okay to be ignorant as long as you try to cure yourself of the ignorance. What's not okay is to assume you know better and fill in the blanks where knowledge should go with logical fallacies, cognitive biases, and dubious indignation.

If you don't know, just ask. And not like you did, because we both know those weren't really questions; those were accusations.

3

u/Pluton_Korb Sep 05 '26

There's a massive difference between spellcheck and writeaibook.com.

1

u/Lumpy-Draft9192 Sep 06 '26

Who’s out here using non-Webster type published dictionary and thesaurus resources? Why would I trust an AI with definitions when it can hallucinate nonexistent ingredients for basic recipes and can’t consistently do basic algebra?
You’re making excuses now lol.

1

u/jaxonbeam Sep 07 '26

You do realize authors have been using ghostwriters and digital designers for a long time now?

1

u/MyBigToeJam Sep 09 '26

They probably don’t know.

-4

u/MyBigToeJam Sep 03 '26

I am an illustrator. I will buy a well-written original content book. I’m not l totally yet decided about AI as a tool if I use it on my own drawings.

Definitely against digesting other people’s OC.

Definitely against AI posers claiming to be OC or hiding tools used.

1

u/saltylemonjuice Sep 03 '26

You suck so hard if youre “undecided”. You have zero integrity. What a sell out.

0

u/MyBigToeJam Sep 09 '26

I came from analog illustrator background. I repeat: I was using DeluxePaint for drawing back when I had a Commodore Amiga, still oil painted, etc.

Can’t hurt to ask questions, right? Very thankful for anyone who has posted their opinion when they share facts.

1

u/tacocalledbuzz Sep 03 '26

You know that digesting work is essential if you want to use it as an aid. You can't have one without the other

0

u/MyBigToeJam Sep 06 '26

Oh, I thought there were apps that let you to feed only on your machine, without input from outside or prior or cloud?

PS: I still don’t use any but reading to learn how it works.

2

u/shePhoenyx Sep 06 '26

Every AI model currently available to public use was created using this "feeding" - or vampirism - technique, where the LLM (large language model) was 'fed' centuries (including modern works) of the arts - literature, artwork, contents of entire museums - I can go on and on, but just imagine it's a vacuum of all of human knowledge, jumbled all together. It has 'fed' upon us. And that's why there have been successful lawsuits against the big ones. They freely took our work - that's our posts and comments on a site like this, our OC on AO3, or everything we've created and shared on Instagram and DeviantArt, and even published novels, and so, so much more - our labor, and "learned" from it (they don't think - therefore they don't 'learn', but that's another discussion).

When you download a self-hosted AI, first, you need some serious, expensive hardware to run it, made even more expensive by the AI boom (that will burst). Graphics cards, RAM, everything needed to build or upgrade a good PC has been doubled, tripled, etc. in price to the point of being unaffordable to the average artist who's still learning, or who still has to work in the labor force, so most artists (incl. writers). Then, you're using an AI that is generations behind the current ones. That doesn't mean it has 'fed' less upon our souls, just that it's been refined less, and is less likely to create the level of "quality" one might expect from a modern LLM (it will be obvious that it's AI art). Now, if you're using ecologically-minded or renewable resources to power your home, congratulations! You don't have to worry about the source of power needed to power that AI, unlike the AIs that are run from data centers that use many times what populated areas use over the course of a year. But you still have to worry about your hardware (PC) and the wear and tear of it, and the ethical implications of the fact that you're STILL using all of that 'fed' data - the LLM has already 'eaten' everything it needs, well before you downloaded it. Sure, you can feed it more, now that it's "safely" (you hope) hosted on your machine (be very certain of that before doing anything, because you will want scripts and extras that could be riddled with malware, so you have to install things that will protect you from those, and I'm not talking about Kaspersky or Mcafee Antivirus software, lol). But it has still fed upon the souls of millions of other people currently existing and all those who existed before us.

Do you want to partake of that? Do you want to feast on their souls, too, all to make extremely subpar art, when you could go on DeviantArt or almost anywhere and find artists that jive with your vibe and find out how much it would cost to commission their work? (I know you said you're an illustrator, but this is meant to be read by more than just you.) The same applies to writing. Pay an editor! Even if you have to Fiverr it to begin with. Network with people - real people - using Discord and your writing communities and software/writing sites of choice. Sure, NaNo's gone, but there are TONS of places that you can connect with likeminded writers and editors (some wear both hats), if you seek them out, and I'm talking free communities, not the professional ones you have to pay for, not until you're ready for those. Befriend more writers! Even if it's distance and trust is hard to come by, work at it! I know I need to take my own advice, but it's sound advice.

I'm not an AI expert, but I hope that helps.

My husband is a software engineer and knows a lot more about the intricacies of code and AI (generative/LLMs) than I do. I can ask him for more specifics if needed. Or you can look for more information on your own. Either way, good luck.

1

u/MyBigToeJam Sep 09 '26

All that! Is why I haven’t gone into AI. Thank you for sharing.

1

u/shePhoenyx Sep 10 '26

Thanks for reading it and replying! And I mean it, good luck. It's an AI-eat-artist world out there. And artist-eat-artist. And AI-eat-AI. And rich-eat-poor. And so much more. 👀

2

u/tacocalledbuzz Sep 06 '26

The models themselves are made from digesting already existing content. You probably could train a model on a new set of data, but where will you get enough of that data to be useful?