A Feast for Crows Illustrated Edition artwork draws AI accusations from fans

What should be a time of celebration for devout A Song of Ice and Fire readers is fast turning into a scandal. On November 4th, Random House Worlds released A Feast for Crows: The Illustrated Edition, the fourth in its line of lavish 20th anniversary re-releases of George R.R. Martin’s beloved fantasy book series. Yet while the first three Illustrated Editions were well received by fans, the new version of A Feast for Crows has caused an outcry online.

The reason for this is the artwork, which many are saying appears to have been created using AI. And looking at it, it’s easy to understand why so many people are coming to this conclusion. Check out a sampling:

Why are most of the characters wearing blue, even Margaery Tyrell and Tommen Baratheon at their wedding? Where are the house sigils, or any of the other bits of intricate worldbuilding for A Song of Ice and Fire? Martin has a long history of working with incredible artists, and very often they go all out bringing Westeros to life. But in many of the A Feast for Crows images I’ve seen, I’m not even entirely sure who is being depicted.

I’ll also point out the bland faces many of the characters have — except for that top left photo of Euron, where everyone is shouting in more or less the same manner. Those are some hallmarks of AI-generated imagery. I’m no expert and can’t rule definitively, but I can certainly understand why people are drawing the conclusion.

The above picture is of Cersei Lannister, sitting on her queen regent’s chair beside the Iron Throne. She is at least wearing red, but as @AFeastForCrowz points out on X, there are some tells this could be AI, like the fact that Cersei’s dress is under the chair leg, or the fact that the back half of her ornate chair just…doesn’t seem to be there. At best, there are weird mistakes; at worst, corners were cut and it’s about to blow back on the publisher and Martin.

Others have pointed out that some of this artwork even bears similarities to well-known fan art:

I’ve seen multiple people point out the similarity in these two Lady Stoneheart images, so it’s a well-known enough piece of fan art that a lot of readers are aware of it.

And here’s artist Ertaç Altunöz giving his two cents. Altunöz has contributed work to Westeros before, in The Rise of the Dragon book and elsewhere. So when he says these are “screaming SO Ai generated,” he knows of that which he speaks:

And here’s a last one to look upon and scratch your head:

The image on the left here shows Cersei and Jaime Lannister at Tywin’s funeral. And as @girlfailsansa points out, Tywin has hair…while in the books, he is bald at this point. Again, not completely damning; Game of Thrones also depicted Tywin with hair, after all. But put together, all these mistakes are obvious enough that either someone didn’t dig too deeply into the source material, or bother to double check these things once the artwork was done.

I’m also confused about why Cersei is wearing the same shade of blue in that image as everyone else is wearing in all the rest of them. As if our Lannister queen would be caught dead dressing in such an unbecoming color that has nothing to do with her house.

Did the A Feast for Crows anniversary edition really use AI artwork?

So we have a situation where the artwork for A Feast for Crows seems very strongly to be AI — and if it’s not, it’s such a massive dip in quality from the previous books that it’d upset fans regardless. Personally, I’m in the camp that thinks they’re AI images.

There are other questions, like who is responsible for this? Martin himself is part of an ongoing copyright infringement lawsuit against OpenAI, the company responsible for ChatGPT. It’s hard to imagine him signing off on a bunch of AI-generated artwork for his latest collector’s edition.

The description for this edition on Random House Worlds’ website says that it has “24 original color illustrations from artist Jeffrey R. McDonald.” Did McDonald use AI and not loop in the publisher? Honestly, I kind of doubt it.

If I had to point my suspicions anywhere, it would be at Penguin Random House itself. Early last year, Penguin Random House CEO Nihar Malaviya did a New York Times interview where he seemed bullish about the prospects of AI to potentially cut down on hiring more personnel. And perhaps this Feast for Crows Illustrated Edition is a byproduct of that mentality.

Since AI has gained ground, publishing is one of many industries which have been looking for ways to use it to cut corners. And yeah, I assume it’s cheaper to employ them than to pay an actual artist. But look at the results. These Illustrated Editions are supposed to be collector’s items; I don’t think this Feast for Crows artwork instills anywhere close to the sense of wonder you’d want in that sort of edition.

Until Martin, McDonald, or Random House Worlds sheds some light on the situation, we’ll have to keep speculating. But for now, I’d say enough damage has been done that this edition is already tarnished in the eyes of many of Martin’s most loyal readers.

You can head to a local bookstore and take a look at a copy yourself, and make up your own mind. A Feast for Crows: The Illustrated Edition is out now.