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I was next to (one of) the AI slop booths at DragonCon and all I got was this lousy t-shirt. So, as you may or may not know, there was a booth selling AI slop images printed on acrylic panels at DragonCon. They were in booth a-10. I was in a-11. Here’s what happened from my perspective.

Thursday during load-in, the folks in charge of that space (a young woman, a young man, an older lady, and an older man) showed up and were clearly displeased with the layout of the area. As they set up their propanel walls, they began to have issues because their equipment was the wrong size.

The staff came and told them to rearrange it and they did, but not happily. As we were getting ready to leave they had started to put up product on the walls and the stuff they started with was, while not to my taste, clearly made by a person.

Messy paintings of pop culture characters with abstract brushstrokes and Grafitti style text. Not my thing, but that’s how art works: there’s something for every one. This is important later.

Friday, we get in and the younger woman, Oriana (who’s name was on the booth) and the older man are nowhere to be seen, but the young man and older woman who helped set up were there. But there was different stuff in the booth.

The paintings were still there, but now so were new images of various anime characters & comic characters, monopoly man and snoopy, all bloomy and blurry with weird details and various numbers of fingers. I immediately clocked it as AI, but was too busy Friday to get away from my table

to ask someone about it (thanks, DragonCon!), and too tired by show close to track someone down. I did ask the guy in charge of the booth “so, how many different artists do you represent? Because I see like 6 different styles here.”

He replied with “just her [the older lady’s] daughter & son.” Riiiight. Saturday, we came in & I tracked down a staffer and told them “hey the booth next to mine is selling AI. I know yall have a policy against that, so I thought you’d like to know. She wrote it down and said she’d tell the AA head.

Sunday came and I saw the AA folks around more, but the booth was still up. So I just assumed they were going to let them finish out the show and blacklist them. Not ideal, but also not the worst, given how many ways a confrontation during show hours could go sideways.

Then… Monday came. That morning, I got in at 9:45 & the AA folks (plus a few others and a cop) were already at the booth. The owners weren’t in yet. I got set up, the show opened and then the booth folks showed up, about 15-30 minutes late. At which point the AA staff descended upon them

like avenging angels. They took up positions, creating a wall across the entrance to the booth, telling attendees who stopped that they were being removed and were no longer available, and the scammers took down their displays and angrily packed their gear and left.

This is SO bizarre to me! So this woman, Oriana, does legit paintings, but she had two other people with AI slop be the booth!? WHY. Omg. I don't understand at all. ...And obviously I know you can't answer for her, it's just so mind bottling I'm sitting here going WHAT!