Michaels stores respond after customer catches company selling AI Halloween art – but customers are ‘so disappointed’ – The US Sun

MICHAELS is under fire after a shopper discovered that the chain was selling what appeared to be AI-generated artwork in its Halloween collection.

The controversy erupted when Jack Valentine, known on social media as @flippedthrift, shared his discovery of the artwork on TikTok.

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“I saw online this morning that Michaels may be using AI art for their Halloween collection,” Valentine said, documenting his visit to the store.

“When I came in, everything from Halloween was actually there, but there was one particular piece I was looking for.”

Valentine's attention was drawn to a wall decoration depicting a ghostly bride in flowing white robes surrounded by several white wolves.

He pointed out several flaws in the artwork, such as blurry trees in the background and a strange detail of wolves with three front legs.

The most noticeable problem, however, was the presence of obvious watermarks.

“Clearly and distinctly you can see a robot logo and a Freepik logo at the very bottom,” noted Valentine.

Freepik is an AI-powered photo and art creation website.

“It's so disappointing. And it's so obvious,” Valentine said.

“As a store that specializes in selling art supplies and counts artists among its customers, you should support real artists, Michaels.”

In the video caption, he expressed his frustration even further, writing: “SUPER disappointed with Michael's this year…”

Valentine's discovery sparked mixed reactions among TikTok viewers.

Many were shocked and dismayed by Michael's use of AI art.

“MICHAELS NO MICHAELS WHY,” one person wrote.

“Not the logo,” said another.

And this incident doesn’t just affect Michaels.

Walmart previously faced similar backlash for allegedly selling AI-generated artwork.

This sparked a broad debate about the ethical aspects of making profits from AI art, especially by multi-billion dollar corporations.

Some argue that creating good AI art requires skill and vision, while others believe that the use of AI in art should be ethically critical.

One Redditor defended AI art, saying, “Creating AI art still requires practice, vision, skill, and experience.”

“As for stealing art from other artists, I could go to Fiverr or Deviant Art and commission a One Piece, Dragon Ball, or Fakemon OC or design,” they said.

“Artists are constantly copying and using other styles,” they said in their defense.

Another user added that he does not think it is unethical in principle.

“It’s a software tool,” they said.

“Are there unethical uses? Sure. That applies to almost everything, including traditional art.”

Others felt that the shift to AI-generated artwork was inevitable.

“I KNEW they would start doing this,” wrote one user.

If AI art is going anywhere, it's going to be the artwork sold at Ross, Michaels, HomeGoods, and TJ Maxx,” one user commented.

Another asked why Michaels didn't just collaborate with real artists.

“As a store that specializes in selling art supplies and counts artists among its customers, you should support real artists, Michaels.”

Jack Valentine, @flippedthrift

“You could easily hire a few artists each year to come up with different Halloween things.”

Valentine agreed, saying, “There are literally so many artists who crave work that doesn't even demand a huge salary.”

In response to the controversy, Michaels apologized in a statement and said there was a mistake in the sale of the artwork.

“This artwork was purchased from a dealer who licensed the original material from an artist,” Michaels said in a statement.

“Without our knowledge, the vendor added an AI-generated layer to the image,” the chain explained.

“This is an unacceptable error that we are correcting by removing the product from our website and stores and offering a refund to all customers who purchased it.”

“Michaels will always support artists and take steps to prevent this from happening again in the future.”