The other day I watched an artificial intelligence-generated and rather realistic video of actors Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt in a fight. The 15-second clip was spun up from a two-line prompt in Seedance 2.0, an AI model from ByteDance (yes, the same folks who own TikTok). It racked up over 1.4 million views. SAG-AFTRA, the union for 170,000 actors and performers, immediately called it out as widespread copyright infringement. Paramount and Disney fired off cease-and-desist letters. The usual Hollywood drama, right?
But here’s the part that hits closer to home for us in the AB/DL and babyfur community: artificial intelligence is being used, exploited, and monetized off the backs of artists, performers, and human content creators every single day. And when it comes to the big AB/DL-owned and AB/DL-aware businesses like Northshore Care, ABUniverse, and Tykables, they are not an exception.
These companies are some of the most visible faces in our niche. They sell the very products we wear, the prints we get little over, the packaging we stare at while we’re in littlespace. Their marketing — product photos, ad banners, social media graphics, even some of the “cute” illustrations — has increasingly leaned on AI generators. You can spot the tells. Anyone can. It’s cheap, it’s fast, and it’s built on the scraped work of thousands of real artists who never consented to have their style or likeness fed into a machine.
Meanwhile, our community is full of incredibly talented creators who live this lifestyle. Babyfur artists who draw the softest, most heart-melting padded pups and kittens. AB/DL illustrators who can make a simple diaper check look like the coziest thing in the world. Digital painters, traditional artists, photographers who specialize in tasteful, authentic AB/DL imagery. Many of them are struggling to pay rent while these companies post AI slop to their thousands of followers.
And if hiring a dedicated artist feels like too big a step? There are entire stock libraries full of licensed, high-quality photos and illustrations. Sites that pay real photographers and designers. It’s not like the option doesn’t exist.
Instead, these companies choose the path that devalues the very community they profit from. Every AI-generated “cute babyfur” banner they post is a quiet “no thanks” to the artists who could have been commissioned. Every time they use a synthetic image instead of supporting a real creator, they’re telling the next generation of babyfur artists, “Your work isn’t worth paying for. We’ll just have a robot copy it.”
I’m not here to shame customers. I’m here to remind the companies: you built your brands on a niche that celebrates creativity, vulnerability, and play. You market to littles who grew up doodling in their notebooks, who saved up allowance for commissions, who still get butterflies when an artist they love draws them in their favorite print. Don’t turn around and undercut the very people who make this community beautiful.
To every artist reading this: keep creating. Your work matters. Your style is irreplaceable.
There are countless talented humans ready and willing to help you make something authentic. Reach out. Commission them. Pay them fairly. Show the community that you value the hands that built this space with you. Because at the end of the day, no amount of prompt engineering can replace the heart that goes into a piece drawn by someone who actually gets it.
And in all fairness, I get the allure of AI. I had used it myself periodically on Crinkle Cat Tales for placeholder images — quick mockups when I was brainstorming concepts, testing layouts, or just playing around with ideas before committing to something more permanent. It’s fast, it’s accessible, and in a pinch, it can look decent enough to fill a gap. But ultimately, I have a moral responsibility to the artists and the community at large to give them an opportunity at a collaboration that benefits them financially.
In my day job in marketing, I’m surrounded by it too. Corporate overlords push it hard: use AI to boost productivity, pull data insights from it, generate drafts, optimize copy — the whole nine yards. It’s sold as a tool to “enhance” what we do, and on paper, it makes sense for tight deadlines and budgets. But a lot of us in the marketing field are readily aware that much of the AI we rely on is mined from human ingenuity like programming code. We’re essentially stealing content from individuals we can hire to improve our operations.
But here’s the thing we can’t gloss over: let’s not confuse ease of use or speed of generation with actual quality — or more importantly, with connection. People instinctively know when corners have been cut. They can spot the shortcuts in lighting that doesn’t match, proportions that feel just a hair off, or that uncanny gloss that screams “synthetic.” More than that, humans connect deeply with something that’s hand-made, thoughtful, and personal. There’s a warmth in imperfection — a little wobble in a line, a unique color choice, the personality an artist pours into every stroke or pixel. That’s what builds trust and loyalty in a niche like ours, where vulnerability and authenticity are everything.
When that human touch is replaced with AI slop, the connection breaks. Trust erodes. Customers start wondering: “If they’re cutting corners here, what else are they skimping on?” It’s not just about pretty pictures; it’s about showing the community that you value the creativity and heart that define it.
Our space thrives because of real creators who understand the feelings behind a crinkle, the comfort of a thick diaper, the joy of a playful scene. They live it, they draw it from experience, and their work resonates on a level no algorithm can fake. Commissioning them isn’t charity. It’s about investing in the soul of the brand.
Let’s not lose sight of that soul. Please.