From the San Juan County Journal: The San Juan County Fair Board selected the poster contest winner for the 2025 Fair in January and received immediate backlash to the Artifical Intelligence artwork. The poster features a goat in a spacesuit surrounded by fair imagery and the 2025 Fair Slogan: “Into the Future & True to Our Roots.”
“Wow, AI, really?” one social media commenter said. “Way to spit in the faces of the many hard-working artists of our island community.”
“So disappointing to see AI featured at an event that’s meant to showcase human talent, creativity, craftsmanship, and hard work,” another lamented. “Sad.”
This situation brought to the islands an issue that’s been brewing more widely over the last few years – the use of Artificial Intelligence and its place in a quickly-changing landscape. It also shined a spotlight on longer-standing issues, such as compensation for artists, criticism coming heaviest from those not participating, and where the line is drawn in small communities between volunteering and exploiting.
“The AI train has left the station,” Paul Huber, the artist who put together the winning poster, said. “That toothpaste is not going back in the tube. It’s a matter of embracing it as an appropriate tool when needed or when useful. That element is a great awakening here – this is going on in the real world and now all of the sudden it’s here in ours.”
https://www.sanjuanjournal.com/news/sjc-fair-receives-backlash-for-ai-poster-artist-withdraws-work/
