'It Does Real Harm to Artists of All Kinds' — Balatro Dev Localthunk Steps In to Resolve AI Art Reddit Fiasco

Localthunk, the developer behind breakout roguelike poker game Balatro, has stepped in to resolve a bit of a scrum in the Balatro subreddit over a mod's statements on AI art.

It's a bit of a wild story, so bear with me here, and thanks to Garbage Day and Rock Paper Shotgun for spotting all this. Essentially, it starts with DrTankHead, a now-former moderator of the Balatro subreddit and also current mod of a NSFW Balatro subreddit.

The moderator had expressed no issue with AI art content, both on the NSFW and main Balatro subreddits. "We will not be banning AI art here, if it is properly claimed and tagged as such," the mod said in a post. "This has been done after discussion with the staff at Playstack."

Localthunk posted a short reply on Bluesky, saying this is not how they, nor their publisher at Playstack, felt about AI generated imagery. Then, the developer went to the subreddit to make a full statement.

"Neither Playstack nor I condone AI 'art'. I don't use it in my game, I think it does real harm to artists of all kinds. The actions of this mod do not reflect how Playstack feels or how I feel on the topic. We have removed this moderator from the moderation team," Localthunk said.

"We will not be allowing AI generated images on this subreddit from now on. We will make sure our rules and FAQ reflect this soon."

In a follow-up, Playstack's communications director noted that the rules around this "should have been clearer," as a rule calling for "no unlabeled AI content" could have been interpreted as allowing or supporting the content on the subreddit. The remaining mod team is planning on clarifying this language for the future.

As for the original mod, DrTankHead posted in the aforementioned NSFW Balatro subreddit, confirming they've been removed as a mod of r/Balatro. They went on to say that it is "not their goal" to make the NSFW Balatro subreddit AI-centric, but they are considering a "day of the week" situation where "non-NSFW art that is made with AI can be posted."

In response, one user replied: "Please just get off Reddit for a week or two."

Generative AI is one of the hottest topics within the video game and entertainment industries, which have both suffered massive layoffs in recent years. It has thus far has drawn criticism from players and creators due to a mix of ethical issues, rights issues, and AI’s struggles to produce content audiences actually enjoy. For instance, Keywords Studios attempted to create an experimental game internally using entirely AI. The game failed, with Keywords citing to investors that AI was “unable to replace talent.”

That hasn't stopped tech companies going all in on AI, though. EA said in September that AI was "the very core" of its business, and more recently Capcom said it was experimenting with generative AI to create the "hundreds of thousands" of ideas needed for in-game environments. Activision recently admitted using generative AI for some Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 assets amid a backlash to an "AI slop" zombie Santa loading screen.

Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.