In June, Capcom announced a second fan-art contest for Street Fighter 6, where artists could submit entries for a chance to have their art inserted into the game for use in the “Here Comes A New Challenger” screen. A winner was chosen for each of the 26 current roster members, but the winning entry for newcomer Kimberly has stirred up some controversy–namely, allegations that the artwork broke the contest’s strict “no AI-generated images” policy.
Via My cityan X user named “hoodratt20xx” put together a comprehensive Google Doc of what they think are telltale signs of AI use in the winning Kimberly entry as well as entries for other characters. Another X user, Galena_Bismon, shared a similar analysis via a post on their feed.
“I have reason to believe that one of the winning entries for New Challengers 2 is partially or fully made with AI,” hoodratt20xx wrote in the document. “I don’t make these accusations lightly and honestly would love to be proven wrong. I have gathered a list of evidence that I believe will shed some light on the matter and hopefully with this information you will take action in regards to this.”
The artist in question, another X user by the name of “lilithascends,” deleted all of their social media accounts as speculation about the artwork has come to light. Capcom, for its part, has not made a statement about the allegations as of this writing.
This is not the first instance of a video-game-related art contest being affected by allegations of AI use. Last June, The Pokemon Company was forced to disqualify multiple entries in a Pokemon Trading Card Game art contest for being “in violation of the rules,” and new winners were eventually chosen to replace the offending entries.
