Yes, it's AI. A bit over 3 years ago we accepted community submissions and had a public vote. The submissions were all AI-generated.

We can certainly open up a search for new banner artwork. I propose we start with a discussion post in the Agora to collect submissions for a week or two, and then hold a vote, same as last time. I can make the discussion post later today.

Old banner discussion: https://sh.itjust.works/post/1022097

Old banner vote: https://sh.itjust.works/post/1432783
(Unfortunately, some of the image links are broken.)

It's 100% AI. You only have to look at the keyboard keys

They were clear it was AI from the start.

The guy held a competition for the image where the stable diffusion community was allowed to participate. Many AI images were put into the competition and this one won.

To be clear this was done publicly. You can still see it in the agora.

As you can see I'm not on sh.itjust.works anymore. Really wish the instance didn't allow AI that just spat in the face of the real artists that gave their contributions. Doubt anyone's gonna be wanting to contribute to it though as they've shown a love for AI

God that's a bad picture, the more you look, the worse it gets. Why is there steam coming out of everything.

I'm glad someone said something about it, because I don't like having to see it when I look at the main page. The uneven fingers disturb me. I'm sure we have a few artists on here that wouldn't mind their work getting main-page treatment. You could run a contest!

Yes

Yes

It's the only thing that (very mildly) bothers me about this otherwise great server. I would be willing to donate to a pool so we can commission an actual artist to make us something nice. A community run competition would be great too

On the one hand yes it's clearly AI, on the other hand I like the mug with a nipple on top and think any future image should incorporate it. It combines 2 of my favorite things, coffee and boobs.

I'd be interested in seeing another contest for this. Maybe the contest should be to pick who will design it, and then have the community chip in to pay them to create it. I would donate to see that done

A lot of AI images involving tech desks and workstations look "cluttered" like this, with no purpose or reason to the set props. Apologies to any artists that draw messy dystopian desks, but this style is super common with generated images in this theme

Yes, spacebar at the top of the keyboard is the first giveaway.

Yes. Without a doubt.

What's the context that led you to ask?

The lamp (?) on the right is spewing black threads 😬

If someone wants to make an image for free without AI and propose a replacement, then it's maybe worth voting. Replacing it for the sake of replacing AI is dumb. This is the perfect use for an AI image, it doesn't really matter what it is and there's no real budget to actually commission something.