Animal Crossing fans rebel against AI slop infiltrating their aesthetic community

The Animal Crossing aesthetic community has a major AI slop problem

The mass return of players to Animal Crossing: New Horizons following Jan. 15's 3.0 update has brought a new influx of design sharing online -- and, with it, an epidemic of AI slop. Though many of the aesthetic designs being shared online are devoid of AI, a recent trend has emerged where players utilize AI programs like Gemini to change lighting effects and other visuals within screenshots, and the community at large is not pleased. Design has always been a core focus for many New Horizons fans. At the height of its popularity, the internet was filled with players sharing their home and island builds, often following aesthetic trends like cottagecore and citycore. Editing these screenshots to achieve things like warmer hues was a frequent occurrence, but never seen as a problem within the community, as it was still fan-made. One of the biggest features in the 3.0 updates is a new dockside hotel, where players can decorate rooms for guests. This, paired with a slew of new items, has led many players to return to aesthetic Animal Crossing edits. AI usage became noticeable recently, with X user Cozyberru sharing a post on Jan. 25 saying, "I think it's time we talk about the AI use in Animal Crossing aesthetic posts that are trending," alongside several examples illustrating the claim. In a reply, the user points out that numbers within images, such as on clocks or scales, are a telltale sign that a player has utilized AI in their photos. Replies and quotes of the post are almost unanimously negative: "GET THIS AI SHIT OFF MY TL NOW !!!" one user wrote; "It's crazy how much the games about creativity and expressing yourself attract the AI crowd," another user said. Though the ethical ramifications of utilizing AI are certainly one of the biggest issues players have with this troubling new trend, the community has criticized it for several reasons beyond that. Some bring up the fact that it's not difficult to make these aesthetic changes without the use of AI -- presets for programs like Lightroom can easily be found online, or players could simply tweak things like lighting themselves. Others feel it inherently diminishes the charm of the designs, as the cartoonish visuals of New Horizons are a hallmark of the game. The realism of the edits has even led some fans to say they thought the screenshots were of The Sims 4 at first, not New Horizons. Perhaps the biggest issue, though, aside from the gallons of water being wasted in the name of aesthetics, is that many creators are not disclosing their usage of AI in these edits, or trying to brush it off as simply following a trend. Several of the most popular posts from creators featuring realistic-style AI editing treat it just like any other image shared on the account, and conveniently have only responded to comments praising their work, but none of the inquiries about how the edits were made. If you're going to post AI slop, at least be honest about it.

Animal Crossing Fans Are Bombarding Each Other With AI Slop

Not even the Animal Crossing community is safe from AI ensloppification. With the Animal Crossing: New Horizons 3.0 update only a few weeks old, players have been hard at work sprucing up their islands and posting pictures of all their hard decorating work. But some have been using generative AI to "enhance" their photos or fabricate them altogether, and fans are getting pissed. Sharing stylistic edits of Animal Crossing screenshots online is a foundational pillar of the game's community. Photos are typically edited to enhance the game's lighting and shadows, or put through filters to achieve a certain vibe. Photos with the best vibes are rewarded with likes, upvotes, or whatever the clout currency is for a particular social media website. However, Polygon reports that on X and elsewhere, AC screenshots enhanced with AI have started trending, often without disclosure that genAI was used. "I think it's time we talk about the AI use in Animal Crossing aesthetic posts that are trending," wrote user Cozyberru on X. In a thread, they highlight how a number of recently trending AC screenshots were likely created with genAI, pointing out the usual suspects of funky-looking numbers and warped textures on background items. But their issue isn't so much with using the tool itself. "All I am asking is to be honest and disclose your use of AI or editing," they wrote. Animal Crossing has thousands of little knick-knacks, pieces of furniture, and more. Not sharing that an Animal Crossing photo has been enhanced with AI can lead to confusion in players who might want to get their hands on something they don't know has been wholly made up. In the thread, one commenter thanked Cozyberru for their service. "I've been sitting here thinking, 'is there a mod or hack or glitch going around that I don't know?' Because there's no way to place that item that close to the furniture as much as I want to." Cozyberru doesn't explicitly share their feelings about genAI, but others shared theirs in the thread's comments and elsewhere online. Though it's not called out specifically in the rules, it seems the Animal Crossing subreddit has a strict "No genAI policy." In a post regarding fanart, a moderator advised community members not to report anything that wasn't "blatantly NSFW or AI." In another post, a user reposted a video of their island after the original was taken down for using text-to-speech AI voiceover.