Banning AI Art

Hello everyone got some new rules coming down again!

AI Art is now banned! Any uploads found to contain AI art will be deleted. Users who continue to upload AI art to the site will be banned.

TLDR: We're banning AI art starting June 28th. Fighting back against enshittification as best as we can.

Somehow, it's been over two years since we first updated the rules around AI art and added a filter to show or hide it. I'll admit, I have no idea where the time went. It feels like I made those changes months ago, not years! Despite the time that past, my feelings towards it have not improved. Therefore, after having a chat with our staff here, we've decided to finally outright ban AI art on the site.

I'd like wallhaven to become a place online that still channels the "old internet." Where content is human made and not the site can just exist for the people who care for it and the content it provides. Enshittification is running right through so many online spaces these days and a large part of that is making everything "AI powered" or whatever the current buzz words are. I'd like the space we've made here avoid that as much as we can. This is also why despite running the site for over 11 years now, I've never once even thought about placing ads on the site or making you guys the "product" like so many other free-to-use sites or platforms. As long as I'm running this place, you'll never see ads or a change to our ToS which lets us sell your data.

So, for the ban, we'll be doing this in a few waves. On June 28th all wallpapers tagged as AI will be hidden in all listings (except subscriptions, yet again) and the option to show them will be removed. The rules will be updated at this time to ban AI art in new uploads. Direct links and collections will still work until at least a week or so later. After that, all AI content will be removed. Use this time to save whatever you think is worth saving. Uploaders who continue to upload AI content will be banned, just like any other rule breaking uploads.

For those seeking to continue sharing AI art, wallhaven isn't the place for you anymore. Sorry.

I'm also looking for ideas to make the site more attractive to artists in general. If you're a real, human artist, please let us know in the replies here what we could do to make the attractive to share your content. No promises on anything huge, but we'll do what we can!

As always everyone, thanks for sticking around!

what about wallpapers that aren't made by AI but tagged as AI?

can't just delete those since some users tag wallpaper that look like AI even though they are human made art.

I admire your dedication to resisting Enshittification, AksumKA!

The decision to ban AI Art is audacious, and I’m thrilled you’re keeping Wallhaven aligned with its human-crafted origins. I concur that moving away from AI art is an excellent measure to preserve quality and revive that nostalgic 'old internet' feeling.

Although I'm not an artist, I have a suggestion that might help attract more human creators: consider implementing Steam-inspired features such as a distinguished badge for top creators (similar to ‘Community Favourite’), a weekly curated section on the homepage showcasing human-made wallpapers, and allowing comments on uploads for immediate feedback.

Ultimately, the choice is yours, but these ideas could certainly entice more artists.

Thank you and have a good day!

EDIT:

Another Idea is to implement the Live wallpaper or GIF wallpaper because that would be cool to have on Wallhaven. That all.

BASED,

I'm curious what method will be used to "distinguish" between AI crap and human crap, is it only tags, and if someone uploads something that is AI generated without tagging it properly (I guess here you rely on user feedback/reports no?)

Edit: I had an idea about having some sort of competition for like a month or so where each month the winner will have his wallpaper displayed on the landing page or something, what do you think?

what we could do to make the attractive to share your content

having a slideshow function in collections/uploads where wallpapers go full screen and change each 3.5~5 seconds would be a great way to present someone's work without having to leave the site.

Your site, your rules, but I love AI wallpapers, over the past year, about 80 percent of my wallpapers have been generated. And thanks to the excellent functionality of this site, it's easy to find them here in good quality and in one place, not like on other sites, no need to run around a bunch of accounts on artstation (hypothetical).

Maybe create a separate subdomain like aislop.wallhaven.cc and move everything there, and all those who break the rules here, ban.

I also have a question, I upscaling my uploads, do they also fall under AI and will they be banned from uploading? I have uploaded such upscaled screenshots from anime but I only marked them as upscaled and not as AI art.

Firstly I respect the decision. I am just a humble user of this site. I don't know my opinion is relevant or not, and i really don't want to complain, but I feel some disturbance in the Force. From 1.2M pics what the site shows, there are only 30k tagged as AI, and i think some of it has real values. At least, not in a less rate than in the non-AI content. It seems to me this is an absolutely minor problem, rather it's not a problem at all, or at least the site is handling it already perfectly. So why it must be banned? AI is just another brush in creators hand, if a picture isnt good, that is always the problem of the creator, not the tool. If you really want lure artists to come here, i think it would be better to deal with the fact, at least 50% of the site content is brainless soft porn, basically most of them are the same picture but with another woman. I use this site to inspire myself. When i browse the precious Random to collect ideas, i see much more nearly identical pornographic content than valuable art. well, it isn't a problem to me, we can hide NSFW content too (well, i will not, i am a man of culture as well :D), but if i dont want to see, i can hide AI too, I don't really understand why it is better if you're simply denying already filterable content, and not let the user decide if they want to see it or not, like how it is works nowadays absolute perfectly. So I feel this decision causeless. Well, it isnt much of a loss, and I can't see what you can see operating the site, so as i said, i don't want to complain, i just really don't understand, why is it necessary. I rather miss a rating system to let the audience to judge and evaluate the content, so that would be my idea instead of this simple censorship. Pls don't ban me, i just want to help to make the site better, well, even if it's perfect already.

As someone that has been here since this site's creation, this is a bold and positive decision.

You have all my support and I strongly agree with your decision!

great news!

Great news, less AI much appreciated.

happy to read that!

I'm a bit disappointed as I always thought of this as a wallpaper site, not an art-site, but this is AksumkA s site. and he should do what he feels is right. I fully respect this decision. AI generated images aren't everyones cup of tea.

I'm grateful for being a part of this amazing site and community, the 7,732,723 views and 745 subscribers who appreciated my uploads.

Nice

Big support for this. Very very good. Well done!! Down with enshitification!

Excellent. Well done.

Good, ai art is annoying asf.

I would like to make an proposition. I dont know if someone else already mentioned it but, sliding between images like on PInterest would be great, instead of leaving the image and clicking on another, it just takes too much time!

Thank you

Although many AI-generated artworks may lack quality, some pieces truly meet the standards to be featured here. I fully understand and respect the admin’s perspective, but I hope that in the future as AI as a tool becomes more widely accepted, this decision might be reconsidered.

Some AI generated wallpapers I like: https://wallhaven.cc/w/qzmlj5 https://wallhaven.cc/w/x6ewo3 https://wallhaven.cc/w/p9o51m https://wallhaven.cc/w/kx8gmm https://wallhaven.cc/w/vqm813

THANK YOU!!!

As AI starts to take over much of the internet, it's reassuring, that some places would stand up and fight against it, and assure a small island of cleanliness in the pile of thrash internet has gotten lately.

Thanks again!

Good call.

Thank you!!

Can't agree more. It's truly appreciative to see still keeping old internet spirit.

Thank you!

Based. With you.

Great news! Thank you!

Regarding artist interaction: IMO, it needs more artist visibility to be viable, e.g. something like top monthly/weekly artists/arts.

PS: Please, please, fix blacklist settings interaction with subscription >_<