Two of the largest anime conventions in the U.S. have now completely banned AI-generated artwork from their artists’ alleys.

How do you feel about AI-generated art being banned from Anime NYC and Animé LA? 🤔

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We’re, again, talking about AI-generated artwork and copyright!

Apparently, two of the largest anime conventions in the U.S., Anime NYC and AniméLA, have completely banned AI-generated artwork from their artists’ alleys.

Anime NYC hasn’t made a formal announcement yet, but AniméLA’s statement reads:

“Based on the current nature of its implementation and lack of regard toward artists, we cannot in good faith let this kind of product exist in our space. We at AniméLA do not condone or accept any form of AI-generated art piece being used in our promotional materials, nor being sold in our exhibit hall or artists’ alley.”

They even go so far to say that they’ll consider this a form of counterfeit and it will be required to be removed from the event.

FINALLY, a successful case of ancient items being returned home! A few weeks ago, 6 ancient artifacts were returned to Turkey from the United States! 🥳

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I finally have a repatriation story with a currently pleasant ending!

On October 22, 2022, six ancient artifacts that had been stolen from Turkey were returned from the United States!

It’s unclear when these items were actually stolen from Turkey, but the 6 items included:

• A human-sized bronze statue of Roman emperor Lucius Verrus from the 1st or 2nd century CE,
• sarcophagus fragments from the ancient city of Perge in Anatolia,
• Attis and Apollo figurines from the early Roman and Hellenic periods,
• a Kasura-type idol from the early Bronze period,
• and a terracotta slab from the Phrygian period.

While these items were returned as part of this joint effort, this initiative was actually started one lone woman. And this one lone woman was actually Turkey’s first female archaeologist, the late professor Jale Inan.

These ancient statues were found underwater…but they were actually supposed to be there?! 😱

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We’re talking about 2 dozen bronze statues that were found underwater in Tuscany.

These statues were found in the town called San Casciano di Bagni, which makes sense because these were found in the ruins of an ancient bathhouse.

Archaeologists have been excavating in this area since 2019. They’ve also found a bunch of other things, including coins and other smaller statues.

So, the statues that we’re talking about now, though, most of them depict ancient Greco-Roman gods and goddesses. It’s believed that these used to adorn a sanctuary before their ritual immersion in thermal waters.

So, these statues were supposed to be underwater!

I also can’t help but be curious what this water tastes or smells like….