Yuriten Cancels 10th Anniversary Kickoff After Artists Criticize AI Use
A decade-old exhibition built on the labor of yuri creators lost its opening weekend because it could not confirm the images promoting it were not machine-made, which tells the organizers' own contractors where the line now sits.
Reporting from 1 source: Anime News Network.
Yuriten organizers canceled the "Yuriten 10th Anniversary Restart Campaign in Ikebukuro" kickoff, which was planned as a free event in front of the Hareza Ikebukuro complex in Tokyo on October 17 and 18, after yuri manga creators criticized the event's use of AI-generated imagery. Bloom Into You creator Nio Nakatani, Futaribeya creator Yukiko, and Hello, Melancholic! creator Yayoi Osawa objected. Lilium apologized, blamed an outside contractor, deleted the announcement post, and promised stricter vetting.
Lilium, the company behind Yuriten, said it had contracted another company to manage and promote the event and pointed to shortcomings in its own vetting process for allowing the image to be posted. It promised to review that process, keep its internal policy against generative AI, and enforce the policy on outside contractors.
The cancellation came after Nio Nakatani, Yukiko, and Yayoi Osawa all responded publicly, and after the organizers had already acknowledged AI use in the announcement visual, the event decorations, and some of their other promotions and services. The initial post is deleted.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.