A source at Wizards of the Coast has said that Shkipin’s use of AI art was not something that the team was aware of. Further, they state that no text in the book was AI generated. Wizards has said that they will update their guidelines to more explicitly prevent these sorts of incidents from happening in the future.
io9 has reached out to Ilya Shkipin for clarification and comment. Shkipin has further stated on social media today in light of his confirmation and the deletion of his prior posts that “the future of today[s] illustrations is being discussed.”
I’d bet my bottom dollar this is more to due with their inability to copyright AI generated art than it is any sort of moral philosophy