Human Artists Falsely Accused of Using AI at the Point of Sale

Summary

Working artists who sell online and at in-person vendor events are being confidently and publicly accused of selling AI-generated work—sometimes yelled at in their own booths while actively drawing on an iPad. Any polished, digital, or commercial style is now treated as probable AI, and long-standing customers demand that artists 'prove' authorship with sketches, layers, or process photos, moving the goalposts every time. There is no accepted, lightweight way for a human artist to establish provenance or authenticity of a piece, and no recourse when a false accusation damages reputation and sales. This is a new, unsolved, and rapidly worsening form of IP/reputation attack that penalizes exactly the artists it should protect, causing financial loss, humiliation, and erosion of trust at the moment of sale.