Before now, Games Workshop’s only flirtation with AI was a controversial Golden Demon winner who used generative AI to create a backdrop for his piece before labelling his critics “virgins” for the crime of wanting hand-painted things in a painting competition. Golden Demon changed its rules to ban the use of generative AI from that point on, but the company’s internal stance on the technology has remained unknown – until now.
Games Workshop CEO Kevin Rountree explained the company’s viewpoint in its first financial earnings call of 2026. “We do have a few senior managers that are [experts on AI]: none are that excited about it yet,” he tells investors. “We have agreed an internal policy to guide us all, which is currently very cautious. We do not allow AI generated content or AI to be used in our design processes or its unauthorised use outside of GW including in any of our competitions.”
It’s notable that Rountree specifies competitions, despite the fact that the Golden Demon rules have already been changed to ban AI. I guess you can’t ask ChatGPT to generate your list for the Las Vegas Open anymore, not that this would have given you any higher chance of winning. Rountree also doesn’t completely rule out utilising AI in the future – he is the CEO of a FTSE 500 company on a call to investors, after all – but stands behind the creatives at Games Workshop.
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“We are allowing those few senior managers to continue to be inquisitive about the technology,” he continues. “We have also agreed we will be maintaining a strong commitment to protect our intellectual property and respect our human creators. In the period reported, we continued to invest in our Warhammer Studio – hiring more creatives in multiple disciplines from concepting and art to writing and sculpting. Talented and passionate individuals that make Warhammer the rich, evocative IP that our hobbyists and we all love.”
This all sounds great. While it’s fun to take a steaming dump on multinational corporations, it’s also important to applaud them for making the right decisions. Games Workshop has clearly read the history of Warhammer 40k and doesn’t want to risk the abominable intelligence of the Men of Iron seizing power within the company.
Or, I don’t know, it doesn’t want to risk its IP being diluted, cannibalised, or both by planet-destroying plagiarism machines. Banning AI is undoubtedly good. But if Games Workshop truly wants to respect its human creators, it’s still got a long way to go.
Who Are The Artists Behind Warhammer?
Games Workshop has a big problem with crediting its creatives. What started as a reactionary ‘OnlyHands’ policy as a result of multiple members of its video team leaving to start their own YouTube channels has evolved into a far more widespread issue.
Just last year, the Warhammer Community blog posted an article titled ‘Warhammer art through the years: Space Marines’. It featured 17 iconic images of the Adeptus Astartes by, and I quote, “incredible artists.” Which incredible artists, Kevin? What are their names? Who are the creatives you purport to respect so strongly? There was an article like this, sans credit, for every faction in 40k.
Of course, the person who wrote the blog post wasn’t credited either. Nobody at Games Workshop was credited in Owlcat Games’ hit RPG Rogue Trader, despite the fact that the developer has been open about its collaboration with the IP owner. People who make art or write rules and lore for Codices aren’t credited other than in a brief contents page. Whose art is whose within that tome? Impossible to say.
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It’s annoying on a basic ethical level – your artists are creating value for your company, so you should give them their dues – but Games Workshop is a company built on the shoulders of artists. Where would Warhammer be without the work of John Blanche, Karl Kopinski, Adrian Smith, and hundreds of others? Countless artists have graced the pages of books or magazines over Games Workshop’s 50-year history, and dozens deserve places in its proverbial Hall of Fame.
On The Shoulders Of Titans
I’m not unique in the fact that I’m personally inspired by the work of John Blanche. From his incredible cover art to the grimly imaginative Blanchitsu column in White Dwarf, if I’m ever lacking inspiration for my Dark Mechanicus, I look back to his work. But who will be the next John Blanche? It’s impossible to say because, even if there was a grimdark painter creating iconic artworks for the next generation, Games Workshop wouldn’t tell us their name for fear of them advancing their career outside of the company.
If I wanted to see more from whoever illustrated the cover of the latest Ad Mech Codex, for example, I wouldn’t know where to start. Google AI says it’s by Karl Kopinski, which I’m certain is wrong thanks to what I know about both the algorithm and Kopinski’s style. Further research suggests it’s the work of Lewis Jones, but I shouldn’t have to channel my inner Eisenhorn to go down an internet rabbit hole just to figure out who created a piece of art I find particularly evocative and inspiring that is being presented to me by a major corporation with the means to tell me directly.
The real kicker is that Warhammer is a game for artists. Yes, everyone who paints a little toy soldier is an artist. Every time you slap on a thick layer of Nuln Oil, you’re creating art. We as Warhammer fans – and artists in our own right – want to know who is illustrating our Codices, who is writing our lore, who is sculpting our miniatures, who is really creating the game that we love. Warhammer 40k isn’t made by a faceless corporate entity, it’s the combined efforts of dozens, if not hundreds, of creatives iterating on the work of those who have come before.
This may seem like a hell of a tangent from Games Workshop saying that it won’t use AI – an objectively good policy when thousands of other creative companies are embracing the Torment Nexus. But I take umbrage with the hypocritical sentiment that the company wants to “respect [its] human creators.” If it truly did, it would shout their names from the rooftops of the tallest spire in every Hive City and let them take the plaudits they deserve for creating the cultural behemoth that Warhammer is today.
