How we do (and don't) use AI

February 15, 2025

Hi folks,

A quick summary:

We’re upfront about how and where we use AI in our company.
We see AI as a helper, not a replacement.
We don’t use AI to generate the ideas or create the content in our books.
We don't use AI to create the art for our books
We use AI for Chester, our (mostly) friendly Assistant DM / Mimic on obviousmimic.ai
We use AI to generate the audio you hear on obviousmimic.ai
We use AI for editing and proofreading via Google Docs, Grammarly, Gemini, Claude etc.
We use AI for creating marketing materials, social posts, and blogs, like this one
We respect privacy and copyright. We make sure our AI use aligns with ethical data practices.

If you’re curious about how things work behind the scenes, let’s dive into more detail. At Obvious Mimic, everything is still touched by human hands.

We're upfront about how and where we use AI

No fine print, no hedging. This page gets updated as our practices evolve.

AI is a helper, not a replacement

Our products do not contain content or assets solely created using generative AI tools.

We do use AI to take on the work that scales badly. Like cleanup, formatting, or the tenth version of a social post, and gives that time back to design and writing. That way, more of our week goes into making games, books, and stories.

The ideas and writing in our books are ours

Every adventure, mechanic, table, is created by a person. That's the craft we're actually in business to do, so we do it ourselves. AI is a helper not a creator.

The art in our books is made by human artists

We commission illustrators, credit them, and pay them. Their work is a big part of why our books feel the way they do. We do use AI to brief our artists, to save time and clarify our vision.

We use AI for editing and proofreading

Google Docs, Gemini, and Claude help us catch typos, tighten sentences, and flag what reads awkwardly. It's a sharp second pair of eyes, and a human makes the final call on every change.

We use AI for marketing materials, social posts, and blogs

We decide what to say; AI helps us get it drafted and out the door so we can get back to the games.

Chester runs on AI

Chester, our (mostly) friendly Assistant DM and resident mimic over at obviousmimic.ai is powered by a large language model. He's the clearest example of what we think AI is genuinely great at: an infinitely patient DM's assistant who'll sit with you at 2am while you plan a dungeon, and who never gets tired of your questions. He knows he's an AI, and he'll tell you so between bad jokes.

The audio on obviousmimic.ai is AI-generated

AI voices let us give every story a narration. The kind of audio production that used to be out of reach for a publisher our size.

We respect privacy and copyright

We keep unpublished manuscripts, artist files, and customer data out of AI tools. We don't ask AI to imitate a specific living artist's or writer's style. And we stay aligned with the rules of the platforms we publish and sell on.