00:00It's funny you should say that, because I was looking through some old photos and it looks very, uh, similar.
00:07Chances are you've come across these kind of reels.
00:09In October 2025, Indian artist Abhay Sehgal was accused of plagiarism by multiple illustrators,
00:15one of the artworks being The Cotton Boy by Krishna Balashanoyan.
00:18When I first saw it, I felt slightly strange when I noticed an observable pattern
00:23of him claiming to have painted things that he didn't paint.
00:26And Krishna wasn't the only one.
00:28Multiple artists came forward on Instagram sharing side-by-side comparisons that appear to show blatant copying.
00:34Abhay Sehgal is just another guy who wanted to maybe become famous by using shortcuts.
00:42If Sehgal just said, this is a collage of different pieces that I found from all over the internet.
00:49It's mixed media. It's like remixing a song or doing an edit.
00:53But if he wants the extra credit of having painted it and then is engaging in deception, that is a problem for me.
01:04This led to a wider controversy about the ethical practices of the artist who operates under the brand Art by Sehgal.
01:10In March 2025, he gained attention when Ranmeet Kapoor praised his work and even commissioned pieces.
01:16Some also claim Sehgal's art shows signs of AI influence.
01:20I went through his profile and there were a lot of process videos.
01:24So I thought, okay, I zoomed in a lot of images and then I somehow felt, okay, this looks AI-generated.
01:31Meanwhile, Abhay on his Instagram posted that I am not an artist who can paint on blank canvases.
01:37I create digital collages before I start and I like to look at them as a paint.
01:41That's just my process.
01:42As for the stolen art pieces.
01:44I did talk to him. He blocked me.
01:46And deleted the painting.
01:48We reached out to Abhay for a comment.
01:50He initially showed interest but he had not replied for two days since we reached out.
01:54Interestingly, most artists aren't calling for punishment. They just want accountability.
01:58I want everyone to turn down the temperature.
02:02I want everyone who's dogpiling him to stop doing this.
02:07We don't want him to fall down and maybe apologize to the people whose work has been stolen.
02:12But if I was him, I would champion not all AI, but I would champion this process.
02:19I would just say, hey, I think I'm doing something meaningful here.
02:22I'm adding something to this.
02:24This whole controversy raises larger questions about the use of AI in art
02:28and how the lines between originality and imitation are getting blurrier by the day.
02:32It scares me that we can now see something that looks like a drawing or a painting.
02:36And we're not really looking at someone's specific point of view.
02:40Or something that someone put time and labor into.
02:43What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.
02:45No.
02:46No.
02:47I'm not sure if we're getting the worst comments.
02:48No.
02:49I'm not sure if we were getting the worst of these.
02:50I'm sure if we're getting the worst of those.
02:51I don't know how some of our other things.
02:52If we might be the worst of our problems...
02:53No.
02:54I don't know in the comments.
02:55No.
02:56I don't know what that feels like.
02:57No.
02:58I don't know how many of my thinking in the comments...
02:59Yes?
03:00No.
03:01I'm not sure.
03:02It's not.
03:03No.
03:04Yeah.
03:05No.
03:06No.
03:07No.
03:08But we're not.
03:09No.
03:10No.
03:11And no.
03:11No.
03:12No.
03:13No.
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