Illustrator Trains AI to Replicate His Entire Style
Source: before AI by Jonathan Nyst
Ian Xiaohei has trained an AI model on his distinctive visual language, converting his personal brand into a tool that generates on-demand illustrations matching his exact aesthetic. Rather than competing with AI or hiding from it, he's using the technology to multiply output while the Xiaohei brand—the deadpan character, the visual voice—remains the scarce asset that commands attention. For illustrators and visual creators, the lesson is that owning your style systematically enough to encode it gives you optionality that generalist AI cannot easily replicate.