Adding on some extra info from discussions that have been going on in light of this, since at the time I went to reblog, it hadn't been put up yet.
It's been determined that these guys are trawling through the GW2 tags specifically, including the racial tags (like #sylvari and #gw2 asura, etc.) for their AI generation data. From the sounds of it, we're talking screencaps and their edits as well as art.
This is a great time to share around the tools we have to combat them again.
Glaze is a defensive tool that helps to protect your work, specifically, from being scraped.
Nightshade is an offensive tool that helps to poison the datasets of these AI generators. It works best when used collectively by multiple artists.
Both of these tools are being developed by the University of Chicago, which recommends using both if you can (but at least using Glaze if Nightshade's effects are too visible on your stuff for your liking). They're also working on integrating the two tools so we can use them together.
Finally, there's this watermark tutorial as an alternative if you need it.
I want to extend proper credit to the people who provided these links again, and who have been informing us about what these clowns are doing, but I don't want to paint unnecessary targets on anyone's backs. Sorry.
Kick GW2 Warp to the curb and make sure you're protecting your stuff, guys. If you didn't think you had to worry about it before, it sure looks like we do now.
Don't let your perceived level of skill, your online presence, etc. make you think you're not a likely target, because other people thinking they didn't have already found their works being stolen for this crap.
Take care of yourselves about this.