It's AI. Have no background information you don't have I think I'm just good at spotting it.
Scales are intricate and seem correct yet the gears are irregular and often not gear shaped, assymetrical etc.
Some things look nonsensical and functionless. The circle around has has imperfections and the resolution of the image is too low.
Artists are all-too often terrible about drawing gears/mechanical things.
EDIT: That said, I agree it's likely AI --- the odd mis-matches of scale size, and the lack of interest in how the background elements interact are what I would view as signs of AI generation.
That said, I'd be curious about which tool was used to make the file, and what the prompt was --- I really wish that there was a way to embed that persistently in the underlying file so that it could then be revealed --- or, a regulation that all AI-generated images be uploaded to a central repository where, when image search reveals them, the specifics of their creation are made known.
> A real artist already putting this much effort into it, would never make this mistake
I'm not so sure that's true. See https://youtu.be/6JwEYamjXpA?t=321 Granted - most of the examples in Matt Parker's talk isn't exactly work of art, but I'm sure effort were put into them.
Edit: I agree the way the cogs don't work in the project's logo is of a different class, so maybe you have point.
Definitely AI. I have a weird visceral reaction to AI generated images and that triggered it.
(I put it down to distracting myself with an AI image generator while I was very, very unwell and now my brain equates the output of one with t'other).
It’s worth a visit to their landing page just to see it.
I don’t need the functionality, but wow.
Edit: I really hope the art wasn’t made by an “AI”… but if it was they just passed my Turing test.