Swimming Parallel to the AI Riptide
Beware the Undertoad
I don’t know just how bad this AI bullship is gonna get before its bubble bursts, but right now, it’s pretty bad.
My day job is as a graphic designer, and I’m already losing work in that industry to cheap, ugly AI flyers, logo designs, etc. It sucks.
And we’ve already had SPAWN covers made by AI, and probably a good bit more that we don’t know about. Everyone who said it would never be able to replicate cartoonists’ line style is now being drowned out by a deluge of fake Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes strips on social media, farted out by the regurgitation engine that is AI.
So, what can WE do, as individual creators, to try to combat this? Not all that much, really, except focus on the one thing AI can’t truly replicate: Our own stories.
Bluntly, it’s only a matter of time before the execs at Marvel and DC decide that artists aren’t worth the trouble and start producing new Spider-Man or Batman stories with AI. Those have ALWAYS been content machines, and that sucks, but content machines have always chewed up the talent that has built them over and over. Why would NOW be any different?
But as cartoonists doing our OWN thing, we have a weird advantage: The stories we tell are unique to US. Our characters and concepts may draw inspiration from the past, but there isn’t a wealth of data in a backlog somewhere to recreate our own experiences.
Build a readership interested in YOUR unique perspective. Tell stories so quirky and unique that an AI trying to mimic you will (hopefull) pop a gasket like an evil computer in a logic contest with Captain Kirk. Be personal, and messy, and wild. Break some rules and become someone that people want to hear the VERY unique voice of.
Will it work? Who knows? Maybe, one day, some weirdo will crave a s#!++y AI “Finding Dee” comic to jack off to. But that’s not something I can control. All I can control is what I make. The stories I tell.
We might be doomed, but at least we can make awesome stuff along the way
Feral ideas on the loose!
It may sound as if all we can do is focus on our own stories, but that’s our strength. You’re right: we’ve always had cheapass content engines absolutely refusing to pay a fair rate or even anything at all. However, we can also flood them out, too.