As the growth of AI increased last year, writers and illustrators of comic books and animations continue to be particularly concerned about its potential impact on them.
AI can never reproduce the quality of humans when it comes to storytelling, argues Shawnee Gibbs. "This is an incredibly unique medium (comics and animation) that gets its DNA from the collaboration of writers and artists. I can't imagine that kind of cooperation when you generate stories from AI," says Shawnee. However, her sister Shawnelle says, "AI will change the industry in ways we can't even understand at the moment." She wants to see laws emerge that protect human creators as AI technology evolves.
Rob Edwards is a writer of graphic novels. "A world of writers using AI is a world of unoriginal, recycled, impersonal ideas," he says. "Right now, there's a kid out there drawing the next weird but innovative comic book that could inspire millions. My concern is that AI will talk that kid out of it before anybody sees it. If you think the animated movies you watch are predictable now, just wait until computers are writing them."
One person who has created comic books whose images were all drawn by AI is artist Steve Coulson. He says that using AI to create individual images "can be a pretty simple exercise". However, he says that when you want to tell a story over multiple images, "it is a tougher nut to crack", as you have to "enable the system to produce consistent characters, settings, stylings and so on, in order to tell a whole story".
Despite the growing popularity of all these apps, Jonathan Kendrick says, "AI cannot create an image the way a human mind can. It's like having a bad writer help you—sure it will get an outline done, but if you need something with emotional weight, an AI isn't going to get you an Oscar. AI can never surprise us in the way we want our stories and art to be portrayed. Because of this, AI is simply a tool to be used by humans, not to replace them. Otherwise, we sacrifice the originality and creativity that consumers know and love."
