Will Artificial Intelligence Make Anime Artists Lose Money?
Anime artists have been stressing about:
And a lot of other things along the same lines.
With the amount of controversy, outrage, arguments, debates, and recently, Netflix making an anime with WIT Studios where A.I was used, it’s a growing concern for anime artists and artists in any field.
The same concern was brought up when Deviant Art (and other platforms) made changes in relation to AI, or a problem popped up that artists didn’t like for different reasons.
Let’s talk about it.
Especially about WHEN anime artists should worry if at all.
1. When AI does a better job than you do
For the average artist, especially artists who haven’t reached a certain level of talent and skill, this is a legitimate worry. Because even though it’s still early days, it’s clear AI has some level of skill.
It’s not at an amateur level, or at least it has some “talent” to it aside from being generic. If you can’t create art at the highest level or art that makes people wanna pay you over AI, you’re in trouble.
This won’t happen for a long time or even at all since it’s only artificial intelligence. It has no concept of:
These things matter when it comes to TRUE anime art, art in general, and artistic expression. The moment an artist can paint their feelings onto a
That’s art.
I don’t see AI getting better than that or as good as that, but in a world where the worst thing comes to light, that would be a genuine thing to worry about.
2. When people stop caring about human anime artists
Can you even imagine a scenario where people STOP giving a shit about real anime artists instead of artificial intelligence? A world where AI is more preferred over following, supporting, or paying for anime artists to create?
If you can see a world like that, then you have all the reasons to worry and stress. If not, and you take a step back and see things for how they are, there’s nothing to get your knickers in a twist about.
That might be the case in let’s say, 3000 years from now or some insanely far point into the future. But for now? I don’t see society becoming disinterested in anime artists like that.
Or artists in general.
We’d have to be more robotic ourselves for that to be the case.
3. When companies hire AI instead of artists
Since the 2000s companies and people who run them, along with businessmen and women have thought about replacing their employees in multiple ways.
The telecommunications industry started hiring people from India (in the UK at least), and other countries because it’s cheaper. That’s called outsourcing.
With supermarkets, it started with creating self-checkouts, a thing that’s also happening in banks as well, and I’ve seen with my own eyes how many employees have vanished because of it.
These days, companies and business people would LOVE to replace artists and instead pay AI if they could get away with it. They only care about the dough, not the artist. And AI can’t complain, bitch, moan, fight back, or sue them.
There are a lot of benefits to hiring AI instead of artists in theory, but until that becomes a reality there’s nothing anime artists need to stress about.
It would be worrisome if it were real though because artists would be out of business overnight. Especially the majority rather than the small thriving minority.
4. When anime shows depend on AI instead of artists
Imagine watching an anime series where there was no:
Or anything of the sort involved in creating, making, and directing an anime series. Imagine instead it was all done with AI with no human in sight as far as artistry,
In that scenario, it would be a disaster for artists in the field of anime.
It would also be a disaster for artists and designers in the fields of:
And anything else where artists play a big role in the overall product or the success of it.
It would go way beyond just threatening the work of freelance artists or artists who sell commissions online. It would be like a disease from within, spreading throughout all of your body’s organs, cells, tissues, and blood.
Eventually, it would implode on itself. And things will get bloody.
5. When anime artists rely too much on AI
There’s also the idea of anime artists depending on the use of AI too much. AI, like any other form of technology, is there to help us navigate, live, be more productive, get things done easier, and so on.
It makes our lives more convenient and a lot easier in ways we can’t deny.
Imagine if anime artists became too heavily reliant on artificial intelligence, to the point where their work is no longer theirs, but mostly just AI.
To put that into perspective it would be like singers using 100% autotune to sing, or 80%, with too little of their own singing voices attached to the
In the case of art though, that would be bad. Bad people will see that (companies) and take advantage of it.
That would be the catalyst (the starting point) for bringing AI and getting rid of artists altogether except in rare circumstances where “human” artists would be needed.
AI is there to help, but if you respect artistry as an artist (and a fan), you know that would dilute the content.
6. When fans start preferring AI art over the art made by humans
And to follow up on the last point with fans, at the end of the day it’s the fans, the consumers, who decide whether they like something or want that something to continue living and existing,
Consumers decided reading
People vote with their time, attention, money, or all 3.
If consumers leaned more towards AI anime art or art made by AI, then it would be the beginning of the end and artists would have every reason to worry.
But in reality, I don’t see that happening because AI art is nothing special, and that’s an observable fact in 2023. I can’t speak for many years or decades down the line though.
In the end, this is all speculation. Who knows what will happen, I just know as things stand today and in the “near” future, AI won’t be a problem the way people think it is.
Not with art anyway. And not with writing either.
But there are people out there working towards or wanting that to happen so they can make money off AI, and put their middle fingers up to artists in favour of AI.
Let’s see how it all plays out.
Recommended Next:
This content was originally published here.
