For this month’s ‘Andytorial’ I am opting not to give you our normal behind-the-scenes look at the goings-on at Broken Frontier over the last few weeks. Instead I want to elaborate on our policy in regards to AI “art”. Something which is affecting our community in profound and ever more damaging ways.
A few months ago we ran a series here at BF called ‘Raging Against the Machine’ where we invited creators and commentators to share their thoughts on why AI has become such a threat to comics and creativity. It made for thought-provoking reading though, for a couple of reasons, it admittedly did kind of fizzle out. Firstly, because although we have never had so many expressions of interest for one of these group contributor series before we have also never had so few people follow through on that (this is obviously entirely understandable given already busy schedules!). And, secondly, it was totally down to me not thinking through the second talking point (about how creators had been personally affected) sufficiently well and ending up with a lot of material we just couldn’t publish without independent verification. We live and learn.
Of late we have faced public criticism from a tiny minority for operating a zero tolerance policy at BF towards AI “art”, those using it in their comics practice, and those acting as apologists for it. This has, bizarrely, included the claim that we cannot say we are a site looking to foster an inclusive ethos because we are excluding pro-AI viewpoints. Apart from how grossly inappropriate it is to assign marginalised status to AI bros this is exactly the type of facile argument that, intriguingly, Comicsgate used to throw at us all the time back in the day for refusing to acknowledge their comics.
Let’s be very clear. There are no shades of grey here. Generative AI “art” is deeply unethical on multiple levels. That’s not an outlying position. That’s the viewpoint of 99%+ of the indie comics community. So, in one upfront editorial-style piece and for clarity of comprehension, what follows are the reasons why we can no longer give you coverage at BF if you engage with it. I do not believe this is an unreasonable position in the circumstances.
Art from KitsuneArt’s AI-critical comic Through the Looking Glass. Buy it here
AI “art” is theft
Synthetic comics is just a pretentious way of saying “I stole this”.
That’s a sentiment I have expressed already on social media but it’s indicative of the lazy way in which there has been a move to reframe and legitimise generative AI “art” as some form of epistemological exercise in aesthetics. We all know the realities here. It’s trained on other people’s work without permission, attribution or compensation. There’s a reason why the term “theft-tech” is becoming more prevalent.
From our own perspective it is soul-destroying to see Broken Frontier reviews being regurgitated word for word in Google AI top-of-the-page search summaries, lessening the likelihood that people will actually click on the proper BF link further down the page and visit the site where that thoughtful commentary was originally published. It is not difficult to see what a spiralling downturn for original writing this will eventually lead to.
Art from Alexandra Gallant-Lee’s AI-critical comic Brains. Buy online here
AI “art” is slop
Again, not a particularly perceptive observation but one that remains fundamentally accurate. We know all the adjectives by now – it’s soulless, it’s ugly, it’s aesthetically worthless. And it’s also everywhere. Try looking for visual references and you’re confronted with an overwhelming deluge of this muddled, hideous, mutated, multi-fingered nonsense. We can, of course, begin any number of philosophical conversations about what constitutes art but in this case a simple “not this” will suffice. Art is about what the artist pours into their creative expression from their own experiences, imagination, emotions, worldview and motivation. It isn’t about punching prompts into a generator and stealing someone else’s practice.
If you produce AI “art” you devalue true creativity and you need to ask yourself: Have I forfeited the right to call myself an artist?
Art from Tom Humberstone’s AI-critical comic I’m a Luddite (And So Can You!). Buy online here
AI “art” has devastating environmental consequences
Just as concerning as the questions of plagiarism and aesthetics is the environmental impact of generative AI. Rather than summarise that yet again here how about, instead, a few online search terms that you can cut and paste for further investigation. I’ll even add in the Boolean operators for ease of use:
“generative AI” AND water consumption
“generative AI” AND carbon emissions
“data centres” AND “AI” AND “Black communities”
“environmental racism” AND “AI”
AI AND ” future environmental impact”
Chilling isn’t it? As comics commentator and historian Adam Karenina Sherif put it in one of those aforementioned ‘Raging Against the Machine’ features “Generative AI is fundamentally colonial and patriarchal.” A soundbite we would all do well to remember.
Stickers from the Pagans Against AI zine
AI “art” is anti-worker
Another memorable pull quote from those ‘Raging Against the Machine’ articles came from cartoonist Véronique Emma Houxbois who, in a full and damning indictment of generative AI, said “so-called artificial intelligence has been crafted in service to power.” This was more in reference to political ideology but it applies to the eradication of the worker in the creative equation just as well. AI “art” takes jobs from actual workers, cutting out their role and employment opportunities. It’s not democratic. It’s oppressive. This is late stage capitalism eating itself alive with an appetite of Ouroboros-like ferocity. And comics, like all the arts, is an inevitable side dish on the menu.
Art by Salgood Sam
Generative AI centres privilege
Not that long ago someone trying to persuade me of the benefits of generative AI sent me a screenshot of some paragraphs from ChatGPT (please don’t do this, folks) on the grounds that it was extremely complimentary about how important both myself and Broken Frontier are in the UK comics community. And, indeed, it was. Absolutely full of praise for our influence and outreach work. The problem here, though? I could immediately see that 90% of it was stuff I had written about our work myself that had been recycled and repurposed as objective fact. That would be me, a middle-aged, cishet, white guy positioned somewhere near the very centre of the Venn Diagram of privilege. In actuality, what it regurgitated was not inaccurate but it is not hard to understand the point I am making here. It goes without saying that generative AI will always reflect the landscape of a fundamentally unjust society.
In conclusion
Just a tiny handful of reasons why we will maintain the same position on generative AI going forwards at BF. I get no pleasure typing up pieces like this. Just as I get no pleasure from the anxiety-inducing experience of people I have known for years in comics ignoring me or being actively belligerent to me at events because they have an opposite view on AI “art”. Believe me, my life would be far less stressful if I just decided to look the other way. But to sit back and be indifferent to the existential threat of generative AI is a level of privilege I just cannot, and frankly will not, subscribe to.
We couldn’t call ourselves a community hub if we did.
And we wouldn’t be Broken Frontier.
Andy
Read our Generative AI and AI “Art” reading list here at BF
Top illustration of Andy by human artist Francesca Cassavetti
