In response to the inclusion of the comics anthology Stardust the Super Wizard – a book which contained a one-page strip “created” with generative AI – the Comic Book Yeti site have launched a “No AI at the Eisners” petition to ensure that AI slop can never find its way into the prestigious shortlists again.
It will no doubt come as a great surprise to many that this was not already covered in the guidelines for the Eisners and, as CBY say, “we can’t continue to allow projects created using generative AI to be considered alongside those created by real people.” Disqualification of future AI projects is an absolute must in the circumstances.
Let’s also acknowledge here that the prevalence of AI now means that we are all at risk of accidentally promoting it at some point. Editors, fellow creators, publishers, comics commentary sites, judges… its ubiquitous presence threatens to catch all of us out at some point. So the more safeguards in place the better.
Broken Frontier has a longstanding zero tolerance policy towards generative AI “art”. So we are more than happy to support and endorse this petition from our friends at The Comic Book Yeti asking for the celebration of human endeavour to be protected at the Eisners and AI kept out of the nominations.
Once again: gen AI steals the work of actual artists without permission, attribution or compensation. It is an existential threat to the arts, an environmental disaster-in-the-making, and an oppressive, anti-creative tool. It has no place in our comics spaces. Let’s make sure this situation can never happen again.
For more on where BF stands on the issue check out my recent editorial piece here and our ‘Raging Against the Machine’ series here.
