Danica Davidson
July 12, 2023 
The Asahi Shimbun, one of the largest news outlets in Japan, published an article titled “Without rules, AI-generated art paints a grim picture for artists” and spoke with people in the manga and anime worlds about their concerns with artificial intelligence making art.
The Arts Workers Japan asked 26,891 artists, authors, video game creators and photographers about their thoughts on AI, and discovered that 93.8 of those surveyed are worried. A big worry is that their rights will be infringed. There are some instances of people pretending to be established creators and faking the creators’s art style using AI.
Another issue is that people are sometimes training AI using people’s artwork without their permission.
Almost 60% in the survey worry AI will cost them future jobs and opportunities.
“Artists form their own painting styles over years,” mangaka Rokuro Shinofusa told the Asahi Shimbun. “If their copies prove popular and spread over a few months, people could consume and become tired of them in an instant. Creators would then lose their desire to create art.” He’s concerned skilled people will be fired and replaced with AI.
Yo Shimizu, whose credits include working with the Doraemon franchise, told the paper, “The relationship of trust between AI developers and users and creators is starting to collapse even as we are still at the dawn of generative AI. Unless human-first rules are put in place, enthusiasm to create new works will disappear. That would then result in an industry-wide stagnation.”
The Asahi Shimbun also spoke with a lawyer named Satoshi Ikemura. As a way to protect creators, he suggested, “Making it mandatory for AI-derived pieces of art to be labeled as such to be distinguished from humans’ creations would contribute to the protection of creators.”
In the meantime, artists and other creative people in Japan — and elsewhere — are waiting for legislation to protect them and their work.
Source: The Asahi Shimbun
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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