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AI as Cartoonist’s Assistant

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D. D. Degg Updated: June 2, 2025 at 3:28 pm EDT 1 minute 2 comments

As print continues its decline, a new challenge has emerged for this workforce: the rise of AI image generators. The first major text-to-image models were released back in 2022 and quickly ignited debates about copyright infringement and labor displacement among illustration communities.

In recent weeks, this debate reemerged after ChatGPT rolled out a new image generation feature on March 25. In part, the update allowed users to easily generate images of public figures for the first time, which OpenAI said would more freely permit the use of ChatGPT for “satire and political commentary.”

Cartoon stylings are now in the hands of every ChatGPT user. Though, arguably, a caricature of a president without the wit and biting commentary of a cartoonist isn’t a political cartoon at all. Rather than ask if AI can be used to mimic cartoons, I was curious if any actual working cartoonists see value in these technologies. And if they do, how exactly they are using them.

Andrew Deck at NiemanLab talks to cartoonists Joe Dworetzky and Mark Fiore about how they are using Artificial Intelligence as an assistant in their craft.

In early 2024, he discovered an image generator called Leonardo AI. Leonardo allowed artists to upload 40 samples of their own work to try to mimic their distinctive style. Dworetzky uploaded a series of celebrity author portraits he’d illustrated for a book project. To his surprise, he saw his own style reflected in Leonardo’s output. “The technical skill felt like it was at the level of mine,” he said.

“Researchers say misinformation is analogous to a virus,” said Fiore, gesturing to a body of scholarship that suggests there are ways to inoculate people to misinformation, or to “pre-bunk” certain lies. “It’s easier to stop the fewer people that see it. So you need a much quicker response.”

Normally, Fiore’s basic animations take two to three days to produce — and that, he says, is already a “ridiculously fast” pace for most animators. He sees assistive AI tools as a way to crank up production even further.

Further Reading: Alex Hallatt has been blogging for the better part of a year about AI as an assistant.

_{Feature illustration is detail of a cartoonist at work generated using Dall-E by Joe Dworetzky.(courtesy of Bay City News)}