As reported a couple days ago there are thieves stealing political cartoons, re-imagining them by the use of Artificial Intelligence and then passing them off as their own original creations. Once the practice became public knowledge (thank you Pedro X. Molina) cartoonists and fans began to take action. From Kevin Kallaugher: We are rallying support […]
OpenAI’s new image-generation tool is so popular it’s “melting” the company’s GPUs, forcing temporary limits, according to CEO Sam Altman. The tool has gone viral for its ability to create Studio Ghibli-style AI, reigniting copyright concerns. Fortune delves into the AI generated images that purloin the style of Studio Ghibli style. The company launched the […]
Alex provoked a split response. I just saw something on the news about young people applying to 50 or 60 jobs at a time, and my response was, as they say here, that it makes things complex for employers. But also that you can’t possibly be qualified for that many jobs that don’t involve a […]
Wallace the Brave (AMS)‘s Mom decides that a snow day should be a snow day. I feel that education is very valuable, and I suspect she does, too, but snow days are also important and, besides, between the digital divide and power outages, you wouldn’t achieve perfect attendance and the day would be a waste […]
Let’s start with this depressing cartoon from Jonesy. It might be funny if it were some kind of exaggeration, but it functions as an editorial cartoon that, as editorial cartoons can do, elicits a grim smile of recognition. The speed with which AI is taking over everything has made it impossible for the greater society […]
Dan Piraro has a fascinating and important piece on his blog that ties in with my own experience of having been punished as a young lad for what we now recognize as Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder and being fortunate enough to turn it into an advantage. He was punished more savagely, since I was only […]
There are all sorts of important political issues to address, but there are also a lot of leftover Thanksgiving political cartoons, and it’s too late to keep arguing over the election because that die has been cast. So here’s a Jimmy Craig cartoon which is also about Thanksgiving but made me smile. I didn’t use […]
Tommy Siegel offers an explanation of what happened this week, and, while foolish arrogance doesn’t explain it all, I feel free to skip politics today and just offer some laughs and general social reflection. I think the political cartoonists need some time to reflect and refocus. There have been some good responses, as seen here […]
The Aragonese Association of Comic Creators (Asociacíon Aragonesa de Autores de Cómic) has called on European public institutions, governments, universities and libraries to stop using AI generated art in promotional material until European laws protect artists. They write (translated via Google) The platforms that use Artificial Intelligence to model and design images need three parts […]
I think today’s Deflocked (AMS) is largely an example of lead time. When the first cell phone bans in school were announced, editorial cartoonists leapt to depict disheartened children, though my own suspicion was that the kids would largely shrug it off and either adjust to life in the here and now or find new […]
There’s nothing all that new if you take Guto Dias’ cartoon in the broad, overall sense. Both graphic and literary artists have had to leave creativity aside when entering the commercial arena, and if some leaks in, it generally gets committeefied into pap before anybody in the public sees it. But the advent of AI […]
This Reality Check (AMS) raises an interesting question: Do you have to be a guitar player to get the joke? My feeling is that you only need a very basic understanding of music to get a chuckle, because the G-Clef tells you it’s about music and you should know there are majors and minors that […]
Our theme starts with today’s Baby Blues (AMS). My first impression was that it was another “overscheduled kids” gag, which is an okay issue in general but has been done and overdone and doesn’t make me laugh anymore. So I flipped past, but then “Wait till your dad gets home” pinged my brain and I […]
Scott Hilburn wins the Fortuitous Timing Award, though if he’d run today’s Argyle Sweater (AMS) 24 hours earlier, he might be up for a Pulitzer. Yes, it’s a different form of airline chaos, but given his lead time, I think he did pretty well. Besides, the types of chaos that ensued appear to have been […]
My usual rule is to not feature a cartoon more than a week after it runs, but I’ve recently wound up with a collection of good pieces that got buried by more immediate issues. I’m allowed to break my own rule. Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that generating cryptocurrency gobbles up a lot of […]