Technology has always been exponentially advancing, almost of its own accord and possibly since its very inception. With the arrival of such easy to use text based art generatorsー”generative AI”ーwe’ve seen a distinct separation of those for an against such technology which utilizes, often unauthorized, artist’s work to train algorithms to magically spit out free art for anyone. If you never had an ounce of an artistic gift, now you could create works of art merely with descriptive words and strategically constructed code.
But the question remains: is this ethical? When you use generative AI to create “art”, you are effectively stealing somebody’s work that has been used to train a string of code to replicate and alter their original work. People have even taken this a step further by selling generative AI work for hundreds if not sometimes thousands of dollars, all the while the original artist gets nothing.
The latest trend has been the Ghibli fad, where people are now creating generative art in the style of Japan’s most prestigious animation studios, Studio Ghibli. The fact that so many people don’t seem to have any problem doing this, merely to satiate their need for immediate gratification, is beyond disturbing.
Moving on, it seems as though the renowned mangaka and illustrator Daisuke Moriyama (World Embryo, Chrono Crusade, Thou Shalt Not Die, etc.) has taken it upon himself to delete all artwork that he’s posted to Twitter in the past. Some of this stuff goes WAY back, too, so it’s very sad to see all of this go, but I am entirely on his side with this unfortunate decision.
Please see below his most recent comments regarding this:
I realize this is a bit abrupt, but I will be deleting all of my artwork from X.
With the implementation of the generative AI function “Edit photo with Grok”,
I have lost any desire to leave my work on this platform.
I hope you all can understand. ー6:08pm, April 14, 2025
You can still find my color roughs and other stuff in my Xfolio,
but I’m really sorry about rough monochrome sketches.
You’ll have to see the final version in their respective released books,
so I hope you all understand this difficult decision. ー6:08pm, April 14, 2025
I really appreciate everyone’s likes and replies; I will treat them as my precious memories.
I’m quite sad and heartbroken over this, but I don’t think I can continue on as I have in the past…
Everything will have to go. ー6:09pm, April 14, 2025
As a fan, it also breaks my heart to see such talented people have to literally DELETE their work stretching back years and years merely in the hopes of protecting what little autonomy they still have over their brand due to chaotically unregulated generative AI practices and devices. He actually liked all of my replies over the years before deleting them… So, sad. I feel so badly for him.
I’ve also met Moriyama-sensei several times at various signing events and the like, so I feel especially distraught for his current predicament. You can find my various reports on this site, or maybe just take a look at this one of the all-night release event for the Thou Shalt Night Die manga.
If you are on the boarder line regarding generative AI, I would highly recommend that you watch the following documentary. It seems to have just been released yesterday, so it is very timely and up-to-date with current events.
On a more personal level, I currently work for an animation studio, and have been a collector of production animation artwork for going on 30 years now… So, I am entirely on the side of the creatives, the artists and designers. I do believe there needs to be stricter regulations to reign in the continual advancements with generative AI, but more than that, I wish people would take a deeper look at themselves and contemplate their own actions when they use such programs, because at the end of the day, it does come down to an ethical choice that you either choose to uphold or willingly rip to pieces. Which side are you on?
