I'm a firm believer that AI will never be on the same level as human talent. We've seen some very incredible comics from some very incredible artist here in this stream, who always keep evolving to make their content even better!
Meanwhile, some people type in a random prompt into ChatGPT and call that "drawing".
It's the fact that those people have decided we don't need artist now that AI can make whatever they want it to make. And this is legitimately screwing a lot of artists over.
On his Patreon, Matthew of Swords Comic said that Webtoon is now implementing some AI features on their site after partnering with an AI website known as Genies. Because of this, along with him not making much money off of it compared to how much he was making back then, he's quitting Webtoon. I can imagine other artists, especially smaller ones who depend on Webtoon, following suit.
You'd think that, because human artists are the reason they get lots of money, Webtoon would be, IDK, prioritizing said human artists instead of AI slop.
I just find it to be very sad, because these artist deserve better. And it only makes sense that we continue to support them. I've done a bit of support myself by buying some merch.* It may not be much, but it's still something. Other ways we can support our favorite artists include following them on social media, buying memberships to their Patreons, sharing their comics with others, and not giving views and likes to the content of AI supporters.
The more people do this, the more the artists will be able to make a living while being able to show us their incredible talent. It's a win for all of us!
*I have the plushies of Quest Sprout and Momma Sprout from Swords Comic and the two graphic novels of 'Peculiar Woods' by Wawawiwa artist Andres J. Colmenares. I also have plans to buy the two horror books from Adam Ellis.
