AI + Comics with Susannah Hainley

As AI technologies rapidly advance, many cartoonists understandably feel anxious about its impact on their work and livelihoods. Media and tech companies often hype up Generative AI's “amazing” capabilities, fueling fears that human creativity could be replicated or replaced altogether. The goal of this workshop is to thoughtfully consider the pros and cons of Gen AI as a tool, and to evaluate its usefulness in the creative and non-creative aspects of being a cartoonist. In this workshop, we'll examine the current state of AI technologies and how they are already being utilized for comics and graphic novels, weigh the potential pros of using AI as an assistive tool against the ethical considerations, and look at some ways that artists are fighting to protect their work online. Through a hands-on portion of the workshop, attendees will work with a text generator (Claude.ai) and an image generator (Adobe Firefly); by engaging with the technology directly, attendees can make more informed decisions about the usefulness of AI, while maintaining a nuanced perspective on the implications and challenges of using it.

“The AI revolution is coming for comics. As creators, we can stick our heads in the sand, or we can get ahead of this, protect ourselves, and train ourselves to use these tools to our advantage. Susannah deftly weaves her way through the challenges and strengths of this new technology, and provides a giant first step along that path.” <br>-Justin Hall, Chair of the MFA in Comics program at California College of the Arts.

For the exercises included in this workshop video, you will need a free account with Claude.ai and Adobe.com. Setup instructions can be found here.