The author of a manga to be released Thursday in Japan admits to having "zero" talent for drawing: his work, the first in the country entirely created by artificial intelligence, raises concerns for employment and copyright in this lucrative industry. All the futuristic machines and creatures in this sci-fi manga titled "Cyberpunk: Peach John" are the work of the Midjourney program, an AI tool that appeared last year that wowed the planet, along with other similar programs like Stable Diffusion or DALL-E 2.

Rootport - the author's pseudonym - made the hundred-page manga in just six weeks, where a confirmed artist would normally have taken a year, he estimates. "It was a fun journey, a bit like playing the lotto," the 37-year-old told AFP.


AIにマンガを描かせてみるテスト(1/n)#Midjourney #マンガが読めるハッシュタグ #ツイッタSF #サイバーパンク桃太郎 pic.twitter.com/ctA9BvpU9l

— Rootport💰🍹🍑 (@rootport) August 10, 2022

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Have good stories to tell

Rootport entered keywords like "pink hair," "Asian boy," and "jacket," and the machine gave birth in about a minute to images of the hero of the story, whose face is quite different from one square to another.

He then assembled the best results on a comic book page to make the book, entirely in color unlike "classic" manga, and which is already much talked about online before its publication. For the author, AI-powered image generators have "paved the way for people without artistic talent" provided they have good stories to tell.

We will have to deal with...

Rootport recounts the satisfaction felt when his textual instructions, like magical "incantations," generated images. "But is it as satisfying as when you drew something yourself? Probably not," he admits. The author doubts that manga created 100% by AI will become unavoidable, but "also does not think that manga made without any AI will dominate forever".

The Midjourney program, developed in the United States, quickly met with worldwide success with its fantastic creations, sometimes absurd or even frightening but often surprisingly sophisticated, inviting many artists to question their profession. AIs have also occasionally caused legal controversies, and the startup behind Stable Diffusion has been sued for "feeding" its AI with copyrighted material.

"I don't really see AI as a threat"

In Japan, elected officials have expressed concern about the issue, although experts say copyright infringement is unlikely if AI creations come from simple text commands. Others fear the technology could hurt the jobs of young mangakas, and streaming platform Netflix came under fire in January for airing a Japanese cartoon with AI-generated sets.



"I don't really see AI as a threat. I rather think she can be an excellent companion, "says Madoka Kobayashi, manga artist for more than thirty years. AI can "help me visualize what's in my head, and suggest ideas, which I then try to improve," she adds. "I am convinced that humans are always better" at imagining scenarios, also very important in manga, she says.

  • Entertainment
  • Culture
  • Japan
  • Comic book
  • Manga
  • Artificial Intelligence (AI)