For all its amazing possibilities, there are certainly some drawbacks to AI. For one, it requires an immense amount of energy, which can mean even more air pollution being created every year. Then, there's the threat that the technology poses to countless jobs in the creative fields.
While AI is yet to match the beauty, creativity, and emotional resonance of great human artists, it's already doing a decent job of creating cheap knockoffs.
Case in point: This post shared in the r/mildlyinfuriating Reddit forum titled "Comic book t-shirt generated with AI art I received as a gift."
The original poster shared an image of a T-shirt with text that reads "I've Got Issues" above an image of several single-issue comic books. The pun is fun, and the graphic looks nice — but closer inspection reveals something upsetting.
"I received this shirt yesterday from well-meaning friends who know my love of comic books. I immediately (and publicly) loved it," the caption reads. "Then I got home and took a closer look."
"All of the comic art is AI-generated, which is basically taking a crap on the comic art form. I want to like this shirt; it's a very nice quality and is completely my sense of humor, but I feel that it is an affront to comic book artists," the OP continued. "I will not discard it because my friends meant well, but I'm absolutely disgusted this exists and that storefronts are pushing it to well-intentioned shoppers who are unaware."
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It's bad enough that graphic designers are losing work to a weak imitation. However, the fact that this shirt is intended specifically to appeal to fans of a medium centered around human-crafted visual art makes the affront even more offensive and ironic.
The macro view of this issue is even more upsetting. AI data centers are projected to represent up to 21% of global energy demand by 2030, per Scientific American.
They also require an immense amount of water, as the Center for Secure Water revealed — a precious resource that we're already running short on. So, while shirts like these insult the comic artform, they also harm the planet.
Unfortunately, several commenters could relate to the OP.
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Set strict regulations 🚫 "I was gifted a shirt similar. I love frogs. Someone bought me a gift. Loved it at first but then put it on and realized they had too many toes, missing hands and I couldn't make out if they were surrounded by little mushrooms or rocks," one said. "I was heartbroken."
"Once my parents gifted me a hoodie and a t-shirt of my favorite musician (Fox Stevenson)," another added. "I could immediately tell it wasn't official merch. I hate indirectly supporting someone trying to make money off someone else's brand."
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