Bringing, "Back," Stan Lee or Anyone Else With a Creepy AI Raises Many Concerns

Stan Lee is dead. Unlike comic-book characters, he died and is not coming back. Many articles painted his last years before his passing in 2018 as pretty dismal in terms of his quality of life and everyone around him, from family to employees, bleeding him dry--at times literally. Once you're dead I imagine you don't care what happens with your name or likeness (unless there is some way to check in from whatever afterlife might/might not exist), but your estate can protest and profit. Those who own your likeness might be okay with the idea of you dancing with a vacuum cleaner (to be fair, some of Fred Astaire's family was displeased) via doctoring old movie footage. They may even hear that AI can create the illusion that you're alive to think, talk, and tell jokes. ElevenLabs sold Stan Lee Universe, the joint venture between Genius Brands International and POW! Entertainment on this idea as now they can, "...add the late Marvel Comics writer’s voice and likeness to the ElevenLabs Iconic Marketplace, its collection of celebrity personality voices and likenesses that companies can license for commercial use."

This is the tech equivalent of taking a celebrity and attaching a bunch of strings to their corpse so you can make them dance around like a puppet. Stan Lee was a complicated and controversial figure, but I doubt anyone would argue against him being a master showman. That is, "Showman," as in, "Human," however. An AI does not truly have Stan's charisma, personality, or anything beyond people believing it was, "Trained," to mimic him and then be programmed to sell us a Marvel-branded juicer or some other junk. While Lee was alive, he did basically attach his name/likeness to anything, and everything from a cartoon about a stripper superhero to a reality show focused on being a real-life superhero. Lee was, in fact, alive and able to agree to these things, however. 

No. Nope. Absolutely Not.

An, "AI Stan Lee," can't ink a business agreement. It can't truly be okay with spouting off an endorsement for, "Marvel brand condoms, keep your genitals more secure than Iron Man's armor!" Even if the real Stan Lee would've been cool with this in some fashion, the whole thing is just ghoulish. What's next? We bring back AI versions of loved ones so we pretend they never really died? That's a whole mess of psychological trauma right there that I worry a lot of psychiatrists/psychologists will be dealing with soon. We're not just approaching Uncanny Valley anymore, we're living in it. Our virtual graverobbing will probably just be the tip of a scary iceberg.

Comic Publisher Valiant Worryingly Seems to Have Plans With Heavy AI Involvement

Valiant was a big comic publisher decades ago. They went bankrupt and disappeared, but in 2012, new folks got the licenses and relaunched the brand with some really good comics. In 2018, many of the people associated with Valiant left when it was bought out by DMG, and it has been mostly downhill since. From weird NFT schemes to an attempt at a cinematic universe that flopped, to nearly stopping putting out any comics before getting assistance from IDW so as to at least put out something, it has been a series of mishaps. It just got worse.

Valiant has been putting posters online discussing some new project with taglines including, "Hint: It's not a comic book," and all these images really look like AI was used. One would think comic publishers/makers/etc. would be extremely against using AI, "Art," as its soulless slop made out of digital bits and bobs through stealing real work. Could Valiant have some weird animated AI show coming, as I would guess? We don't yet know, but longtime fans are enraged at the prospect of Valiant pulling this B.S. It has been quite the fall from grace for Valiant. Everyone's extra mad at them, and we don't even know what this new so-called product will be. Such a mess.

Artgerm Doesn't Use AI, it Steals From Artgerm!

Stanley, "Artgerm," Lau has been making comics since before the rise of so-called AI, "Art." That said, his style looks a bit like some of the AI rip-offs, so people have lately been accusing him of using AI...even though that would be impossible time-wise for some of the comics they looked at from years ago and said were AI. It's gotten to the point where Artgerm has posted about his process as he makes art so that people back off.

Look, I hate the supposed, "Artists," who put a prompt into a computer and claim they created a piece as much as everyone else, but even though some people are using AI, not everyone is doing it. A lot of AI artwork is stealing from creators such as Artgerm, and if anything, he is a victim of AI and getting ripped off, not the other way around. Let's support folks such as Mr. Lau and not hurl false accusations at them. After all, plenty of people, "Proudly," proclaim they use AI for their slop; they're the ones who deserve scorn.

AI-Generated Junk Has Infested Etsy

When I want to give someone I care about a cool gift I sometimes will check Etsy. It has cool things made by folks far more creative and skilled than me...at least, it used to. The past few years have seen Etsy flooded with AI-generated crap. Things made by an AI that are slapped onto a product as if any effort were made, or false representations of what folks actually get. Artists who used an AI to make a painting, a cartoon, or any other computer-made slop sell that print/mug with a cartoon/whatever and laugh all the way to the bank.

Etsy doesn't seem to care because it is getting its cut. Everyone is looking for a get-rich-quick scheme, and legit crafters/creators are getting screwed. Why would someone pay you to draw a cartoon of their cats and themselves to put on a shirt for $50 if for $20 an AI can, "Draw," a crappier version based on a picture that gets slapped on a flimsy shirt and shipped out? I mean, if someone wants quality, they'll pay the extra 30 bucks, but we all love a deal, and the AI churns out content for cheap--quality be damned! Now, if you disclose you're using AI it is all okay in Etsy's eyes, but lying about it will get you in trouble. A lot of people seem to be fine with AI-created stuff if they're told a computer made that travel poster or whatever...so, I guess you get what you paid for. 

Personally, I feel ChatGPT/Google Gemini/AI has its place to help with simple tasks like examining some raw data, calculating the best time to arrive at the airport based on when you depart, or checking what year a theme park opened--random stuff. Not, "Creating," art! Etsy's embrace of AI seems hypocritical at best and full of malice in the name of making easy money at worst. There is still cool stuff on Etsy, but you have to dig through a lot of trash to find it.

GalaxyCon Has Banned AI, "Art," From All Events

GalaxyCon is a popular purveyor of comic conventions. They are actually holding their first Saint Louis show this October, and I have been cleared to attend as press. I've been seeing it discussed online how they are banning any AI-generated, "Art," from future shows, with that word in quotations because so-called AI artwork lacks any soul/imagination/effort and isn't art. I applaud this zero-tolerance attitude to AI-generated imagery being sold as if it were an original creation. It was good to hear an AI, "Artist," was escorted out of Dragon Con recently, and conventions need to draw this, "Line in the sand," before comic conventions become a morass of vendors selling AI-generated slop. I am excited to attend GalaxyCon Saint Louis during the weekend of October 10th-12th and am pleased there won't be any supposed, "Art," created by AI there.