Streaming platform slammed for using ‘AI-generated art’ instead of hiring human artists

As the surge in the use of Artificial Intelligence or AI continues, many people are starting to ponder the ‘threat’ it poses to humanity, particularly the reduction in ‘human labor’ as more and more aspects of our living become dependent on technology.

In the case of entertainment, AI-generated shows and movies have become controversial topics in the anime community. Recently, an entertainment streaming giant introduced its newest anime project, which generated backlash for its ‘awful’ AI takes. Not only did it create a commercial scheme featuring AI, but it also justified the workforce shortage in the anime industry.

The newly released Japanese short film, “The Dog & The Boy” continues to earn negative reactions from online users, and has caused outrage from real artists for using AI-generated images instead of hiring human workers.

The three-minute sci-fi animation was produced by Netflix Anime Creators in collaboration with Rinna Inc., an AI company, and WIT Studio, an animation company behind the creation of Attack on Titan’s first three seasons, and was released on January 31. The story revolves around a young boy and his robot dog. The latter waits for his owner as he goes off to war.

Based on the streaming platform’s Tweet, the use of AI artwork in the said project was to address the alleged labor shortage in the anime industry.

“As an experimental effort to help the anime industry, which has a labor shortage, we used image generation technology for the background images of all three-minute video cuts,” the statement reads.

This statement has further angered critics, citing the false justification as a statement without any basis, as there’s really no labor shortage at all, and that companies just don’t want to hire human artists who deserve to be paid and earn reasonable compensation for their hard work.

As of this writing, the Tweet has received thousands of retweets and replies from online users.

 

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