Posted in: Comics, Current News | Tagged: ai, Colin Kaepernick, Lumi, react

Comic Creators React to Colin Kaepernick's A.I. Comics Generator, Lumi

Yesterday, we covered Colin Kaepernick's announcement of Lumi, a new AI service that will generate comics. It has not gone down well.

Yesterday, Bleeding Cool covered Colin Kaepernick's announcement of Lumi, a new AI service that will generate comic books. As expected, it has not gone down well.

"Lumi's pitch is that most people aren't equally proficient at every aspect of making and selling a book and that AI can fill in those gaps. For instance, if a writer can't draw, Lumi can produce illustrations. Or, if a comic artist has a story idea but struggles with dialogue, Lumi can help compose the words for their book."

Colin Kaepernick was at San Diego Comic-Con and seen in Artists Alley. It is probably safe to say that his reception would have been a little different if this story had had wider play before Comic-Con.

Scott Morse: Just days ago I watched him walk by and I told friends at my booth, "He's a good dude—I've got friends that have worked with him." I can only imagine that someone fed him some info lacking in ethics. Still, friends: don't. AI ain't the same as drawing with ink and a brush.

Gail Simone: This is so, so incredibly disappointing.

Tom Taylor: "No. You and #lumi are depowering storytellers. You are promoting the theft of art. And you are telling every working artist on the planet that they have no value in your eyes. Take that 4 million in capital, and invest in artists, rather than a machine that steals from them."

Aaron Meyers: I like you as a person and maybe this is with the best intention but man this sucks.

Jamie Smart: I keep rereading your tweet and it becomes more nonsensical each time. Creators can already create and own their own work. The important part is that they've put the time in to learn their craft. You know, like an athlete would, for example.

Josh Adams: 1 – AI is theft. 2 – Creators can't own work created by AI. 3 – You can't be pro-creator and use tools that steal from creators. 4 – No one needs Lumi to be a storyteller. They can all already be storytellers regardless of skillset. Storytelling does not require advanced ability.

J.H. Williams:Disgusting. As someone who experienced being marginalized himself, I would've thought he'd know better. I am now expecting those investors will lose all of the money they put in…

Christopher Rhodes: Hi Colin, I believe this is well-intentioned but I would urge you to read some of the very strong ethical concerns from artists about the use of A.I. (I've learned a lot by listening) and consider pivoting to a strategy that partners with artists rather than exploiting their work

Neil Kleid: "This is how we level the playing field" = "This is how we devalue/steal the work of skilled writers and artists who have spent years honing their craft." Colin, I've respected your integrity in the past. I hope that leads you to reconsider this course of action.

Fabian Nicieza: Here's an idea, try telling your story yourself instead of letting a machine do it.

Cheryl Lynn Eaton: If you think that black artists are going to support AI robbing them of not only career opportunities but also the work they've already produced just because you've thrown up a black figurehead–one who has NOTHING to do with comics, mind you–you are CRAZY! (more in link)

Daniel Kibblesmith: I am respectfully asking everyone to get out of comics if they don't enjoy the physical act of making comics. I'm not out here trying to replace the NFL with Madden simulations.

Travis Gibb: I am gonna take a knee to this nonsense.

Liana Kangis:Kaepernick jumping fields literally trying to demolish whatever creative jobs are left in this industry. Sorry dude but time and time again, we got into this industry for the craft, not the money- and we'll prove that our story telling is better than AI's every. single. time.

Bruno Redondo:Sorry Colin, but you understood nothing about creation and art. AI is stealing.

Darick Robertson:You're a hero, Colin. Please understand that this tech hurts artists the same way that a machine playing football by studying and stealing your years of hard work and skill would. Don't do this. You're making a huge mistake.

Dave Scheidt: Colin. I have a lot of respect for your views and your values so please hear all us comic creators and artists out when we say generative AI exists solely on our stolen work. There are lots of us who are open to have a conversation with you about this.

Mark Brooks:You are stealing from creators including POC and working to put artists and writers that have worked for years or even decades out of work. You are destroying all good will you have created up until now. You could use that money fund real creators. Please stop… Colin Kaepernick has raised $4 million to fund AI comics. He could have used that money to fund dozens of comics by highly skilled POC creators to show he stands behind his words with actions. Instead he's going to actively steal from them. Sad.

Chris Burnham:Please stop. You're taking a shit on your own legacy.

Ben Templesmith:Disgusting. Stomping on creatives, using stolen IP to "build" something to disenfranchise actual creative people who put in the time to learn a craft. You definitely misread the room…"Lumi was founded out of the barriers that Kaepernick discovered publishing his own works. This included high production costs, long production timelines, and gatekeeping within the industry." He didn't like paying artists. Had ignorant ideas about how long things take to craft…. I may have just left some rather irate comments on Colin Kaepernick's twitter account after discovering what he thinks of working comic professionals. Apparently we're dirt. Gatekeepers & worthy of nothing but being stolen from. This joke doesn't respect the medium. No thank you…. I think he just doesn't get it. & he had meetings with numerous high profile artists try to explain to him how unethical & wrong headed he was… He also thinks users will own what lumi creates .

Chris Sotomayor: You were just at SDCC, seen in Artist Alley. Adding to the glut-machine of art thievery is not helping to empower anyone. AI is not based on ethical sourcing and only screws over all the artists who spent years honing their skills as actual storytellers. Heartbreaking.

Rachael Stott: I think it's hilarious to think that giving people who can't even be bothered to pick up a pen AI tools will suddenly make them creative geniuses. This is just going to churn out slop.

Daniel Kibblesmith: Don't do this.

Eric Palicki: I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here that you didn't understand the nuances of how AI works when you signed onto this. It's an environmentally destructive system that "learns" by stealing from flesh and blood artists without compensation or attribution.

Marc Ellerby: This is incredibly misguided. Creators are already free. We can make our own comics, publish them ourselves, keep our IP. That $4m could change many artists lives. You trained and worked monumentally hard for your career. So did we. The disrespect you show the medium is unreal.

Joe Glass: This is the absolute opposite of freeing creators, it literally endangers the livelihood of hardworking creatives in favour of lazy charlatans This is actively causing harm to creators.

Tom Stillwell: This is so very, very disappointing. You are not who we thought you were.

Bengal: Actual artists & storytellers empower themselves, by working hard, that's the only way to ACTUALLY learn and become one. A scam based on mass theft, promoting laziness disguised as a "tool" is misled and wrong. Your plan is backwards as f-ck. Shame.

Jordan Blum: There are easier and cheaper ways to destroy your own legacy.

Lewis LaRosa: Why would you choose to flush all your good will down the toilet? Embarrassing

Rob Williams: 'It's time to steal from actual creators who've put decades of hard work into honing their craft.' You're going to want to rework that first line @Kaepernick7

Mahmud Asrar:So disappointing. Anybody who has the least bit of love and respect for the medium of comics should stay away from this.

Tim Daniel: Colin, I have been a supporter since you stepped onto the field for the Niners and even more so when you displayed remarkable courage and personal integrity, now I'm going to hope you'll do the same and seek a different direction that does not entail the use of AI for Lumi.

Daniele Di Nicuolo: "Free creators" from what? The laziness of not wanting to learn how to do something improving their skills?

Simon Gough: Lost all my respect on this move (not that it even mattered, my respect I mean). Always thought you were for the little people out there, apprently not.

Alex Moore:extremely disappointing- generative AI is not only built on stolen content and an existential threat to creatives but a contributor to the current climate emergency. I hope you reconsider this.

Dave Cook: Massively disappointing to see. This doesn't empower anyone, it objectively devalues art, and undermines the years of craft and growth that goes into becoming a creator. That's before you get to the theft of it all, an issue that WILL NEVER be solved. Stop this.

Tom Feister:Whomever is advising you to lend your name to this is destroying whatever goodwill you've built with the creative community. AI is theft from the skill and hardwork of people who've spent years, decades building a skill. I urge you to reconsider.

Joshua Dysart:AI scrapes and steals the work of real artists to profit the AI platform investors. AI art is mass plagiarism. It's meant to devalue professionals and their art. But as long as you get that paper, am I right?… What are you doin', man? This is another profit grab dressed in bullshit noble rhetoric. Think of all the actual artists and writers you could've paid to tell their stories. But you know that profit exists in controlling the platform for creation, not in creation itself. Lame.

Skylar Patridge: "Lumi addresses an unnecessary dependency on gatekeepers (you mean ARTISTS?) that slows creators (ARTISTS) down. This allows creators (ARTISTS) to get back to what they ultimately want to do: create"

Jen Vaughn: Wild because the perfect solution for what's been wrong with comics industry for decades is our lack of a union to negotiate health care, better page rates, and scheduling. Kaepernick COULD have started a publishing company or just paid artists and writers to work with him.

Ben Caldwell: "Ah yes, comic artists. Like NFL players they are famous for their extravagant pay. He probably blew DOZENS of dollars on creative costs before."

Alice Mechi Li:This is so disappointing. For $4 million, Kaepernick could have started his own comics studio and paid 40 artists $100k to work for a year — way more than many artists ever make. He could have employed struggling marginalized creators and empowered them to tell the stories they never had the time or funds to tell.

Khary Randolph: To be clear, I was one of a number of artists that had meetings with Colin a few months ago. He told me broadly what his AI platform was about. He mentioned that it was about removing "gatekeepers" and how he wanted to benefit people from underserved walks of life. I told him that while I was a fan of his, I couldn't support this because those "gatekeepers" were people like me who had put our blood, sweat and tears into our craft. Hard work, a pencil, and paper is all you need to make comics. I let him that his product was going to hurt us longterm. So if anyone is asking whether Colin Kaepernick is aware of the misgivings artists have with AI, please believe that he has been made aware. And I know for a fact that I'm not the only one who did so.

Colin Kaepernick has raised $4 million in investments from Alexis Ohanian's Seven Seven Six, which led the seed round. They were also behind ten million in funding for digital comics publisher Zestworld, which published a number of comic books from big names and then went away. This time, it seems they just wanted one big name and skipped the comic book creators.

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