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Police Called Over A.I. Protest Against Bell's Booth At FanExpo Canada

Police were called over an artists' A.I. protest against Bell's booth at FanExpo Canada. But it's okay, they were Canadian police.

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Article Summary

  • Bell's A.I. portrait booth at FanExpo Canada sparked backlash from artists and fans over AI-generated art.
  • Many artists saw Bell's A.I. display as unfair competition to real creators in the Artists Alley nearby.
  • Protesters, including webcomic creator Aaron Reynolds, staged a demonstration at the Bell booth.
  • Police were called but acted reasonably, mediating between artists and Bell at the busy Toronto event.

This weekend's FanExpo Canada event in Toronto included a large presence of Bell, also known as Bell Canada, a national broadband, telephone, cable and telecommunications company, which included a "Photo Booth" where they produced free A.I. generated portraits of attendees.

Many saw the booth as not only using stolen artists' work to generate images but also competing with the actual artists in the neighbouring Artists Alley, a number of whom offered that service for actual artist-generated imagery. And it wasn't alone. One attendee wrote, "I think it's really disgusting of Fan Expo to allow AI 'art' to be sold. There is an entire booth near the pizza pizza in the north building that is all AI-generated. As well as the Bell booth takes your photo and uses an AI filter to edit your photo. It's insulting to the artists who put time and effort into their art pieces"

The Bell booth, courtesy of its prominence and visual displays of the work, attracted the most attention. This led to protests being held at the booth by attending comic book creators, illustrators and other artists, and the police being called. Though remember, these were Canadian police. As one of the protestors, and creator of the Effin' Birds webcomics and books, Aaron Reynolds, posted to social media afterwards, "Honestly, the police officer was the best and most reasonable person in the entire thing. He understood the issue, asked what we wanted, told us what the show wanted, and brokered us a trade where most people would disperse if he let us talk to the manager of the booth."

Neither FanExpo Canada or The Bell Company have issued any statement regarding the decision to include A.I. generated products at the show. Not yet, anyway. Bleeding Cool will be happy to report any that they make

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Rich JohnstonAbout Rich Johnston

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from The Union Club on Greek Street, shops at Gosh, Piranha and FP. Father of two daughters. Political cartoonist.
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