Beyond #NoAI: How Accepting AI Might Change Comics

When ArtStation refused to ban content produced using AI in 2022, it was met with a flood of protests from users in the form of images accompanied by the hashtag #noai. Although it is somewhat simplistic, this framing points to common debates around AI in the contemporary landscape, which sets communities into ostensibly clear “pro AI” or “no AI” positions. In this paper, I outline some of the key arguments currently being advanced against AI around the themes of intellectual property and the automation of labour and show how these arguments might be mitigated. Next, I consider three arguments in favour of AI: that AI might serve a superhuman function, that it might serve a compensatory function, and that ultimately a social approach to AI may validate AI art. Here I demonstrate that viable positions against the “NoAI” arguments are not only rooted in commercial or practical concerns, but in social and ethical ones as well. Ultimately, I argue that AI is likely to prevail. Finally, I turn to the question of what types of works might become available if AI is widely accepted. Moving on from the #noAI debate would, I suggest, allow us to truly understand what the shape and scale of AI’s impact will be.