Almost every day we receive emails from AI companies who want to work with us. In these emails, someone cheerfully suggests a ‘collaboration’ in which they propose that we promote their product.

It is an understatement to say that these emails are in poor-taste. While we are usually interested in technology and try to remain optimistic about this field, we feel it’s necessary to speak out about the unbearable hype-cycle that generative AI has brought with it. A hype-cycle that has originated by stealing creative work, and now wishes to further damage creative energy by funnelling it into an automated content-creation nightmare.

Today we’d like to show you one of these emails and our response.

Hi war.and.peas,

It’s XXX and I’m writing to you on behalf of Muse. Muse is a new creative platform that can create your own AI-generated series so you can dive into a new world of storytelling without the need for personal content creation.

For example, with Muse you can:

make your own series with your script/storyline
bring your book characters to life
promote your new project/book by creating a mini-series
help create content by creating other worlds
make your story come alive for your audience by creating a series about it.

Please let me know if you would like to discuss collaborating and becoming one of the first creators to gain an early advantage in the realm of content creation.

Best regards,
XXX
Collaboration Manager

Here’s our response:

Dear XXX,

thank you for contacting us. We are a webcomic duo that has been creating original comics since 2011 and sharing them on various platforms on the web.

Usually we are very keen on connecting with potential partners that value our art and wish to help us in making a living. However, in this case we must politely decline. Here are some reasons why:

• The surge in AI has been built on the backs of creative people like us. Artists’ work has been harvested in order to train large language models and they have not been informed or compensated.
• Social Media platforms cannot grow without engaging and original content, made by people. This is the basis for any user to join. Creators have – in large part – not been privy to the rewards that these platforms have generated over the years even though they are the reason for platform growth. Any business model that does not acknowledge this and does not seek proper compensation for artists is not of interest to us.
• While being creative is surely not always fun, most artists love their work and do not want to outsource their passion to a machine that does this for them. They would much rather be properly compensated for their work in order to continue to be able to do said work. Frankly, storytelling “without the need for personal content creation” sounds horrible. Storytelling is personal. It is a connection between the writer and the reader. Without this personal connection, storytelling loses its purpose.
• Artists would much rather have an AI that actually helps with grunt chores, such as writing invoices, or helping with taxes in order to focus more on fulfilling creative tasks. Such an AI-tool would be of much more value to the artist community.

For these reasons, we hope it has become self-evident that your platform does not do anything for us. On the contrary, it works against a world in which creative work is valued and elevated. It turns creative work into an assembly-line meant to churn out derivative and soulless ‘content’ to supply the attention-factory that has become social media.We hope that these efforts will soon be seen as what they are and be quickly abandoned in favor of a more inclusive artist-focused approach.

Best regards,
Elizabeth Pich & Jonathan Kunz