Netflix has been blasted on social media for using artificial intelligence to make anime instead of paying real human artists.
Released by Netflix this week, dog and boy(opens in new window) is a 3 minute sci-fi cartoon about a kid waiting for a robot dog to go to war.nothing special(opens in new window)but what sets this anime apart is that its background art was not drawn by humans, but was generated using AI.
According to the image on the way dog and boyIn the credits of , a human draws a relatively rough layout of what is needed by hand. This image was put through his AI art generator several times and finally hand-touched to create the final artwork used in the anime.
Since the exact person who did this work is unknown, dog and boy Don’t trust them by name. Instead, background designers are simply listed as “AI (+Human)”. However, it lists Rinna Co., Lt. as an AI development company.
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so Tweet from Netflix Japan(opens in new window)the company reportedly features the use of AI art generation dog and boyexperimental production of(opens in new window) The aim is to solve the labor shortage in the anime industry. This provoked a quick and angry reaction from his Twitter users, who argued that there was not a shortage of labor, just a lack of companies willing to provide decent working conditions. .(opens in new window) and a living wage(opens in new window)The median income for top anime talent in 2019 was reportedly just $36,000, while those below that averaged just $200 a month.
Reddit-trained artificial intelligence warns researchers…
The Netflix Japan post has now received thousands of quote retweets and replies, and the general consensus is that the use of AI art generation to replace human artists is politely worded and terrible. That’s it. AI art generation has been a hot topic in recent months, with artists concerned about copyright, theft, and unemployment issues. Unfortunately, Netflix’s latest move seems to have proven those concerns to be well-founded.
The potential impact of Netflix’s AI experiments feels even more ominous considering that American studio Netflix Animation has laid off 30 employees.(opens in new window) Last September in a bid to streamline production.
Mashable reached out to Netflix for comment.
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dog and boy Produced by Netflix Anime Creators’ Base(opens in new window), animation studios Production IG and Wit Studio provided support. Described as a “community space” when it launched in 2021, the Netflix Anime Creators’ Base was initially intended to enhance Netflix’s anime offerings by developing concept art to support pre-production studios. There was
“From this area, we want to promote best practices and high production standards, ensuring that creators have the tools and resources they need to make anime for the long term,” Netflix said at the time.
Last year, it was reported that Netflix’s Japanese division failed to post a profit of 1.2 billion yen ($9.3 million) in three years.(opens in new window)As a result, Netflix was charged approximately 300 million yen ($2.3 million) in additional taxes, including an amount the company had not originally disclosed.
Understaffed or not, Netflix seems to have enough resources to hire a few background artists, pay them decent wages, and actually list them by name in the credits.
