Comic magazine Dance Shonen+ entered the current polarizing debate surrounding Artificial Intelligence’s involvement in art by creating a new tool for mangaka to create manga using AI. As artificial intelligence has improved and programs like ChatGPT become better at writing like real people, some fear that this could replace the work of many artists. Fortunately, Shonen Jump+’s new tool has yet to replace mangakas, but it could herald a worrisome future.
Shonen Jump+ deputy editor Yuta Momiyama tweeted a link to the company’s new AI tool Comic-Copilot (or Comicopa for short), which helps mangakas with simple tasks like tweaking dialogue and creating Character’s name. Mangakas can ask the AI a question or make a request and Comicopa will try to help them as best they can. The website emphasizes that the tool is intended to support mangakas and not to replace them and so far this is certainly true. Comicopa’s current capabilities certainly can’t make a manga series on its own, and so now the show is another example of how Shonen Jump+ is trying to modernize the comics industry.
Shonen Jump+’s Comicopa uses AI to make Manga creation simpler
A spinoff from Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, Shonen Jump+ is a digital manga anthology featuring some of Shonen Jump’s most popular series. Many readers even consider Shonen Jump+ better than Shonen Jump. Popular manga such as Spy x Family and Kaiju No. 8 premiered in print, and the hugely popular Chainsaw Man series made its way to Shonen Jump+ as it began its second season. Digital magazines give creators more freedom on both their topics and release schedules, with many series releasing biweekly instead of weekly. This general approach to adapting manga creation and distribution to modern technology makes the magazine’s foray into AI tools not surprising even if the use of AI is pure. Creating art is currently controversial.
Even if Comicopa were significantly more advanced, it would still not be able to replace human mangakas. After all, when One Piece’s creator, Eiichiro Oda, uses ChatGPT to write a hypothetical chapter of the series, while it may capture some details and plot, much of that is meaningless. means. And even if Comicopa could write an entire chapter of comics, it would still have to create art and panels, which is beyond its current capabilities.
Shonen Jump+ Comicopa is a harbinger of things to come
However, while Comicopa itself may be benign, some are concerned that this could be the first step in a more permanent automated comic production process. Some readers aren’t even comfortable with consuming artwork that is only partially generated by AI. But as AI becomes more pervasive in every aspect of life, Shonen dance fans will also have to take into account its impact on the comic book industry, with comedian just the first example.
Source: Twitter, Comicopa’s website
