Local TV station TV3 had a clever idea to get eyes on their content- depicting their more traditional content in the style of anime, though it’s not quite panned out the way they might have hoped.
Istimewa ulang tahun ke-39 pada 1 Jun, TV3
mengangkat tema ‘Anime’ bersempena kempen TV3
Sentiasa Bersamamu!Jom layan Adnan Runner minggu ini!▶️ #AdnanRunner -> Khamis-Sabtu -> 9malam di TV3!#DramaSangat#sentiasabersamamu pic.twitter.com/HdkTQ6s8Im
— tv3malaysia (@tv3malaysia) June 1, 2023
Unfortunately, rather than actually pay anyone to do this, they went the budget-friendly way of using AI art filters, drawing the ire of internet communities.
“Admin, what do you say you hire an artist who can draw in an anime art style?”, writes Twitter user ArtzFatihah. “On Twitter and Instagram, there’s plenty of artists who know how to draw in an anime style. Please don’t use an AI filter”.
One more user even pointed out that the AI filter wasn’t even particularly up-to-date, featuring many of the warped features indicative of older AI art programs.
At least gunalah pelukis manusia. Jangan guna AI yang mencuri tu. Banyak je pelukis anime kat Malaysia yang buat commission murmur.
Apa benda ni? Memang takdelah nak sapot lokal macam ni. pic.twitter.com/qUtmIOdU0i
— DAX (@daxsu_artsu) June 1, 2023
Not everyone was showing solidarity with artists currently fighting for their livelihood against an industry looking to automate them for cheap- some took the opportunity to dunk on TV3 simply for not having Boruto.
“Of course, when are you actually going to show anime?” writes Twitter user AzharOkey. “What stresses me out is that you’re still showing Naruto when my man’s already got a story about his kid, you’re still stuck in the past”.
TV3 has been promoting their regular programming with Anime filtered versions of their promos, with the most recent one as soon as half an hour ago as of this writing.
As of this writing, they have not commented on the backlash.
AI Art is a contentious issue in the creative industry right now- as the demand for content grows, more and more studios have been toying with the idea of using AI- which scrapes from online work without their creators consent- to get it done faster and cheaper.
It’s one of the key issues of the Writers Guild of America strike- with writers not wanting their work to be replaced by a chat bot.