JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure creator slams AI “fraudsters'” influence over the manga industry after seeing a drawing so eerily reminiscent of his work he thought it was his

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure creator Hirohiko Araki has reportedly warned of the evils of AI-generated art after nearly being tripped up by an uncanny recreation of his own manga.

In a new book, Hirohiko Araki’s New Manga Techniques: How to Create a Villain (as translated by JoJo’s Wiki below), the manga artist airs concern over the impact that AI-generated fakes will have on the manga industry.

Araki shares that he recently came across a drawing he thought was his until he found out it was actually AI. Despite adding subtle and personal elements to drawings to make them truly his, the work he came across managed to incorporate all of it. Araki then points out his approach to eyelashes specifically, saying that it was impossible to tell the difference between the AI fake and his own.

While Araki reckons he could tell if a drawing was his or not if it were recent enough, that’d get much harder if it were something much older. And as AI advances, it will only get harder.

“Art reflects the times, and manga is one example of that,” he reportedly says. “Seeing this world of con artists appear in manga could very well mean that we’re headed for a future world dominated by fraudsters. This type of ‘evil’ in today’s age will undoubtedly end up impacting manga down the line.”

So what do we do about it? To combat AI-generated fakes becoming mistaken for the real deal, Araki suggests that law may be the only way to regulate. However, laws could easily be placed to favor the ‘con artists’ over the creators. Then there’s the issue that some manga artists are ‘lax’ in managing and protecting their copyrights.

Given the future that Araki fears, you can see why he might be worried. Advances in AI can have benefits regarding doing mundane tasks for, say, some game developers, though it also risks taking work away from creatives like artists and actors. A worry that has already led to strike action across the video game and film industries. The issues faced differ depending on the industry, though the manga industry seemingly has plenty of its own concerns to chew on.

Here are the best manga works you can read right now, and hopefully forever AI-free.