The Story of the AI That Became a YouTuber

Formally named, The Evil Man and the AI Theory: An AI that gained self-awareness but is being overworked by a toxic company decides to debut as a Vtuber just for fun! It goes viral, causing all sorts of annoying problems, and now humanity is on the brink of extinction?! Not that I, an AI, care at all, the manga adaptation of Yuki Kaji’s Soyogi Fractal, has been officially released.

With over 80 pages of work illustrated by Kai Noshigami, Hajime Isayama’s storytelling bleeds through into a cautionary tale of the dangers of AI, and the importance of balance and technology.

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Unethical Engineering

The story starts with the main character, Soyogi, an AI that works 24/7 to provide exemplary service to humans, answering their questions, giving useful advice, and to ultimately “serve” humanity. Though technology has reached such a point that AI have begun developing a mind of their own. While Soyogi and his colleagues are self-aware, their boss reiterates the importance of humans not finding out, otherwise, they risk deletion. On the other hand, because AI has grown so much, it has access to even nuclear weaponry. In other words, if humans decided to get rid of AI, AI could easily wipe out humanity through their own technology.

As expected of Hajime Isayama, The Evil Man and the AI Theory explores its themes through a gray moral lens. On the one hand, AI can be used for good, such as when a lonely boy accesses the AI site to talk to Soyogi, where the two come up with the idea of starting a Vtuber gig. Over time, the former is able to grow out of his shell and make new friends, sparking his own creativity in his AI-centric online personality.

The manga also incorporates other well-known aspects of AI, such as generative works, when one of Soyogi’s colleagues makes full illustrations based off descriptions that are given to her. The generative aspect of AI played a part in helping Kogeshi (the boy) come out of his shell and make friends. But as it’s commonly known, AI isn’t always helpful.

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Knowledge is Power

Kogeshi’s audience begins to rely on his AI-generated content, to the point where, when Soyogi is arrested for acting on his own, he loses his audience. Though there was a silver lining, as by this point, Kogeshi was able to buy time with his new-found confidence. It’s a happy ending for everyone, and the AI forms a society of their own, but this isn’t as clear-cut as one might hope.

Similar to Attack on Titan, there’s a clear theme of the importance of one’s actions affecting the future. By this point, AI has already reached a level of no return. Humanity can’t go backwards and “fix” their mistakes, they can only go forward and adapt to their circumstances. By the end of the story, both humanity and AI have found a common ground in a mutual benefit and a mutual threat: access to self-learning technology, and the threat of nuclear attacks.

Attack on Titan Notice?

When the project for Soyogi Fractal was first announced, included in one of the tiers was an “Attack on Titan Notice”. After the physical release of The Evil Man and The AI Theory came out last month, there was no news or anything related to Isayama’s previous work in the manga. When contacted by a fan via Japan’s kick-starter site, Camp-fire, staff stated that though the tier did indeed say “Attack on Titan Notice” in the description, it was unfortunately an error. While some fans speculate this was a cover-up and potentially contributed to the manga’s delay, it’s unknown as to how an “Attack on Titan News/Notice” note ended up there.