AI’s Eerie Similarity to Saturday Cartoon Killing Tech

Letter Zero.82

Dear friend,

Today I am writing to remind you that a dangerous technology has been unleashed on humanity. Artists have adopted the tech and there is controversy around copyright infringement and concern over the protection of intellectual property.

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, I’m talking about the invention of the pause button. Allow me to take you back in time to the days of un-pause-able live television. 

Saturday morning in the 80’s. I’d wake up and dash to the TV to watch cartoons. Spiderman. Inspector Gadget. The Littles. Pole Position. I’d absorb as much of the art as I could and during commercial breaks I would transfer my imagination to my sketchbook with frantic strokes of my pencil.

As we all know, this was plagiarism. Cartoons are copyrighted material and to allow a child to blatantly reproduce intellectual property is a crime. Luckily, in those days there was no ability to pause the television, because if there were, I could have been jailed for creating nearly accurate drawings that violated trademarks. 

If my copyright crimes weren’t bad enough, I was also robbing the advertisers of my attention. By ignoring Tony the Tiger in order to draw in my sketchbook, I was undermining a benevolent business model, biting the hand that fed me my Honey Nut Cheerios. If it weren’t for the investment of the sugary cereal corporations, cartoon art wouldn’t exist at all.

As you remember, once the pause button was invented the Saturday morning cartoon industry vanished. They shut down, the threat of aspiring artists copying their art was simply too great. They couldn’t risk the imminent surge in illegal cartoon reproductions that would inevitably flood the airwaves. Had it not been for the rise of the internet, the death of the advertising industry might have followed. 

I am bringing up the dangers of the pause button because there’s a chance that someday a new technology may come along that similarly scares advertisers and copyright holders. If that day comes, remember what we learned in the 80s. There is nothing more dangerous than the imagination of a child. It must be stopped. Just consider what chaos could be unleashed if it became easier for unapproved artists to get what’s in our heads out on paper. 

Stay creative.

Your friend,
Ade

P.S. Completely unrelated, but the self-portrait accompanying this post was assisted by AI. I used it to help me reconnect with the young artist I used to be. It’s another experiment as I try to maintain my humanity as I am learning AI.