AI in the scenario: a brand new episode of a successful Japanese manga by the master of the genre, Osamu Tezuka, was published Wednesday in the Japanese archipelago, 34 years after the author’s death, with the help of artificial intelligence. Considered the father of modern manga, the man known as the “god of manga” contributed to the evolution of this artistic form, attracting adults and children alike thanks to complex plots and original graphic proposals.
The new episode of Black Jack, one of his most famous works with Astro, the little robot, was published in the pages of the weekly Shonen Champion released on Wednesday, to mark the 50th anniversary of the manga. “For this work, AI and humans teamed up to pose a humble challenge to Osamu Tezuka, the god of manga,” publisher Akita Shoten said in a statement. “AI has been a good partner and assistant in the creation of this manga. But she can’t read and enjoy this manga herself. We hope you will read it,” he added.
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Black Jack, published in Shonen Champion between 1973 and 1983, tells the adventures of a genius surgeon operating without an official license, who sells his services for huge sums but graciously treats the most disadvantaged. Its 25 volumes have sold some 147 million copies worldwide, according to the specialist site Mangazenkan. The new episode tells the story of a patient who suffered complications after having an artificial heart implanted.
A team of researchers and artists used the GPT-4 language model and the Stable Diffusion artificial intelligence image generator to write the story and develop the appearance of the characters. The final illustrations are the work of human artists. “I know that this project will not please everyone, but I hope that it will fuel the discussion on the creative applications of AI,” Makoto Tezuka, the mangaka’s son, told Japanese media. origin of the project.
Japan’s first fully AI-drawn manga, titled Cyberpunk: Peach John, was released in March, raising eyebrows among purists and raising fears for jobs and copyright enforcement in the multibillion-dollar industry. The author of the manga, known under the pen name Rootport, confided at the time that he had “absolutely no” talent for drawing and that it took him only six weeks to create this color work of more than ‘a hundred pages.