SAG-AFTRA and Ethovox have announced a new agreement that ensures performers are protected and empowered in the A.I. age.
Co-founded by BAFTA Games Award-winner Cissy Jones, Ethovox is building a fully-authenticated foundational A.I. model for voice. In addition to ensuring performers can participate in Ethovox’s consensual foundational model knowing that they will be protected and compensated fairly, the voice model will reflect a commitment to diversity and inclusion. Further, the SAG-AFTRA-Ethovox contract leads the field in performer compensation as it provides both session fees and ongoing revenue sharing for the life of the foundational model.
A foundational voice model provides the basis for digital replicas. It requires volumes of underlying voice data to enable the replicas to function properly. The Ethovox model will not be user-facing, and the voices included in the model will not be identifiable in any of the speech generated.
The Ethovox Agreement was approved by the union’s Corporate/Educational & Non-Broadcast Committee and was additionally presented to and approved by SAG-AFTRA’s National Executive Committee.
It was new comic book day yesterday. What’d you all like? Dislike? Sound off in the comments below. While you think about that, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web to start the day.
On July 24, 2024, former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernickannounced a “groundbreaking platform” called Lumi that uses artificial intelligence to create comic book stories. The press release for the platform states Lumi can “[transform] any creator into Disney” as well as cut out “gatekeepers” that keep stories by diverse creators from reaching the market. It has received $4 million in venture capital funding with the firm Seven Seven Six taking the lead.
Kaepernick’s announcement led to outcries in the comic book industry against the Lumi platform. Veteran cartoonist Khary Randolph (We Are Robin, Excellence) took to Facebook and said that he met with Kaepernick about the new platform and voiced his concerns about Lumi would cut out the human creators need to bring comic book to life. He said, “Hard work, a pencil, and paper is all you need to make comics“, and that the writers, artists, colorists, and letterers who spend underpaid decades learning their craft will be hurt by his new product not the wealthy tech executives, who are funding his platform. So, it’s hypocritical that Colin Kaepernick is announcing a platform that will take jobs away from comics creators using social justice language in this initial press release.
It is unlikely that Kaepernick would receive $4 million in venture capital funds for a more traditional pursuit like starting his own comic book company, imprint, hosting platform, or even an anthology publishing the work of marginalized creators. However, according to Celebrity Net Worth, Colin Kaepernick is estimated to have a net worth of $20 million. He also has pull in the entertainment and publishing industry, co-creating a Netflix show about his life with Ava DuVernay and also starting a publishing company called Kaepernick Publishingthat has put out graphic novels by creators like Eve Ewing (Ironheart) and Greg Anderson Elysee (Puerto Rico Strong). As recently as 2023, Kaepernick was paying writers, artists, and letterers to put out graphic novels so it’s reasonable to assume that it’s something that he would be interested in using his money for in the future, but perhaps he was led astray by the promises of lucrative profit from the (currently booming) AI sector.
So, instead of using the $4 million in venture capital funding to set up an AI platform, he could use that money to revive something like the Xeric Grant. Funded by Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird‘s Xeric Foundation, the Xeric grant awarded $2.5 million to cartoonists from 1992-2011 to self-publish their comics and get in their foot in the door without having to rein in their creativity, art styles, or subject matters for big publishers like Marvel, DC, and even Image Comics. Some well-known creators that got their start through the Xeric grant were Adrian Tomine, Gene Luen Yang, Megan Kelso, Jessica Abel, Jeff Lemire, Tom Scioli, Box Brown, and Hazel Newlevant. The money from the Xeric Foundation allowed them to pursue a singular creative vision and put out work into the larger creative marketplace.
If Colin Kaepernick wants to actually nurture the work of marginalized comics creators and help them in the battle against “gatekeepers”, he would be better served creating something similar to the Xeric grant than an AI platform. He could even expand the scope of Kaepernick Publishing to include comic books of other genres other than nonfiction biographies. These are better options than selling his soul to big tech and reducing creativity to a high tech assembly line, and it would be better for his reputation as a civil rights activist as well.
The use of AI generated images (and more) has been a hot topic and regularly being debated within the comic industry and elsewhere. Some publishers have had issues already getting caught soliciting AI generated images and artists called out for the use. Dark Horse has released a statement as to where it stands on the issue.
To respond to what is becoming a frequently-asked question, a note from Dark Horse regarding AI-generated material:
Dark Horse Comics was originally founded to establish an ideal publishing atmosphere for creative professionals and maintains this focus on supporting independent creators to this day. As such, Dark Horse does not support the use of AI-generated material in the works that we publish. Our contracts include language stating that the creator agrees that the work will not consist of any material generated by computer Artificial Intelligence programs. Dark Horse is committed to supporting human creative professionals with our business.
It’s one of two new comic book days! What are you getting? What are you excited for? Sound off in the comments below. While you think about that, here’s some comic news from around the web to start the day.
It’s a new week! And we’re busy on our end bringing you the latest news. While you begin the week, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web to kick it off.
United Voice Artists (UVA) and The National Association of Voice Actors (NAVA) have submitted an amendment proposal to the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act), seeking to safeguard the rights and interests of voice actors in the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence and voice technology.
United Voice Artists is a global coalition of 35 voice acting guilds, associations and unions in Europe (France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Poland, Netherlands) together with Switzerland, the United States, Turkey, Canada, Africa, Asia and Latin America representing more than 20,500 artists that have united to ensure that the use of artificial intelligence in the creative and media industry does not harm artistic heritage and human creativity and to preserve artist’s rights in relation to the use of AI, in particular in the dubbing and voice-over industry.
The UVA acknowledges the efforts of the European legislators in designing the AI Act as the first European legislation for the regulation of certain use cases of AI. However, to ensure that the AI Act does not lead to the extinction of human creativity in the entertainment industry through synthetic and cloning AI techniques and the exploitation of artists and their work by infringing their rights, both from a privacy/publicity data protection and an intellectual property rights protection perspective, we have identified the following key areas that should be urgently addressed in the upcoming trilogue negotiations:
Prohibition to create or expand audio/vocal databases
Extension of transparency requirements
Introduction of unfair contract practices unilaterally imposed by generative AI providers
United Voice Artists and The National Association of Voice Actors have called upon policymakers and stakeholders within the European Union to carefully consider the proposed amendment, recognizing its potential to elevate the voice acting community while setting a global standard for AI legislation that respects artistic integrity and the rights of creators.
It’s new comic book day! What are you all excited for? Sound off in the comments below. While you wait for shops to open, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web to start the day.
The weekend is almost here! Who’s taking part in Free Comic Book Day this Saturday? What are you excited for? Sound off in the comments! While you wait for the weekday to end and the weekend to begin, here’s some comic news and reviews from around the web.
George Schall’s cover for Made in Korea #1 has to be considered one of the best in 2021. It’s what made me stop scrolling through the list of upcoming comics I was scanning, looking for my next fix. Once I sawJeremy Holt was involved, the writer behind Skip to the End and Southern Dog, I knew the quality of the story would match the grotesque wonders of the cover.
Made in Korea centers on a couple that’s debating whether to bring a child into their family. Thing is, the child in question is a kind of ultra-realistic android that’s programmed to behave like a real son or daughter. As is the case with technological innovation, the android kid is expensive and seemingly available only to those privileged enough to have easy access to the required funds.
The title’s manufacturing reference isn’t there for show either. The android children are actually made in Korea, which allows Holt and Schall to add an entirely different but interconnected story thread that, in this case, sees a Korean programmer trying to crack a code that could have an effect in android behavior.
Holt’s script is quite naturalistic, presenting well-rounded characters that feel genuine. Everyone is infused with personality and I appreciated how opinionated they were when commenting on the small but meaningful changes their world has gone through.
Made in Korea #1
Those small details will make any fan of Phillip K. Dickproud as they build up a sci-fi world that thrives on complex subtleties without letting big ideas get too watered down in the process. There’s a delicate balance struck between character moments and big plot events that keeps things moving at a quick but measured pace.
A few pages are also borrowed from the movie Logan in terms of the comic’s worldbuilding, in which the subtle bits of sci-fi that are shown also develop the setting and the characters’ place in it. The near future of Made in Korea is a place that’s taken noticeable steps in technological evolution without making it come off as overwhelming and all-encompassing.
Made in Korea #1
Holt and Schall also find the time to bring up conversations about artificial intelligence, the capacity advanced tech has to adapt and perhaps surpass humanity, and technological co-dependence. There’s even a reference to Dick’s famous novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, thrown in to establish the kind of sci-fi Made in Korea is going for.
Schell’s art perfectly captures the shine that’s often associated with certain idealized versions of the future. It’s crisp, clean, and sleek, as if the future is obsessed with keeping things in their right place, if only for appearances sake. Schell doesn’t go for the dirty, gritty sci-fi look of Blade Runner, Akira, and Brazil, where trash and rundown high-rises color the environment. Instead, he goes for visuals that contain hidden dangers buried deep within suburban standards of life.
Made in Korea #1
Made in Korea packs a lot into its first issue. The six-issue miniseries is ambitious and expansive, worthy of the topic it settled on. There’s something lurking in its pages that looks like it’ll blow up in later issues concerning the questions that come with adopting a child among couples that can’t conceive. Just how much that’ll figure in the story remains to be seen, but what’s here is already enough to make for an exceptional comic.
Made in Korea #1 will be released in comic shops on May 26, 2021.
Story: Jeremy Holt Art: George Schall Letters: Adam Wollet Story: 10 Art: 10 Overall: 10 Recommendation: Buy and make sure your robotic appliances aren’t becoming sentient
