Cartooning is communicating irony with depth and volume; it has layers of social commentary.
But with artificial intelligence coming into the picture, ironically, even bigger publications—not just smaller ones with shoestring budgets—are also relying heavily on AI-generated feature articles with well-polished visuals.
“Artwork is all about human touch, which adds soul”, said Satish Acharya, a freelance cartoonist for the last 14 years, contributing to news outlets like Mail Today, Gulf News, Dainik Bhaskar, Frontline, and Sportstar.
His personal experience tells him that if one has established one's style and uniqueness, lots of people prefer it.
“Art created by AI is soulless, and the need of the hour is balance”, he added.
AI has created an alternative option with a prompt set to create the ideas one has in mind. It's a death note to signature styles and iconic characters that appeared with every cartoon, maintaining continuity and storyline, like The Common Man of R.K. Lakshman is an emotion.
Sandeep Adhwaryu, Chief Cartoonist at The Times of India, believes that AI is revolutionary as it has democratised the profession because if one has an idea, a prompt is enough to execute.
“Cartoons are not a joke, entertainment or memes, but superficiality is ruling the roost”, he said, explaining how the relevance of AI will remain, but its impact will not have a larger shelf life once people start accepting that there is no human touch and nuance.
“AI has fortified the freedom of speech and expression, for which social media stands as the foundation,” said Aseem, a political cartoonist who began a campaign, titled ‘Save Your Voice’, after the government banned his website ‘CartoonsAgainstCorruption.com’ in 2012, which was a part of the ‘India Against Corruption’ movement.
He believes that a tool like AI can make cartoons as a medium popular.
For him, art reaching the audience is the ultimate win for the artist.
“As an art critic, there is no texture, depth or volume, but if you see it like a tool in the hands of the masses, one just needs a prompt,” he added to explain his stance, because not everyone can paint, but everyone can have an idea or an opinion. AI is just an addition.
But according to him, “when AI reaches its peak, human creativity will be in great demand”, he said.
