AI and editorial cartooning don't mix.

But some guy tried it, by plagiarism.

I got a notice the other day from our Association of Editorial Cartoonists e-mail thread (I was president of AAEC twice: in 2015-2016, and in 2023-2024, and I mostly enjoyed it) noting that one of our colleagues had an interesting problem.

Pedro X. Molina, a truly fine, original editorial cartoonist, found out that some website, “ToonAmerica”, had taken cartoons from Pedro, run them through the AI blender, and came up with “new” cartoons that were stiffer and less artistically accomplished. ToonAmerica Man then posted them on a YouTube channel.

You know, to make money off plagiarism.

Plagiarism gets a bad name here. Plagiarism requires a little finesse. What this guy did was re-render Pedro’s cartoons and made money on the deal. It wasn’t just Pedro.

Me, Rob Rogers, Ramirez, Mike Luckovich, Rick McKee, Nick Anderson and a few others were subjected to this abject, blatant theft.

Yes, I will provide examples:

Oh, and here’s Pedro’s:

Terry Anderson, our fine Cartoonist Rights Network International president, said this in a post the other day:

“… the cartoons are invariably poorer to boot. Not just the obvious typos and such mistakes. The storytelling in yours is completely lost, for example.

Don’t know about TikTok, but YouTube does not allow misleading channel descriptions.

ToonAmerica says that after “deep research” it uses AI only to finish “manually sketch[ed] unique, raw cartoon concepts” an obvious lie.

AmeriSatire is trickier, but it does mention “freshest takes” which implies originality.

I suggest all affected cartoonists report these channels on that basis.”

Oh, we will, man. We have lots of time on our hands since the vast majority of us got eaten by corporate journalism.

Several cartoonists got the “Toon America” YouTube channel pulled down, for starters. I’m hoping we can try a little behavior-correcting financial recompense. You know, it is our work.

A few observations here:

1. It is hard to draw editorial cartoons properly, and really easy to run them through Artificial Intelligence. If you can come up with the ideas, which we do, each day or more, that’s why we make the money and ToonAmerica doesn’t.

2. Not sure what the legal policing is on this? Homage? Theft? Fair Use?

3. Imagine this if you were a writer, which many of you are. Some idiot takes your words and sends them to The New Yorker or the AARP Bulletin, where Idiot gets a check. You’d be sad.

The important thing here is that they were caught. But how do we creators of any type enforce this? What’s the law? These rip-offs are exact as far as the words and writing go. The art is so bad that it’s like all of the other cartoonists got together, grabbed a pen and brush, and tried to draw a cartoon simultaneously. They are uniquely and completely incompetent.

Editorial cartoonists have an unusual skillset: they write, draw, and bring intelligent (mostly) commentary to you in a three by five inch square, or down to your phone screen. We thrive on our audience. We need our audience. And now, we really need our audience. Otherwise, we perish, and we are damned close to that now.

“God gave you eyes, plagiarize,” the humorist Tom Lehrer once sang. He could not have possibly imagined this sixty years later, the slogan would be “God gave you AI, plagiarize.”

In conclusion, since I am watching the Giants and writing, this again demonstrates how important it is that you folks have jumped in to help me continue my work. Without you, I would probably be working, somewhat incompetently, in a bait shop.

When you stepped up, I knew, again, that what I do is important to you and the national conversation. We’re the people with the loudest laugh, standing in a corner at a cocktail party making fun of your sweater. We strip the political positions down to their skivvies. We do work that no one, not even AI, can do. AI can’t, because it’s dumb.

For example, look at their lousy cartoons.

I am so thankful for all of you, and I will bloviate on this subject soon, on the first year anniversary of You Betcha!, which launched last June 4.

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Hey, YBs! : What a boring Giants game. Have a great evening!—J.