Cartooning in the Age of AI #21: What We Lose When AI Does Our Thinking

AI can dull our brains and that's only one reason not to rely on it.

Cartooning wasn’t an easy way to make a living before generative AI came along.
Now we’re going to have to get smarter.
And more human.

AI Stops You Learning

After drafting this post, I read this one by Ethan Mollick, an academic who analyses the use of AI. Using AI has a very real effect on how we think.

"If you outsource your thinking to the AI instead of doing the work yourself, then you will miss the opportunity to learn."

The findings Mollick reports on creativity are worth a read in their entirety, but he says,

"AI's suggestions, even mediocre ones, can crowd out your own unique perspectives."

I like the idea of AI as an intern (especially one like that portrayed by Robert De Niro in The Intern, a film I watched this week and enjoyed probably more than I should have). If I wasn't concerned about my personal data, and I was a little more tech-savvy, I would happily hand over all my banking, invoicing and receipts and ask it to do my taxes.

If AI is Free, We’re the Product

I'm cautious about becoming reliant on AI. I use the free versions of Claude, Gemini and ChatGPT, and I know that they are free right now because our data is being used to develop them. Once they have that, we’ll probably have to pay for anything of use.

It’s how it was for Facebook and Instagram. They started as great ways for cartoonists to reach their fans, but once content creators had helped it build its platforms, Meta pulled the rug out from under us. Now Facebook and Instagram charge us to "boost" posts to reach people who signed up to follow us (never mind paying for advertising to the ones who haven’t).

But that isn't the main reason I don't want to rely on AI for mundane tasks. There is value to some of the mundane. I find colouring in my comic tedious, but I still do it.

This Sunday cartoon (rejigged badly to fit phone screens) seemed like a good idea until I had to colour all the frickin’ balloons.

The Value of Mundane Tasks

Many cartoonists employ talented colourists to do the job and I liked that idea, but Arctic Circle isn't in enough newspapers to warrant it. I'm sure there's an affordable way I could get an AI to do it. But, like inking (which I enjoy more), colouring gives me time to listen to podcasts that relate to my work:

• Hard Fork (technology, especially AI)

• Creative Penn (independent publishing)

• Comic Lab (the business of cartooning)

And I learn a lot from them.

Colouring is also a new way of looking at comics on screen. This helps me catch mistakes that I have missed many times before. There is value to it.

There is also value to reading and not having an AI summarise everything. Yes, I use it for those infernal terms and conditions or sections of legal contracts that befuddle me, but when I'm reading about Portland history to write a post, I'll find things in there that I wasn't looking for. Some bunny holes are good (you can’t say the R-word on Portland).

Reading about the settlement of the peninsula from the stone age to Roman times enriched my understanding of the place and will feed into my subconscious to potentially generate future ideas. Deep and extensive reading builds knowledge that can be drawn on more easily. I only wish I had time to read more.

I wonder how Amy Stewart finds the time. The writer and illustrator wrote about her research process for her books and how reading a lot helps her see patterns:

"Seeing those patterns, understanding what I'll want to come back to later, is one of many reasons why I've never hired a research assistant. Looking for this stuff, finding it, thinking about it, categorising it—that is the work. A painter couldn't hire out her walks in the landscape or her preliminary sketches. I couldn't hire out the research."

There are three rules for writing a book

Most of the information in my more recent books about Lyttelton and the Basque Country was from lived experience, but I had to back that up by cross-checking my facts. And the structure of the books came from years of working on them and thinking about them. Using AI to do that more quickly would take away much of what helped me write. The knowledge I gain through lived experience, talking to people and reading around has to be scrambled through my brain to come out sounding like me. For better or worse.

Learning through doing is a way to be more human and connect with people who want that.
As you seem to do.

Thank you for being one of the good humans.

Alex

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P.S. Molly has been doing her physiotherapy exercises under duress. She thinks all exercise should involve a ball.

And if you’re not the subscription type, you can also support what I do by buying me a coffee, or Molly a treat (her current favourite: dried lamb unmentionables), by clicking the graphic below.

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"A New Zealand Diary: Living in Lyttelton", an illustrated, non-AI-generated memoir, is available where all good books are sold and in Christchurch Libraries (where it’s free to place a hold)

“Alex Hallatt has made a little masterpiece of a book” – Librarian from Tūranga, Christchurch

If you want your library to get a copy, ask them.

Book details, a sample chapter and more information are at alexhallatt.com/nzd

More Reviews Help Cartoonists Make a Living by Selling More Books

If you are one of the many readers who have enjoyed my books (usually available for free in libraries, like my latest, A New Zealand Diary), please leave a review, ideally on Amazon (where many people research books, even if they don’t buy them there) or Goodreads.
It costs only your time and helps me do battle with the algorithms.

Thank you.

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