Why is Netflix and Wit Studio’s new short so controversial?

Netflix and Wit Studio, the animation production company behind it Spy x Family and: Attack on Titans, released a new short film. Titled The Dog & The Boy, the short film follows a boy who discovers a robot dog before a great tragedy separates them. It’s emotional and cute, but what’s most remarkable about this short isn’t the storyline, but the fact that the background is created using artificial intelligence.

Netflix Japan’s tweet about the short explains that the method is “an experimental attempt to help the anime industry, which is short on labor.” A blog post on the Netflix Japan website goes into more detail about the process.

The use of artificial intelligence to create art has become a very controversial topic in the last few months. Over the past year, due to the popularity of DALL-E, Midjourney, and the Free AI Art Generator, many artists have spoken out about how these programs use their art without consent and how their specific art styles can be copied in just a in a row. words are entered into one of these programs. It #SupportHumanArtists movement began to draw attention to the ethical issues surrounding the use of AI.

They have a lot of users on Twitter called Netflix and WIT Studio for this short film and the opportunity to use AI tools to replace background artists. The Japanese animation industry in particular is already facing many problems, the main one being that many animators are underpaid.