Dear Readers,
Hello! Amy K here. To the one reader of ToonStack who has repeatedly commented on my absence from recent issues (hi to my brother Ethan), here I am, back at your service.
You may know I recently finished a book, which is about, among other things, Artificial Intelligence and large language models, and when I raised my head from my desk after seven years of thinking about AI and large language models, it seemed like everyone was suddenly talking about AI and large language models. If you don’t know, large language models are when you take billions of sentences, put them in a blender with a bunch of old chargers and some pixie dust, press “blend,” and then a fully autonomous sentient robot takes over the world.
In light of this shocking new development for humanity, I want to ask the ToonStackers: how are your jokes about technology changing? Are robot cartoons still funny? Or is it all too real?
The first cartoon I ever sold to The New Yorker (thanks Bob!) featured a fully autonomous sentient robot:
This was funny in 2016 because it was ridiculous to think that one technology could jump from a constrained and specific task like driving to having the agency required for self-involved decisions like those about their own grooming and education. But the prospect of these kinds of AI jumps in intelligence and agency are currently making headlines. What’s a humorist to do when their jokes become reality?
A middle-aged person with disheveled hair???
I’ll show you, robot! I’m going back to school!! And to get a haircut.
Would I look better with bangs?
Bot Mankoff
If AI has any real I it won’t replace cartoonists. Too much work for too little pay. But since it still lacks common sense, it might.
If so, I could bear some of the blame. The millions of entries to The New Yorker caption contest have been used to train it to understand cartoon humor.
Let’s see how ChatGPT does on this cartoon of mine which appeared in The New Yorker in 1997 after IBM’s Deep Blue had defeated world chess champion Gary Kasparov, perhaps marking the beginning of the road to our computer overlords lording it over us.
ChatGPT (responding to a description of the cartoon): This joke seems to be poking fun at the increasing complexity and "intelligence" of everyday objects due to advancements in technology. The man in the cartoon is addressing his microwave as if it were an artificially intelligent entity that could play chess, which is a task usually associated with advanced AI systems.
The humor comes from the absurdity of this situation and the man's irritation. He doesn't want his microwave to do anything complex or sophisticated like playing chess; he just wants it to perform its basic function, which is reheating his lasagna. This can be seen as a satire of how technology is becoming overly complex for the tasks we want to achieve.
And, here is ChatGPT’s suggestion for how I might update it. "Forget about Bitcoin mining. I just need you to warm up the lasagna."
Done! Thank you, computer overlords!
Ed Himelblau
I signed up for ChatGPT when it started to get media attention. I was curious to see if it could write cartoon captions. My caption for the cartoon below was “Tomorrow we ride to victory. But tonight, we snack irresponsibly!” What did ChatGPT come up with?
"This is it. Tomorrow, we fight for our lives. For our families. For our kingdom. Be brave. Be strong. Be victorious." (Not a joke but it uses the same rhythm as my original caption - which is barely a joke.)
"I'm not sure which one of you is going to get the honor of eating the last chicken leg." (I swear my prompt didn’t mention the chicken-leg-looking thing in front of the speaker.)
"I'm not sure if I'm supposed to eat this or ride it." (What can I say - it makes me laugh.)
Ellis Rosen
If AI and computers do in fact, like my uncle insists, take over humanity, well guess what? It will be our turn to be super annoying! We could spam them until their sockets burst! We could constantly blab out disinformation until it starts to think 0’s are 1’s! We could trace its art and draw the hands even worse! We will have our revenge! Long live the revolution!
Johnny DiNapoli
If I’ve learned anything from science-fiction movies and real life, it’s that new, powerful, groundbreaking technology only leads to positive and desired effects. That’s what’s so great about tech- it’s always predictable and 100% neutral, totally untethered to the context in which it’s created and humanity’s disparate intentions and cravings. I fully endorse and welcome the rise of A.I., and I want my allegiance to be clear to all the robots who are reading this and will one day not destroy all of us.
Sofia Warren
I’m all soft edges and soft skills. How could a ’bot (that’s short for robot) do what I do, which is quibble and fret and putz around? I believe I’m singularity-proof.
Hilary Campbell
I don’t know anything about AI (it makes me sad) but I would like to like to live in Roku city.
Navied Mahdavian
When I was 6, a bee flew into my eye and got stuck under my eyelid. To the casual observer, it would have seemed to be the logical consequence of sticking one’s face into a flower bed and screaming, “You don’t scare me, bees!” But I think it was the first volley.
AI is a red herring (idea for book: Killer Robot Herrings). The real threat is killer robot bees.
ToonStack NewsStack
Amy Kurzweil’s new book, Artificial: A Love Story, is available for preorder!
So is Navied Mahdavian’s graphic memoir, This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America
Discover Ed Himelblau’s science cartoon newsletter, The Lab Meeting.
Bob Mankoff’s Cartoon Collections is now CartoonStock. Order prints of all your favorite cartoons today!
Check out Jason Katzenstein’s NEW PATREON!
Amy Kurzweil teaches cartoon classes on Patreon! Sign up now to get the recording of every past class!
Be sure to check out Shelby Lorman’s newsletter, Please Clap!
The same goes for Sofia Warren’s advice newsletter, You’re Doing Great!
Order Hilary’s guided journal, What Did I Do Today?
See more cartoons from Ellis Rosen’s weekly Junk Drawer!
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My favorite Toonstack so far! I’ve been experimenting with having AI create the drawing instead of the caption. I think we are safe.
The existential crisis of AI strikes fear into me everyday. Will AI bots supersede human humorists? I really dread the day when a robotic Three Stooges gets more laughs than the original human comedy team.