Comic Strip of the Day

CSotD: Thinking Allowed

AI says it’s time to wake up, Golding notes, and that if we don’t, we may not. The people who understand this stuff seem to agree that it’s in real danger of getting out of hand, and in a perfect world, they’d all get together and agree to slow down and figure things out.

And in a perfect world, we’d have wiped out measles. What world are you living in?

I suppose maybe it’s like drivers on a freeway realizing that everyone is driving way too fast, but also realizing that anyone who touches their brakes is going to become a hockey puck getting banged around the asphalt, which is why they are voicing their concern to the government.

We’re facing this danger the same way we’ve faced the measles outbreak: With denial.

As Dear Leader explained on his Truth

The claim that “AI is going to take over the World” is a Hoax, just like Global “Warming,” where everyone was going to be dead by now, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, UKRAINE, or Impeachment Hoax #1, or Impeachment Hoax #2. 

I’m not sure what the president thinks “hoax” means, because those are all things that were true, which would make the threat of AI going out of control something we should worry about.

However, he clarifies things in another Truth:

The people that say AI is going to destroy the World, and that Data Centers are bad for your neighborhood, are the same people that said, just a short time ago, that the World would be extinguished by “Climate Change.” That HOAX never worked out for them, and now they’re on to the next one. These people are Revolutionaries, but Revolutionaries for a Bad and Evil Cause. Soon you’ll find out they’re working for people that do not have the best interests of the United States in mind!

The Trumps cannot be easily fooled, and Junior has refuted the hoax that his wedding was paid for by a Russian oligarch who is a close associate of Putin. As the new Mrs. Junior explained, that simply isn’t true. He didn’t pay for the wedding. He just paid for the two-day party that followed. And, anyway, he’s just a friend.

Besides, the idea that Putin is one of those “people that do not have the best interests of the United States in mind” is another hoax, because why would Dear Leader try to get Russia back into the G20 if they weren’t our friends? The idea that Russia is not our ally is another hoax, probably started by all those communists the GOP has been warning us against.

Not to worry. As Dear Leader has explained,

The only control or “guardrails” that AI needs is a STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT, and the U.S.A. has that, in spades!

Well, to rework an old expression, “You go to war with the president you have, not the president you might want or wish to have at a later time,” and Dear Leader’s denial of the potential threat is troubling precisely because we need a smart and high IQ president.

German goes farther and points out that Dear Leader has already demonstrated his competence by handling inflation, the war in Iran, the national debt and corruption in the executive branch.

And McKee appears to also agree with Trump that what he need is a high IQ president.

Mark Wilson/Getty Images North America/Getty Images

Someone who really understands science and how to deal with it responsibly.

And Duginski mocks the president’s assurances that we’ve already got all the guardrails we need, and that, if China has no intention of slowing things down, we can’t afford to, either. Which, logically, does seem like an argument against guardrails rather than an endorsement of our current guidelines.

But, as with Russia, only communists oppose our friendly competition with China.

Though we don’t think other countries should trade with Beijing, of course. That wouldn’t be friendly.

Molina notes one of the dangers of living in a democracy, which is that sometimes the stupidity bubbles up from below, and if you have a gullible voter base, it’s not likely that you’ll have a wise and thoughtful government.

Slyngstad doubles down on the issue, pointing out that the core MAGA group doesn’t seem to learn from experience, and can be readily led by the nose with the same empty promises they’re fallen for several times in the past.

We’re testing that gullibility with the promise of a $5,000 check if somehow both houses of Congress go to the Republicans in November, which at the moment seems as likely as flipping a coin 50 times and having it come up heads each time.

But then again, each flip of a coin is a 50:50 chance, no matter how it came up before, and placing your bets on any other odds is foolish.

No matter what the polls suggest, showing up to vote is the only way you can influence the outcome.

And there is a real danger in being so enamored of the things that AI can do for us that we downplay the things that AI can do to us.

But we don’t tend to move very fast. After all, this is a country that watched for more than three years as Hitler raged through Europe and Japan took giant bites out of Asia and we didn’t do anything about it until there was a massive surprise attack on our own territory in the Pacific.

Accordingly, we’ve elected a president who, when touring Pearl Harbor, had to ask what had happened there and now says

We already have tremendous CRIMINAL and REGULATORY power over these companies! … We are leading China, and all others, and will continue to do so. Conspiracy Theorists, Treasonists, Traitors, and Leakers, BEWARE!

If that sounds familiar, it’s because it should.

Thank you for your inattention to this matter! 

Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.

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Comments 22

  1. The depressing part is that the AI takeover will be done with nowhere near the class and style of Arnold.

    1. At this point, I’d settle for Caine or D.A.V.E. over the oligarch-led version we’re stuck with.

  2. Is it just me, or does the Bart Van Leeuwen anti-AI cartoon looks like it was done using AI?

      1. That’s been his style since before there were AI graphics.

      2. Thanks for the clarification, Mike.

        A.I. is making us suspicious of everything.

    1. It absolutely looks A.I. to me as well. Ought not to have been included, or it should have had commentary added to point that out.

      1. My guess would that he uses some 3D modelling software like Blender. That is out now for over 30 years now. Off course, it’s much more artistic if you have your assistants copy/paste Garfield for just another monday cartoon…

      2. Guessing can easily become libel. He says he uses Photoshop and Illustrator and I’m sure many other cartoonists use them as well. The subject is closed.

        From now on, I will only use cartoons by Randall Monroe and Stephan Pastis so we can avoid any accusations. Though I think Monroe uses rulers.

    2. It’s inevitable that cartoonists come up with identical ideas about a particular subject. Great minds think alike, right? But you wonder where some cartoonists get their ideas from when nine out of ten cartoons depict the same idea regarding a certain subject. Under the guise of “inspiration” ideas are shamelessly copied, and to avoid suspicion of plagiarism minor adjustments are made. No, when it comes to originality some cartoonists are no better than AI.

      Regarding my working method: I start off with an idea, which I sketch beforehand with a pen on a piece of paper. Then I search for useful components to visualize that idea. I mainly use AI to generate the components I need for my composition, but also stock-images. Before AI came along I scored image banks using keywords to find useful imagery. Today I use a text prompt to create useful imagery. Not much difference if you ask me. I combine the different images with the use of Photoshop.

      My own distinctive style lies mainly in the caricatures of the heads. I don’t use AI to create these heads, at least not to caricature them. I create the caricatures in my cartoons from scratch in Photoshop based on a photo of the person in question. Yes, after that I fine-tune my caricatures with the help of AI, but these are only cosmetic improvements, the shape of my caricatures remain intact.

      My working method hasn’t changed since I use AI. My cartoons are still a mixture of images from which I cut out parts to create a new narrative. That some of these images are now generated by AI doesn’t take away the fact that my work is still based on the old-fashioned cut-and-paste-method. Didn’t Salvador Dalí do exactly the same thing, albeit in a less refined, more symbolic way? In a sense my cartoons are just as well (digital) collages.

      It shows great arrogance for traditional cartoonists to claim exclusive rights to create cartoons. As if they earned their talent instead of being given it to them at birth. Yes, it takes a lot of time and practice to develop that talent. But the same goes for me. It took me as much blood, sweat, and tears to master Photoshop and develop my own style as any old fashioned cartoonist has undergone.

      Creating cartoons with only a simple text prompt is questionable. But what’s the fun of that? I create my own ideas and use the same equipment and software of regular cartoonists, leaving me, after a few hours, with a Photoshop-document of 50 – 80 layers per cartoon.

      Don’t get me wrong, I am as much of an opponent of AI as every artist is. But by using AI merely as a tool, I think it can lead to something unique.

      In the end it’s not about talent and/or creativity. It’s about social criticism, about mocking ruling powers.

  3. High IQ president? wa hahaha! I used to liken his IQ level that of a turnip. That is until I was deluged with angry texts and emails from turnips saying how dare I insinuate that his IQ was as high as theirs!!!

  4. Trump defines hoax as anything that he doesn’t want to believe.

    I do not think that word means what he thinks it means.

    1. Or knows to be true but doesn’t want the marks to believe.

      1. Addendum for A. Lincoln: “Unfortunately, you can fool enough of the people enough of the time to sow chaos, hatred and confusion while enriching yourself, family and friends.”
        So we wait until sanity returns and hope civilization survives? Not me. I’m going out in a (metaphorical) blaze of glory. As soon as I can get this lighter to work…

  5. Thank you for posting the song from Stan Rogers, a favourite singer of mine, taken from us far too young.
    Born in nearby Hamilton, Ontario, he mostly sang about Maritime life. I saw him perform a few times . I believe that’s his brother Garnet in the picture, a fine musician in his own right.
    Thank you for rounding up all these great cartoons every day and for your insight.

    1. I bet you wish you were in Sherbrooke now.

  6. So just to makes things clear:

    COVID-19 was a hoax
    Canada is our enemy, Russia is our friend
    The US economy has never been better
    Trump’s poll number have never been higher
    The dangers of A.I. is a hoax
    Nothing bad is ever Trump’s fault, even if he was directly involved

    Yep, Trump & MAGA simply do not live in reality.
    So why tf does ANYone in the media still pay attention to ANYthing this delusional moron says, much less treat it like some divine revelation? I’m so goddamn sick of media outlets parroting Trump’s rantings without hardly any pushback.

    It’s maddening. Am I the crazy one? Is everyone crazy? Does it even matter anymore???

  7. Trump is our Wile. E. Coyote, and AI is our Acme, selling junk as if it was real. Too bad we aren’t road runners. We’re more like a whole bunch of Wile. E’s

    1. What did poor Wile E. DO to be compared to Trump?! 🙁

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