Mimic anime art generator

Mimic is an anime-style art generator developed by Japanese software developer Radius5 on which artists can upload and customise their work to produce artwork in their own illustration style.

Risks and harms

A backlash accompanied by the hashtag 'AI学習禁止' ('No AI Learning'), quickly followed Mimic's beta release in August 2022, with artists and illustrators complaining that Mimic would cheapen the art form and be used to recreate artists’ work without their permission.

Radius 5 CEO Daisuke Urushihara took to social media to ask critics not to criticise or slander artists. Within 24 hours of its launch, the system was suspended when artists started uploading other artists' work, despite this being explicity banned in Mimic's terms of use.

Automaton notes that although some artists admitted the rise of AI art generators is inevitable and could be useful, if used appropriately, a good number expressed concerns about the future of their industry and jobs as AI takes further root.

In addition, some artists opined that the value of art as a whole will likely be damaged by AI-generated art, because it lacks the 'warmth' and 'soul' that artists put into their work.