Technology

Manga artist Inio Asano, the creator of Goodnight Punpun and Dead Dead Demon’s Dededede Destruction, recently appeared as a guest on WEEKLY OCHIAI, a talk show hosted by Japanese media artist Yoichi Ochiai. In the interview, published partly on YouTube (the full version can be watched via the News Picks platform), Asano talked about the “Unreal Engine” technique for creating his manga, and touched on why he put Mujina Into the Deep on hiatus, as well as the use of generative AI in the manga scene.

To begin with, Asano says that Mujina Into the Deep ended up turning into an action manga because he wanted to create a story where he could freely experiment with 3D-modeled environments. “Initially, it was supposed to be a simple, grounded story about this hopeless middle-aged man in a shopping street. But when I created the town in 3D, I was like, I could make a manga that’s much better suited for this – and it naturally became an action manga.”

Those who follow Asano on X might be familiar with the fact that over 90% of the backgrounds in Mujina Into the Deep were made by the mangaka himself using Unreal Engine and Blender. While he uses paid assets when he can, he also models his own when needed.

Asked about whether utilizing AI could help with streamlining the process of modeling and placing all of the individual assets on such a vast open world, Asano explains that “it’s definitely possible, but there is a very difficult problem of what extent you can use AI to.”

“Right now, publishers are not in a position where they can overtly say that they allow AI use,” Asano comments. “It’s a strange situation; You’re not allowed to use it precisely because you’re a professional.” He explains that, while there are several reasons why Mujina Into the Deep was put on a hiatus until 2027, the manga scene’s current attitude towards AI is one of them.

“In the current state of things, mangaka are not allowed to use AI. But using AI actually drives up the quality by a mile. So doesn’t that mean it would be best to not draw the manga now? Maybe they suddenly lift the ban [on AI] next year, so it might be better to start drawing after that happens. I’m currently on standby in that sense,” Asano says. Though he didn’t elaborate if or to what extent he hypothetically plans to use AI, he said that using it could significantly speed up the modeling process.

As a side note, Asano says that, while he doesn’t find any particular inspiration for his stories in other forms of media, he is passionate about video games. Apparently, all of his work after Dededede, including Mujina Into the Deep, is heavily inspired by the GTA franchise. As he explains, he creates all of his stories by creating an “open world” for them first.

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/49606509

Mapping the spread of age-verification laws

Governments around the world are making age a condition for accessing certain parts of the internet. This page tracks where such laws are in force, where they are advancing, and how different countries are approaching the same policy goal.

The reality of how much damage AI mania is doing to our ability to run institutions effectively.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1269855/kaiser-nurses-say-ai-workplace-surveillance-are-making-their-jobs-and-patient-care-worse

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1269873/nasdaq-s-p-500-drop-1-after-chinas-latest-ai-breakthrough-rattles-tech-stocks

A newly disclosed vulnerability chain dubbed wp2shell affects WordPress Core, not a third-party plugin. The disclosure has prompted emergency security updates and includes publicly available PoC, IoCs, and detection guidance for defenders

A brief recap: a few weeks ago I’d taken the $155,000 Range Rover I was testing out to run some errands with my wife in Plymouth, Minnesota. I was backing out of a parking space in front of my local Kohl’s when four cop cars came screaming up and “initiated a box and pin on the vehicle,” as the police report says. Hands on their guns, the officers ordered us out of the vehicle, patted us down, and eventually told us the Range Rover’s license plate—New Jersey 34 10 DTM—was stolen, they suspected the vehicle itself was stolen too, and they’d used Flock cameras to track me down over the last two days.

The scenario involving my wife and I is just one of many like it. Thomas noted that the system is 99% accurate today, but it’s performing 20 billion reads a month. That 1% error rate, of which I was a part of in June, makes for two hundred million misreads a month.

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1269396/faa-says-boeing-can-resume-self-certifying-its-jets-as-airworthy

cross-posted from: https://piefed.world/c/tech/p/1269053/mixfont-creator-develops-anti-ai-decoy-font-to-mask-text-using-optical-illusion

Background:
This air cleaner is a homemade system that is useful for lowering the levels of respiratory aerosol particles

Risk is rising as big tech companies like Oracle — the ultimate financial source of the Ellison media empire — need to turn to the bond market for staggering sums to finance data centers.