UN-ARTIFICIAL ME
Disclaimer
Before sharing any more information on this book, I want to say that it’s outdated and perhaps doesn’t send the message I intended it to send. I wrote the text portion of it in the summer of 2024, back when the environmental impacts of AI weren’t nearly as well known as they are today – which is why I didn’t discuss them apart from a short mention. Now, with all the information available on data centers’ enormous energy and water usage, I don’t support generative AI at all and don’t encourage using it for anything until companies take responsibility for the resources they use and the communities and ecosystems they’ve harmed.
Additionally, I think the ending of this comic deserves an explanation. At the time, I was imagining the ending to be a vision of the future, rather than advice for what people should do in the present. I was thinking about a possible future where generative AI was made ethical, and what this would mean for creatives in a situation where the other issues with it were fixed. I intended for this comic to show a more general audience that I (and many other artists I know) aren’t blind haters of AI, but rather people who have very specific and addressable concerns about the ethical problems surrounding it, and therefore should be taken seriously. But, feedback from readers as well as myself maturing has led me to realize that this intention was unclear, which is why I’m not actively promoting this book anymore. I would take it off the Internet entirely if it weren’t for the message sent throughout the rest of the book (apart from the ending), which I still do believe in. I’ve been thinking of making a second edition that’s more up to date with the current situation. I don’t ever use AI in my art or writing, despite what the ending may unintentionally imply, and don’t ever plan to!
– April 15, 2026
Summary
Alice lives and breathes art. She’s not talented at all, but she’s as passionate as can be, and she dreams of connecting with others and receiving recognition. But things aren’t so simple in the modern day. Alice has an alter ego–a spirit from the shadow realm, who can generate perfect images at the blink of an eye. And this spirit is destroying her hopes, her passion, even her sense of self…all under an innocent desire to help. Will Alice be able to reach an understanding with her alter ego, or will her dreams as an artist be ruined forever?
A fantasy-based reinterpretation of the current AI art debate, by 17-year-old author/illustrator Carina Wang.
Audiobook
* You may have to put the video in fullscreen to see the full pages.
Cover
Carina Wang - Author Website 