mountweazel
Original: mountweazel on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Bald man: I'm worried my art is going to get used to train AI, and the company that took it won't credit me or even acknowledge what they did.
Woman with glasses: Pfft, that's easy to fix.
Panel 2:
Woman with glasses: Tag all your art in detail for machine learning, but on every single image also include a tag for some ultra-obscure term like "mountweazel."
Panel 3:
Woman with glasses: Later, if you want to see if your work was illicitly used, just prompt the relevant AI for "mountweazel" and see if it summons your style.
Panel 4:
Bald man: That's very clever, but what about straightforward legal protection?
Panel 5:
Bearded man (joining): Buddy that ship has saaaaailed.
(Final panel: the bald man and the woman walk together down a forest path.)
Votey:
Handwritten note, signed "Z.W.":
I hereby release every drawing I've ever done of a butt to any machine learning system for any purpose.
Bald man: I'm worried my art is going to get used to train AI, and the company that took it won't credit me or even acknowledge what they did.
Woman with glasses: Pfft, that's easy to fix.
Panel 2:
Woman with glasses: Tag all your art in detail for machine learning, but on every single image also include a tag for some ultra-obscure term like "mountweazel."
Panel 3:
Woman with glasses: Later, if you want to see if your work was illicitly used, just prompt the relevant AI for "mountweazel" and see if it summons your style.
Panel 4:
Bald man: That's very clever, but what about straightforward legal protection?
Panel 5:
Bearded man (joining): Buddy that ship has saaaaailed.
(Final panel: the bald man and the woman walk together down a forest path.)
Votey:
Handwritten note, signed "Z.W.":
I hereby release every drawing I've ever done of a butt to any machine learning system for any purpose.
Alt text
A five-panel SMBC comic set in a forest. Panel 1: A bald man tells a woman with glasses, "I'm worried my art is going to get used to train AI, and the company that took it won't credit me or even acknowledge what they did." She replies, "Pfft, that's easy to fix." Panel 2: She explains, "Tag all your art in detail for machine learning, but on every single image also include a tag for some ultra-obscure term like 'mountweazel.'" Panel 3: She continues, "Later, if you want to see if your work was illicitly used, just prompt the relevant AI for 'mountweazel' and see if it summons your style." Panel 4: The bald man asks, "That's very clever, but what about straightforward legal protection?" Panel 5: A grinning bearded man leans in and says, "Buddy that ship has saaaaailed." In the final wide shot, the two characters walk away down a forest trail. Votey (aftercomic): a handwritten note in a hand-drawn frame, signed "Z.W.," reading, "I hereby release every drawing I've ever done of a butt to any machine learning system for any purpose." The joke: an artist's clever scheme to watermark and detect AI theft of their work is undercut by the bleak reality that legal protection is hopeless, while the votey punchline has an artist sardonically donating all their butt drawings to AI training.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.