You’ve seen this comic before: An anthropomorphic dog sits smiling, surrounded by flames, and says, “That’s okay.”
It has become one of the most enduring memes of the past decade and now AI startups Craftsman seems to have incorporated it into an advertising campaign — an advertisement for which KC Greenthe artist who created the comic said his art was stolen.
A Bluesky post appears to show an ad in a subway station with Greene’s art, except the dog says, “[M]The pipeline is on fire” and an overlaid message urges passers-by to “Rent Ava the AI BDR”.
Quoting this post, Green said “It’s gotten more and more people telling me about it” and that “it’s nothing [I] agreed.” Instead, he said the ad had been “stolen like AI steals” and told fans to “please vandalize it if and when you see it”.
When TechCrunch emailed Artisan asking about the ad, the company said, “We have a lot of respect for KC Green and his work and are reaching out to him directly.” In a follow-up email, the company said it had scheduled a time to speak with him.
Artisan has caused controversy with its ads in the past, specifically with billboards calling on businesses to ‘stop hiring people’ — although founder and chief executive Jaspar Carmichael-Jack insisted the message was about “a category of work” and not “people in general”.
“This is fine” first appeared in Green’s webcomic “Gunshow” in 2013, and while he hasn’t completely renounced the smiling melting dog (recently turn the comic into a game), is clear got out of his control. And of course, Green is far from the only artist to see his art used in ways he finds unacceptable.
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However, some artists have still taken action when their art is monetized or used in commercial ways without their permission, for example when cartoonist Matt Furie sued the right-wing conspiracy theory website Infowars for using the Pepe the Frog character on a poster. (Furie and Infowars eventually settled.)
Green told TechCrunch via email that he would “look into it [legal] representation, as I feel I should.” However, he said it “takes the wind out of my sails” to have to take “time out of my life to try my hand at the American justice system instead of putting it back into what I’m passionate about, which is drawing comics and stories.”
Green added: “These AI losers who haven’t thought are not untouchable and memes just don’t come out of thin air.”
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