WHEN Welsh artist and former Abergavenny resident Mal Humphreys saw what the Town Council was doing to promote the town he once called home, he couldn’t believe his eyes.
Like most of us, the cartoonist whose iconic work was purchased by The National Library of Wales in 2019, greeted the council’s bizarre decision to use an AI-generated image to promote Abergavenny as a Town of Culture with a mixture of disbelief and nausea.
How could an authoritative body think it was wise to represent a notoriously artistic town on a national stage with an image that was not the work of a human hand, but a prompt typed into a computer along the lines of, “A lovely picture of Abergavenny.”
The only trouble is, the picture didn’t turn out so lovely. It had no bearing on an Abergavenny that anyone knew. It was soulless, insipid, and the last time anyone looked, the town didn’t have a pyramid, but in the image it has three!
Nevertheless, it still passed whatever passes for the town council’s quality department and was sent forth into the larger world to make a laughing stock of us all.
The travesty caught the critical eye of Mal, who is now based just outside of Castell Newydd Emlyn, and the artist who did the cover illustrations for the “Visit Abergavenny” guides a few years back wasn’t well pleased.
Mal told the Chronicle, “As a past resident of Abergavenny for 10 years, I was both insulted and embarrassed by the Town Council’s AI postcard.
“It was profoundly wrong on a number of levels. Not least three identical mountains with different names. However, from my own perspective, the lack of anything Cymraeg in their bid was very noticeable.
“The historical Welsh and English mix that exists within Abergavenny is one of the town's many strengths, and the council seemingly completely ignored it by putting a computer in charge.”
Mal added, “Above all, it’s a massive slap in the face to every single artist living in the Abergavenny area. There are plenty of artists and Illustrators living in the town the council could have contacted to help in their bid.
“It's true to say that AI is taking away work from artists daily. I consider myself fortunate that I am now retiring but there are many artists and illustrators who will have to compete with this monster that has an unquenchable thirst.
“By endorsing the use of AI for such an important project it appears Abergavenny Town Council has nailed its colours to the mast
“I can only hope they learn form the mistakes and the strength of feeling that has greeted their poorly advised decision.”
Defending their decision, an Abergavenny Town Council spokesperson told the Chronicle, "Images of our mountains are copyrighted. It costs £150 a time to use an image if you haven't got a photo yourself of the mountain from the right angle.
“We did the absolute best we could in the tight timeframe we had with the images we knew we could use without infringing any copyright."
If that doesn't make much sense to you, perhaps the cartoon that Mal drew after being inspired by the tawdry affair just might. After all, you can never replicate the human touch.
Enjoy, and, one more thing, viva la humanity!
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