Artificial intelligence, a tool or a threat for Japan’s manga industry?

Japan’s celebrated manga industry is facing a dilemma: how to use artificial intelligence? Some comic book artists believe the technology will make their labour-intensive job much easier, but others have launched plagiarism lawsuits, claiming their work has been illegally copied by AI. As the country’s culture agency tries to identify pirated manga content on the internet – ironically, using AI – the country’s manga artists are wondering whether AI is a tool or a threat for their art. Our correspondents report.