Listen, if you're both a certain type of nerd and you love motorcycles, then you absolutely pay attention whenever someone takes it upon themselves to make their own Akira bike from scratch. I mean, at this point in our current timeline, even if you've never seen the classic sci-fi dystopian anime film Akira, you've almost certainly seen one of the many, many, MANY media creations that has paid homage to the film.
Akira slide supercut, anyone?
It's unclear whether Katsuhiro Otomo knew exactly how great an influence his masterwork would have on the pop cultural landscape at large. But the fact remains that it has, even 30-plus years later, and the latest collaboration from France's DAB Motors and VVT is proof.
Except...the press release accompanying the images you now see before you makes absolutely no reference to that thing that your eyes are telling you is right there. Why? I can't say for sure, since I didn't write it. But I'll tell you what it does say, because it's basically insulting your intelligence to your face, if you're even remotely familiar with the source material to which it pays homage.
To be completely clear, the bike itself looks great! It looks really cool, and I'm sure people are going to see it and love it. But to deny what it is, and what it pays homage to, is disingenuous at best, and incredibly disheartening at worst.
Most of all, it illustrates the main complaint that creative people across all fields have against AI, and it's this: AI is nothing but fancy recycling. It's not coming up with anything new; it's a remix. A mashup. A collage of previously existing work. If asked to come up with a design on its own, it couldn't do it without first hoovering up a load of other peoples' work, blending it into a soft and palatable paste, and then regurgitating it out all over your face and telling you to lick it up, like some maniacal, cynical mama bird.
Grossed out? Good. We all should be. Because it's disgusting.
The press release refers to this as "a never-seen-before electric motorcycle," then goes on to explain how DAB Motors and Vita Veloce Team (VVT) teamed up to create this one-of-a-kind bike to celebrate J Balvin's birthday. It goes on to detail how he was involved in the design, but that he didn't know how or when it was coming, so the timing was a surprise.
With me so far? Cool. It then goes on to note how it's built on the DAB 1α platform, and the closest it gets to acknowledging the true-to-what-your-eyes-are-telling-you reference is the line that says, "a machine that looks like it’s stepped out of one of the most legendary Japanese animated films." It doesn't mention this film by name; not even once. Maybe it's to do with licensing issues? Unclear.
In any case, now we're going to get to the part of this presser that made me want to throw things. I'll just quote the next paragraph verbatim, because it's just so, so bad.
"But the design story goes deeper than traditional craftsmanship. VVT integrated AI-powered design tools throughout their creative process, using artificial intelligence not as a replacement, but as a collaborator with human intuition. This blend of human artistry and AI innovation accelerated concept exploration and helped refine the bike’s bold shapes and details—proving that the future of design lies in this powerful synergy."
Say what? Either this is a case of wanting to shoehorn in AI as a buzzword, because everyone else is doing it; or else it's actually what they did. And honestly, it's that last thought that is more dispiriting. You already probably have (and use) CAD and other design tools to refine your creations; where does AI fit into that workflow? It's completely superfluous.
Now, taken without any verbal or written context whatsoever, this design looks great! Just so we're clear. I love a good homage; one that's made with heart and soul.
But at the same time, and very crucially, this design doesn't look like anything that a superfan of Akira couldn't have come up with on their own, as an homage to one of their favorite artistic creations.
And that's exactly my point.
You know (really, I'm certain that you do; I'm not just using that as a transition to start this paragraph), one of the type that we've seen many, many times already. And we should absolutely see people make these, with their hands and eyes and X-acto knives, and their hidden duct tape, and their custom paint-mixing methods, and their long nights spent wide-eyed with too much caffeine, because art inspires art.
It's what art does. But AI isn't inspired; AI is just a blender made of ones and zeroes. AI isn't thinking. AI might be artificial, but it certainly ain't intelligent. It's all a pack of lies, and if we've truly gotten to the point where someone legitimately needed AI to help them come up with a design like this, I don't even know what to say.
Maybe we're past the point of no return.
