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Mark and Joe chat with author Benoit Chartier about the anime film Akira.

They begin with one of Mark’s questions: what piece of technology frightens you? Benoit admits he isn’t frightened by it, but he’s annoyed by ChatGPT and other AI techs, because it may flood the market with crap books.

As all three are authors, they get into a serious (and somewhat bleak) conversation about how the flood of AI-generated stuff is causing some magazines to shut their doors to over-the-transom submissions.

Then they shift into one of Benoit’s favorite pieces of art, the 1988 anime cyberpunk film Akira, by Katsuhiro Otomo.

“It’s still held up as being one of the best, and truest to the story, anime films,” says Benoit.

The manga that is the source material for the movie set him on the road to being a science fiction writer.