Marvel just premiered Secret Invasion this week, and while the studio was probably expecting the discussion to be about the story or the characters, the series has earned a lot of criticism for its use of AI-Generated images for the opening sequence.
Talking to Polygon, director Ali Selim explains how they came to using the controversial medium to producer ‘Skrull Cubism’ for the series. He says, “When we reached out to the AI vendors, that was part of it — it just came right out of the shape-shifting, Skrull world identity, you know? Who did this? Who is this?… We would talk to them about ideas and themes and words, and then the computer would go off and do something. And then we could change it a little bit by using words, and it would change.”
Needless to say, the internet is definitely outraged, and sees this as a studio trying to profit off of AI by ‘stealing’ art from actual artists. Here are some posts:
I was looking forward to watching #SecretInvasion but this slap across the face of actual artists and creators is unreal.
Poor choice of "art" direction, incredibly shit (and already dated) result.
A complete shame. https://t.co/rkw7rMuW8S— Bengal (@bengal_art) June 21, 2023
Do not stream #SecretInvasion – I didn't expect such a large studio to use AI in such an obvious way so soon, but here we are. This won't stop with artists, it will come for every field eventually, and if we just roll over and accept it then the future of entertainment is grim. https://t.co/NzcgldzxFk
— Jon Neimeister (@Andantonius) June 21, 2023
Personally, I thought that the use of AI was actually meta on the series part. AI-generated images have been a huge cause of controversy online lately, and with the series tackling a race of beings that can imitate humans, it’s kind of interesting that we have an opening credits scene created by a non-human that’s trying to imitate human art.
I’m just saying, maybe some of this outrage could be a bit misplaced.
With this image of the end credits of #SecretInvasion the debate of the intro should end, it is made by designers who have used an AI with concept arts, neither art has been stolen nor jobs have been removed pic.twitter.com/6zZfD7GCSA
— Perfect Spidey (@MCUSpideyShots) June 21, 2023
“In Marvel Studios’ new series ‘Secret Invasion,’ set in the present day MCU, Nick Fury learns of a clandestine invasion of Earth by a faction of shapeshifting Skrulls. Fury joins his allies, including Everett Ross, Maria Hill and the Skrull Talos, who has made a life for himself on Earth. Together they race against time to thwart an imminent Skrull invasion and save humanity.”
For now, catch Secret Invasion now streaming on Disney+.
