Marvel’s latest underwhelming show is making headlines. Not for its story, but for its opening credits.
There’s been a lot of uproar over Marvel’s use of AI to generate the opening titles for Secret Invasion, and while they claim it was for the ‘creative choice’ of creating something inhuman, there’s an unshakeable feeling that something has been done here that cannot be undone, under the flimsiest of excuses.
Whether by design or not, Marvel has essentially opened the door for anyone to use AI in their shows, movies and music. Hey, if Disney, one of the biggest content creators out there can do it, why can’t they? This will be the feeling among many now that look to save costs on upcoming projects.
AI has its place in the world, undoubtedly. It’s been useful in medical science and other fields, but its usage here is nothing but theft. This isn’t creativity. This isn’t even original. This is a derivative product cannibalized without permission or compensation from the work of artists on the internet. On top of that, Disney has denied work to a VFX team that could have created something infinitely better than the AI turned up.
They thought they were being clever by stepping on the livelihoods of the very people that help bring these stories to life in the first place. This is a very precarious point in history for creatives and AI. Without regulation of it, Secret Invasion is a sign of a very public invasion that will have a catastrophic effect on the entertainment industry. It might not be felt immediately by those consuming it.
AI generation is like extrapolating data. The further you extrapolate the less accurate your results. As the data pool is flooded with more and more AI sources, what happens when AI can only derive from itself?
Alternatively, with the technology in its infancy right now, what could AI do to the entertainment industry (and plenty of others for that matter) after ten years of improving and refining?
All signs seem to currently be pointing towards a bleak future.
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