Marvel Studios has received backlash for its use of generative AI in the opening sequence of its latest show, Secret Invasion. The use of AI in art has sparked a debate on the ethics of its use in a public-facing work of art. While some have condemned the use of AI-generated art, the truth is that these title credits were designed by a team of professional artists at Method Studios, who pitched the styilistic choice to evoke the sense of unease and imitation that permeates the show and modern life.
Method Studios, which has done VFX work for Marvel across several films and shows, including the final battle sequence in Black Panther, employs talented art directors, animators, and developers who used AI tools as one of many tools to complement and assist their creative teams. The use of generative AI in Secret Invasion was likely pitched as a timely visual analogy to a show rooted in the idea of alien beings impersonating humans.
Questions remain about the ethics of using generative AI in art. For instance, what forms of art that do use generative AI should be permitted? Is it only okay if the final result doesn’t use unaltered generated imagery? Are there generative models that are ethically trained that one could use? Nonetheless, Method Studio’s use of AI-generated art in Secret Invasion works because the entire look is designed to feel off, unrealistic, poor, and creepy. The choice to represent the stars and landscapes using the distorted imagery produced by flawed and odd AI is an artistic one, meant to represent the themes of the show.
While the timing of Secret Invasion’s title sequence is poor, with concerns about artistic exploitation during a writer’s strike, Marvel remains one of the single biggest employers of professional artists in the world. Moreover, the knee-jerk reaction to AI-generated art reflects a very real concern about penny-pinching producers and managers who will choose to use AI regardless of the ethical considerations. Ultimately, one should focus on artists creating value, not the tools they use.
