Artificial intelligence has fooled the internet, changed how people work, and become a key concern for the striking Writers Guild of America. Now, it’s crashed into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as part of its latest series, Secret Invasion.
As first reported by Polygon(opens in a new tab), Secret Invasion used AI to create its opening credits, which depict Earth’s invasion by shapeshifting Skrulls. As the sequence unfolds, an imposing spaceship comes to earth, green clouds swirl ominously over cities, and faces shift from human to Skrull. It’s a fascinating concept, with the AI lending an uncanny sense to it all with elements like the not-quite-accurate recreation of Samuel L. Jackson’s face or the London skyline with two Big Bens.
Secret Invasion director and executive producer Ali Selim told Polygon(opens in a new tab) that the use of AI fits into the themes of the show, saying: “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?“
While the use of AI may complement Secret Invasion‘s atmosphere of paranoia and not being able to trust your own eyes, it also mimics the show’s themes in a much darker way. Secret Invasion is all about the slow replacement of humanity by an alien unknown — what better way to recreate that replacement than to delegate work usually done by artists to a machine? If this was done knowingly, it’s a sinister warning shot to hardworking artists. If done unknowingly, it marks a spectacular lack of awareness of the current entertainment landscape. Either way, the choice to use AI is less clever and thematically sound than it is frightening and ill-advised.
That’s not to say no humans were involved in the creation of this sequence. According to Secret Invasion‘s end credits, frequent Marvel collaborator Method Studios crafted the main titles. Listed among their credits are VFX technical director Zach Lewis, animator Andrew Hess, and concept creator Felix Šoletić. Most fascinating is the inclusion of AI technical director Sagans Carle, a mysterious figure given their name and lack of internet presence.
Aside from crediting an AI TD, there is no other disclosure that Secret Invasion used AI. What prompts did the team use? What kind of art was this particular AI trained on? Were those artists whose work was used for training compensated fairly? All these questions and more have added to the controversy surrounding Secret Invasion‘s use of AI, leading to major backlash online.
Mashable has reached out to Marvel for comment.
