The second season of Disney's Loki is getting attention for all the wrong reasons.
A promotional image for the Marvel series appears to be AI-generated imagery, according to illustrator Katria Raden who posted about it on X (formerly known as Twitter).
The promo poster has 'telltale signs' of AI generation
The background image of a spiraling clock shows "numerals on the clock turning into meaningless squiggles or just being meaningless squiggles," posted Raden, which are "telltale signs" of AI-generated art. Others chimed in to say that the figures running up and down the spiral surrounding Loki's head appear to be AI-generated (or it's just poor Photoshop work).
The squiggly nonsensical symbols are telltale signs of AI-generated imagery. Credit: MarvelThe stock image, which was sourced from Shutterstock, is not labeled as an AI-generated creation, but content uploaded by the same contributor have similar signs of being AI-generated (e.g., symbols that appear to be numbers or roman numerals, but are blurry or squiggly nonsense).
Shutterstock's contributor policy prohibits AI-generated content unless it is created by its AI Image Generator tool, trained with Shutterstock's library, which applies a disclaimer explicitly stating that it was created using AI. This suggests Disney either didn't know or didn't care that the stock image was AI-generated. Either way, it's a bad look that has irked the illustrator community.
The rise of widely available generative AI tools has made it easy for people to create their own AI-generated art. DALL-E 3 and Bing Image Creator are widely available, and stock libraries like Getty, Adobe, and Shutterstock have launched their own image creating tools. However, generative AI tools have raised questions about ownership and intellectual property as well as the automation of creative skills that artists rely on for their livelihood.
"Licensing photos and illustrations on stock sites has been a way many hard-working artists have been earning a living," wrote Raden in a follow-up to the original post. "I don't think replacing them with generated imagery via tech built on mass exploitation and wage theft is any more ethical than replacing Disney's own employees."
"It's almost like there's no interest in actual art coming from Disney/Marvel these days. Only content," replied one user. "I can't believe they are doing it again after Secret Invasion. Disappointing," said another, pointing out another Marvel series that controversially used AI.
Tools like Shutterstock AI and Adobe Firefly are trained on their own stock library, so they're legally protected. However, the ethical issue of replacing creative work remains. Plus, as AI continues to improve, it's getting more difficult to determine whether something is AI-generated to the untrained eye.
Mashable has reached out to Shutterstock for comment and will update this story if we receive a response.
