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Theres something a little on the nose about making the credits to a TV show called Secret Invasion with AI. For a while now, AI has been creeping into our artistic endeavours, invading it. This path has been walked by NFTs before it, a thing that looks like art and walks like art, but is in fact a zebra. Where the cash scam of NFTs could be spotted from a mile off and was difficult to understand, AI is a much easier sell to the general public. That makes it far more dangerous.

How AI has been pitched to the public is you type in some words, and a picture comes out. Its how many people wish art worked - you tell an artist exactly what to draw, and they soullessly recreate it for free. Its an instant gratification machine - you type in some prompts, and you get a funny picture. But theres more to it than that, as Marvels latest disrespect for artists demonstrates.

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Most people who use AI were never going to pay an artist anyway. They arent using it for professional needs, or for artwork they otherwise would have commissioned. Its just a way to while away the time. Generally Id advise against it, as feeding the machine only helps it grow, and tells businesses that we prefer AI art rendered in seconds with zero thought process rather than something deliberately created. But even if we say casual use is harmless, Marvel is not using it for casual use.

On the face of it, Marvel is using it for the opening credits, which it otherwise would have used real art for. But thats not quite the whole story. Its the opening credits of a show it only expects to do middling numbers, which has had limited marketing, and which only serves to obligate viewers to watch yet another TV show ahead of The Marvels in November. This is a show designed to go slightly under the radar, and so with it Marvel can make AI usage normal in a show with limited stakes. If it gets away with it here, we will see it used in bigger projects too.

Weve seen CGI get significantly worse recently, and thats because of increased workload. With only Warner Bros., Disney, and Sony making the big superhero movies that require VFX work, they can apply pressure to contractors. Dont hit the deadline? Thats one third of your potential work gone, forever. Studios push themselves harder and harder so other studios can pay them less and make more money. The only alternative is to make no money at all. Enter AI.

While you can save money by churning out shows and movies that rely entirely on IP, cutting corners by cheaping out on VFX, even cheaping out can be expensive. More expensive than free, certainly. Using AI for the credit doesnt mean cutting a corner fine, it means driving right on through it. All of the artists past and present who have been crucial in Marvel and Disneys rise (two corporations more than any other built on the backs of artists) are having their legacy thrown out. If the Walt Disney Corporation doesnt value people who can draw, what business on Earth will?

Ive always been reluctant to use the attack line that AI art looks bad, because eventually itll look good. Or at least, something that will pass for good. The core problem is that its completely unoriginal, and there is zero thought behind what it does. Think of something like Across the Spider-Verse, where every single frame includes a deliberate choice. Then look at Marvels Secret Invasion, where each second of the opening credits has an ugly fluttering of colours. It lingers on some images as if to imbue them with importance, but the joy of speculation is robbed from us when we know it was created by robots who know nothing.

Director and executive producer Ali Selim says its deliberate, and meant to mimic Skrull artwork 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?. First off, AI vendors has replaced content as my least favourite phrase used to bastardise art. Taking data and prompts from other people, repackaging it as cheap sludge, and selling it on.

Secondly, what are the chances that Skrull artwork resembles the moronic ugly shit tech bros try to claim is the next big art movement? Id say pretty damn low, unless I was making a Marvel show while being asked to save money and roadtest AI, in which case Id come up with a similar bullshit lie. The irony is a real artist could have come up with a fresh artstyle that captured the look of the Skrull people, rather than the same slop weve seen a million times before.

Im not an absolutist with AI materials. In video games, AI is needed so the enemies know when to shoot at you, and Spider-Verse artists used it as a tool to handle the underlying complications of their robust animation style. But the line in the sand has always been using AI for creative purposes, and the MCU has just flagrantly crossed it. I doubt it will be the last time.

It wouldnt surprise me if the whole thing turns out to be stolen anyway. Thats literally all AI art does, and if an artist spots something that resembles their own work in the credits, Marvel could be in trouble. Given the bridges Marvel has repeatedly burned with artists, there will be a lot of solidarity around. Its a cold, lonely future for Marvel, and before long that will go for movie theatres too. The general public may not care as much about issues like this, but it cares about shit. And this is shit.

The team that worked on the original Iron Man movie created a far more appealing visual palette in a cave with a box of scraps. Every project since Endgame has increasingly proven that these days, Marvel is not Tony Stark.

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Marvel Secret Invasion's AI Credits Are A Soulless Insult To Artists - TheGamer