The writer's strike is still happening, and part of the writers' advocacy is not allowing AI to replace the jobs of people in the film industry. Yet, as the strike continues, Disney uses AI to create the opening credits of its new Marvel show, "Secret Invasion."
AI Elements in 'Secret Invasion'
It might be bad timing for Disney to be using artificial intelligence when the tech world is debating the harm that it could do, especially in such a manner that shows how AI can easily replace artists since it can generate artwork and animations in seconds.
The first episode of the show "Secret Invasion" had just been released on Disney+, and if you look at the opening credits, you'll easily recognize that it was AI-generated based on the art style alone, as well as the inconsistencies and distortions with its forms.
Director and executive producer of the show, Ali Selim says that the sequence was designed by Method Studios through AI, which he thought played with the themes of the show, as mentioned in Polygon. Selim was fascinated with how AI generation works.
He explained it as talking to the studio with ideas, themes, and words, and the computer would "go off and do something." If they wanted something altered, simple input of text prompts would immediately apply the changes in the animation, just like most AI image generators.
Method Studios assured that there were no artists' jobs affected by the use of AI in the Marvel sequence. They wanted to create an "otherworldly and alien look" which was made possible by using a custom AI tool in creating the opening credits.
Selim described the use of AI as "explorative and inevitable, and exciting, and different." Although it's understandable if other people are skeptical of the new method of creating animations. After all, there have already been cases of layoffs after being replaced by AI.
Writer's Guild Against AI
Generative AI has been a threat to several industries and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) is doing something about it. The strike has not stopped since it started in early May and they have no intentions of stopping soon until their demands are met.
Artificial intelligence is one of the main points of the strike with writers calling it a "plagiarizing machine." The strikers proposed that regulations should be implemented concerning the use of the technology as part of its Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA), according to Decrypt.
Along with that is the agreement that AI can't write or rewrite literary material for projects, or even be used as the source material. They also added that MBA material cannot be used to train AI, which the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) rejected.
It's not only the writers in the entertainment industry that are affected. While theirs is only a looming scenario where AI takes over creative jobs, some have already lost their jobs as copywriters as they have been replaced by OpenAI's ChatGPT.
