Secret Invasion Condemned for AI “Plagiarism Software” Opening Credits

Disney Plus is a heavy hitter in the TV streaming world. Few companies can afford the budget or spectacle of Disney, and they bring that to bear with MCU and Star Wars shows.

Marvel’s Secret Invasion premiered on Wednesday, June 21. This Skrull-centric adaptation of a famous comics storyline is drawing ire — but not for its plot or acting.

Instead, it’s the opening credits. They used “AI” software to create the visual sequence instead of human artists.

Social media users are condemning the director, Marvel Studios, and Disney for this controversial move. Among other things … does this count as plagiarism?

We want to begin by saying that we don’t claim to know the inner workings of the exact AI learning that Method Studios learned to create the nauseating intro sequence.

But intense anger among social media and reviewers isn’t about them. They were just doing a job.

As the show’s own director and executive producer will tell you, they specifically requested this dystopian tech when conjuring up Secret Invasion‘s opening scrawl. (Opening Skrull? Is this anything?)

Ali Selim spoke to Polygon about this sequence, confirming that Method Studios designed it using artificial intelligence.

“When we reached out to the AI vendors, that was part of it,” Selim explained. “It just came right out of the shape-shifting, Skrull world identity, you know? Who did this? Who is this?”

He admitted that he does not “really understand” how this technology works. Apparently, he just thought that it was a neat and tonally appropriate idea.

“We would talk to them about ideas and themes and words,” Selim described of the process. “And then the computer would go off and do something.”

He continued: “And then we could change it a little bit by using words, and it would change.”

That is also how it works when working with an actual artist. Whether you’re an individual getting a portrait of your favorite video game blorbo or a company working with VFX, feedback is a key component of the process.

“It felt explorative and inevitable, and exciting, and different,” Selim summarized.

Well, it is certainly different. We would have to be truly cynical to call it inevitable, but perhaps that is simply being realistic at this point. Some genies cannot return to the bottle … no matter how much damage they do.

To be blunt, judging from commentary from both tech experts and MCU fans, many hope that this sort of abomination will eventually become illegal.

Obviously, the most intuitive problem with this is that they could have hired an actual team of artists. You know, humans. (We’d take Skrull artists, too!)

Ideally, technology should make people’s lives easier and better. Part of that means replacing human jobs — but miserable ones. Dangerous jobs. Robots could handle mining, basic construction, sewer maintenance, and more.

Instead, there are some who seem to like the idea of robots replacing humans in creative and artistic industries … leaving more actual humans to perform the menial and miserable tasks. But that’s not actually the big issue.

The biggest issue isn’t that this is an affront to the concept of art itself. Instead, the biggest issue is that AI “art” in general does involve real art. Stolen art.

Numerous other sites, including this solid breakdown by Gizmodo, touch upon this. A lot of AI software is, as many social media users have described, plagiarism software.

It does not create. This software instead scrawls millions of images and then reproduces it according to key words.

Some instances of this plagiarism are so glaring that artists spotted distorted versions of their own signatures on AI “art.” Visual arts behemoth Getty engaged in a legal battle over this unlicensed theft.

Now, we here at THG want to emphasize that we do not know how Method Studios went about this. It is possible that they used programs that have never scanned existing, unlicensed art.

If so, then this existential horror was not plagiarism. But without any transparency on the process, people are regarding it with suspicion.

There are amazing uses for machine learning. Medical diagnostics, troubleshooting, even sophisticated versions of spell check can all improve using this tech.

The concern here, however, is that one of the most powerful entertainment companies in human history is seeking to replace artists with dubious tech.

We don’t think that Selim has some sinister agenda to force artists into food services out of spite or something. It just sounds like Selim — by his own admission — does not understand this technology.

Secret Invasion Condemned for AI “Plagiarism Software” Opening Credits was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.