As generative AI becomes more and more popular, using AI to make posters is nothing new. However, Disney's Marvel is suspected of using AI to create posters, which has caused a lot of controversy and attracted many criticisms of "exploitation." Generative AI is like a thorn in the hearts of Hollywood film and television production workers, making them constantly nervous and worried about losing their jobs.


Are Disney posters drawn by AI?

At a time when AI mapping tools such as MidJourney have become more and more common, it is nothing new for corporate organizations to use AI to generate commercial posters. Perhaps the creativity is not as good as it is, but AI mapping not only saves time and trouble, but is also low-cost.

However, a TV series poster recently released by Marvel Studios, a subsidiary of global entertainment giant Disney, has aroused doubts and anger among many industry insiders. Many people suspect that this poster was produced by AI. Even though Disney and the AI ​​mapping website both denied it, they still did not resolve the doubts and anger of the industry.

What happened to the AI ​​drawing? Why is Disney causing so much controversy? What is Hollywood so nervous about? The poster that sparked the controversy is from the second season of the TV series "Loki" released by Disney last week.

"Loki" is part of the Marvel Super Hero Universe series, starring British actor "Hiddleston" Tom Hiddleston. As a secondary core character in the Marvel Universe, "Loki" is a TV series produced exclusively for Disney's streaming platform Disney+. In June 2021, the first season of "Rocky" premiered on Disney+, with good on-demand data and audience response; while the second season was just released last week.

This controversial poster shows a large frontal portrait of Dou Sen, with his charming green eyes in the center; and around his portrait is a spiral on which many characters are walking or running. It seems that this is just an ordinary poster, and it hardly makes any impression.


But just such an ordinary poster has caused a lot of controversy and criticism. After Disney released this poster, several professionals in AI graphics quickly pointed out on the X platform (previously Twitter) that this uncreative poster was probably made by AI.


Where is the evidence? Several people in the film and television industry pointed out that the spiral design on this poster is a typical AI graphics element and is probably an AI picture from the Shutterstock website. Moreover, some netizens conducted four AI tests on this poster, and three of them were judged to be AI drawings.


AI mapping has long become an industry practice. The main AI drawing tools on the market now include image generation tools such as OpenAI's DALL-E3, Microsoft's Bing Image Creator, and material libraries such as Getty and Adobe. Shutterstcok has also just launched its own AI image generation tool.

But the problem is that Disney did not mark this poster as "AI generated", but if this is really the AI ​​drawing of the Shutterstock website, then Disney, the "big rights defender", may have infringed the copyright because they did not obtain commercial use authorization from Shutterstock. Shutterstock’s website policy clearly states that AI-generated images must be accompanied by a description stating “Created with AI.”

The earliest skeptic was Katria Raden, a computer graphics artist living in Germany. She explained that licensing fees for images and illustrations have always been a means of livelihood for many hard-working artists. “Companies replacing artists’ jobs by generating images using AI technology created through mass exploitation is no more ethical than laying off workers.” The implication is that if large companies such as Disney use AI graphics so frequently, many computer graphics artists like her may lose their jobs.

This incident quickly aroused heated discussions on the Internet. Many netizens criticized Disney for using AI to create posters, which was a sign of their creative exhaustion. However, many netizens felt that using AI images has become an industry practice, and entertainment giant Disney will eventually have to do it. It is not a big deal.

One Reddit netizen believes that there is nothing wrong with a leading entertainment giant using tools to create entertainment content faster and better. But other netizens quickly refuted him, saying, "The problem is, this is not better content. Can't you really see the difference between using AI to make pictures and creating a poster that fits the theme of the play?"

"Secret Invasion" AI created opening

So does Disney use AI to make posters? A spokesperson for the company clarified to the media that the poster was not generated by AI. Shutterstock also issued a statement verifying Disney's statement. "We can confirm that this poster was not created by AI. The designer used software tools to create a space-time vortex picture element, which is usually associated with AI."

Although Disney and Shutterstock both denied that this "Loki" poster was the work of AI, netizens don't seem to fully believe it. Because this is not the first time Disney has been involved in the controversy of "AI mapping". Disney’s explanation last time was also dubious.


In June this year, the TV series "Secret Invasion", also produced by Marvel, was launched on Disney+. The opening subtitles, where the green light envelopes the earth and the human face gradually transforms into a Skrull, were also suspected by industry insiders to be produced by AI.

Method Studio, which produced "Secret Invasion," issued a statement at the time, admitting that they did use "specific AI tools" to display the images of outer space and aliens, but Method Studio emphasized that "these new tools did not replace the work of artists."

Method Studio explains specifically, "The production process is highly collaborative and iterative, focusing on the specific use of an AI toolset. This includes the joint efforts of art directors, 2D and 3D animators, artists, and developers. But it is particularly important to emphasize that although the AI ​​part is used to provide the best results, AI is only one of many toolsets used by our artists."

However, this was during the Hollywood Actors and Writers Guild strike. The application of generative AI in the film and television industry is also one of the focuses of controversy between the two parties. During the negotiation process between the two parties, the actors and writers learned that Disney and Marvel's new season of "Secret Invasion" had completely used AI technology to create the opening scene. This news put the negotiations between the two sides on hold again.

Such concerns exist not only in Hollywood, but also in the video game development industry. After OpenAI launched the GPT-4 large model, many game developers are worried that game companies will use AI to develop games in the future, which will lead to a large number of game developers becoming unemployed.

But even those who worry have to admit that the game development industry is already using AI frequently and extensively to develop games. AI can not only write code, but also generate game ideas or write dialogue text for characters, greatly reducing the time and labor investment of game developers.

For example, game developer Ammaar Reshi introduced on the X platform that he used GPT-4 to develop a game called Snake. He asked GPT-4 to write the HTML, CSS and JavaScript codes required for the program to run. Reshi only needed to copy and paste the code into the development program, and he could also ask the AI ​​to modify the code and explain the changes. Later, he asked ChatGPT to rewrite the code for the 1993 classic game SkyRoads.

Screenwriters strike to win AI voice


Although Disney denies this time that the "Rocky" poster was generated by AI, the AI-generated content is like a thorn in the hearts of film and television practitioners. Every time they see content that seems to be generated by generative AI, it will stir up their nervousness.

Why does the use of AI tools in the film and television industry cause so much controversy and criticism? Industry insiders are mainly worried that producers will use existing materials for AI training and frequently use AI tools to generate content in the future. This will not only infringe on the copyright of creators’ existing works and not give them enough returns, but will also affect the creators’ future job opportunities and space.

How to use AI tools is also one of the focus issues of two general strikes in Hollywood this year.

Unable to reach an agreement on a labor agreement with the producers, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) announced general strikes in May and July this year, plunging Hollywood into a historic shutdown. The last time actors and writers went on strike was in 1960.

More than 100,000 Hollywood screenwriters and Screen Actors Guild members collectively stopped all film-related work. Not only did they refuse to shoot and produce, they even refused to participate in the promotion and distribution of existing films. They were not even allowed to promote new films on social media. It was not until the end of September that the Writers Guild reached a preliminary agreement with the producers, thus ending the nearly five-month general strike. And the Screen Actors Guild continues to insist.

In addition to increasing remuneration and streaming media sharing, the main disagreement between the Screenwriters Guild and the producers is how to standardize the use of generative AI tools in film and television production. Screenwriters are worried that producers will use their previous scripts to train artificial intelligence and automatically generate new scripts at almost no cost, forcing human screenwriters to accept lower salaries or even lose their jobs in large numbers.

Their concerns are not unfounded. The film and television industry is increasingly using AI tools. Major studios such as Warner Pictures, Netflix, and Disney are already using AI for simple tasks such as creating special effects, generating subtitles, and writing synopses. Streaming media giants such as Amazon, Netflix, and Apple are Internet technology giants with strong technical capabilities and have industry-leading technical talent reserves. It is only a matter of time before AI fully enters film and television production in the future.

Faced with studio giants with deep pockets and technological advantages, screenwriters can only resort to a general strike to compete. After all, at least for now, AI cannot replace human screenwriters. The management cannot do without the screenwriter for the time being. Moreover, to continuously improve and improve AI tools, a large amount of existing data is required for training. These existing film and television scripts and other content belong to the copyright of the screenwriters.

Therefore, in addition to asking for increased remuneration and secondary sharing during labor negotiations, the Hollywood Writers Association also specifically requested to have dominance in how to use AI tools, giving screenwriters the right to question and veto the use of their existing content to train AI software.

Specifically, in the labor agreement finally reached by the two parties, the employer accepted the requirements put forward by the screenwriters on how to regulate the use of AI tools, which mainly include the following aspects:

1. AI must not be used to write or rewrite literary content, and AI-generated content cannot be regarded as source material, which means that AI-generated content must not affect the screenwriter’s rights or independent rights in the work.

2. If the producer agrees, the screenwriter can choose to use AI tools when writing the script, but the producer cannot force the screenwriter to use AI tools such as ChatGPT.

3. If any materials provided by the producer to the screenwriter include AI-generated content or part of the content, they must be disclosed to the screenwriter.

4. If the producer violates regulations by using the screenwriters’ content to train AI tools, the screenwriters have the right to safeguard their legitimate rights and interests.

During the past five months of general strikes, screenwriters have achieved temporary victory by shutting down the industry and losing their jobs in exchange for concessions from producers. But in the next labor negotiation in three years, facing AI that may be greatly upgraded, the screenwriters may be in a more difficult situation.