Disney’s Blowback Over Generative AI in ‘Loki’ Poster Design – Where Does It End? Or Does It?

Industry InsightsArtificial Intelligence

by Alexandra ThompsonOctober 17^th, 2023

Let’s be honest, no matter how much we try to keep up with new tech, particularly AI, just when we think we know what’s happening, something even more advanced comes along. Actors want to protect their likenesses from perpetual use, and writers worry that the next major blockbuster might be penned by Google Bard. Yet, despite our efforts to protect ourselves, our jobs, and even our faces, there always seems to be a big corporation one step ahead of us, looking for a way to get around it. Now, the new Disney Loki poster for their season 2 has come under fire. Let’s have a look at where we stand!

This time the corporation is Disney, who was recently accused of using generative AI in their promotional poster for Loki, now in its second season on Disney Plus. To make matters confusing, the section of the Disney Loki poster (the clock in the background) that was alleged to have been generated with AI was apparently downloaded from Shutterstock. However, Shutterstock’s licensing terms do not allow artists to use any AI-generated images unless the AI image was created on Shutterstock’s own AI platform. In other words, even if Disney had licensed the image from Shutterstock, they would still have been in violation of Shutterstock’s own terms of service since the image was not generated using Shutterstock’s AI platform. Confused? You’re not the only one!

Disney Loki poster and the future of artists

Whether we can think faster than companies like Disney? According to Reuters, Disney has formed its very own task force to look into ways it might develop AI both in-house and in partnership with startups. According to the New York Times, Disney streaming services are losing money rapidly, with a total loss of over 11 billion dollars from the service since Disney+ started in 2019. Shows that are produced for streaming platforms are unimaginably expensive to make, and if there’s a way for the company to save money and still produce at these massive levels, they need to find it. I mean, I see their dilemma.

But for me, as an artist without a company or a flurry of lawyers behind me, I don’t even know which questions are the right ones to ask concerning my own dilemma. I can’t imagine what AI will be capable of in a year, and a decade from now feels like it should be measured in light-years as far as time goes. What I do know is that I can’t compete with Disney’s task force in knowing what is ethical, doable, or even possible when it comes to AI – what it is now and what it will become in the very near future. And my own personal quandary: Is AI something I can use ethically as a kind of assistant? Is it ethical to create something and not add that I got a little help? Or is this just the way of the future and I have to figure out how to live with it?

So maybe this time it wasn’t AI – but do we have a choice?

Meanwhile, both Disney and Shutterstock have insisted that the clock in the background of the Disney Loki poster was created by a real, live artist using some kind of software tool, according to an article in Mashable. Unfortunately, this doesn’t ease my mind much. Personally, I don’t think there are enough people scanning images in their free time to catch every single one, and eventually, they may simply give up. That a single part of a poster for one show I’ve never seen, (in other words, a drop in the bucket of what is being produced) has created so much drama only leads me to believe that we can’t be too paranoid when it comes to AI and what it means for our future as artists and creatives.

Feature image credit: Marvel

Have you started using AI in your workflow? What do you see as the future for art and artists now that AI is here? Give us your opinion and what you see as the future for artists and AI in the comments below!