Disney use of AI for Marvel’s Secret Invasion series spooks Hollywood
- Artificial intelligence was used to help make the opening credits of Marvel’s ‘Secret Invasion’, which premiered this week
- The revelation did not sit well with many in Hollywood, where fears are mounting that AI could replace jobs
The use of artificial intelligence in the new Marvel superhero series Secret Invasion has sparked anxiety and anger in Hollywood, at a time when television and film writers are already striking over their uncertain futures.
Director Ali Selim revealed in a recent interview that the Disney+ show – a paranoia-rich spy thriller about shape-shifting aliens that stars Samuel L Jackson – used AI as well as human illustrators to generate its opening credits.
The abstract sequence in question blends green-hued urban landscapes, spaceships and shadowy human characters, many of whom gradually reveal themselves to be the reptilian extraterrestrial “Skrulls” of the series.
Selim told the Polygon website that the use of AI was intended to provide a sense of “foreboding”.
“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?’” he said.