Disney’s Loki television series is being slammed for reportedly using artificial intelligence (AI) for its season 2 poster.
A new promotional poster for Loki has been linked to an image from the stock photography company Shutterstock, which appears to break Disney Plus’s licensing agreement regarding AI-generated content, according to a report by The Verge.
Professional designers are accusing Disney of using an image that was at least partially created with AI.
“Madly disappointed they’re using AI generated imagery to promote Loki,” illustrator Katria Raden said in an X (formerly Twitter) post in which she flagged the Loki poster.
Madly disappointed they're using AI generated imagery to promote Loki. https://t.co/SFhWpQfWE7
— Katria (@katriaraden) October 3, 2023
“Are you sure it’s AI? Looks like a badly photoshopped promo. The characters look like cut outs from framegrabs,” one social media user commented.
Raden responded, writing, “There’s bad photoshop at play too for sure, but the clock is giving all the AI telltale signs, like things randomly turning into meaningless squiggles.”
There's bad photoshop at play too for sure, but the clock is giving all the AI telltale signs, like things randomly turning into meaningless squiggles.
— Katria (@katriaraden) October 3, 2023
Other X users also claimed that the background of the Loki poster appears to come from a Shutterstock stock image called “Surreal Infinity Time Spiral Space Antique.”
The account @thepokeflutist, which reportedly purchased the stock image, said the artwork doesn’t have any embedded metadata to confirm how it was created.
Meanwhile, multiple AI image checkers that scanned the stock image flagged it as AI-generated, The Verge reported.
This goes against Shutterstock’s contributor rules, which prohibits AI-generated content from being licensed on the platform — unless it is created using the company’s own AI-image generator tool, so that it can prove IP ownership of all the content on the site.
Shutterstock says its AI-generated stock imagery is clearly labeled as AI content on its platform, and is created using artificial intelligence that has ben trained on its own stock library.
In recent years, members of the entertainment industry and other creative professionals have been expressing concern about AI generators stealing their work and taking their jobs.
“Licensing photos and illustrations on stock sites has been a way many hard-working artists have been earning a living,” Raden said. “I don’t think replacing them with generated imagery via tech built on mass exploitation and wage theft is any more ethical than replacing Disney’s own employees.”
Licensing photos and illustrations on stock sites has been a way many hard-working artists have been earning a living. I don't think replacing them with generated imagery via tech built on mass exploitation and wage theft is any more ethical than replacing Disney's own employees.
— Katria (@katriaraden) October 3, 2023
This is not the first time Disney has received backlash over claims that the company is using AI.
Over the summer, Disney was slammed for using AI to create the opening credits for its new Disney+ Marvel series Secret Invasion.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
