Artists say Disney used AI-generated art to promote Loki

The Future. Multiple artists have alleged that promotional material for season two of Disney’s Loki features AI-generated content from Shutterstock. Disney hasn’t responded, and Shutterstock’s failure to classify the image as “AI-generated” means the studio doesn’t have to. But if this behavior continues, graphic designers stand to lose work.

Loki’s tricks
Last Monday, illustrator Katria Raden pointed out that the poster appeared to feature AI-generated art.

• Background art in the poster has been traced back to a Shutterstock image titled “Surreal Infinity Time Spiral Space Antique.”
• The image — which was posted to Shutterstock earlier this year — features telltale signs of AI creation, like numbers and text devolving into nonsensical squiggles. It also lacks embedded metadata explaining how it was made.
• Some have speculated that other parts of the poster, such as the small human figures, are also AI-generated.
• AI-generated art can’t be licensed on Shutterstock, but since that platform failed to classify this image as AI-generated, Disney has plausible deniability.

Fool me twice
This isn’t the first time Disney’s caught flak for using AI. The recent Marvel film Secret Invasion notoriously used Gen AI to create its opening credits sequence.

That time, Disney claimed that its interest in the tech wouldn’t reduce its need for human workers. But whether human labor is disappearing from the studios or the image licensing platforms, someone’s out of a job.