Disney’s Loki faces backlash over reported use of generative AI / A Loki season 2 poster has been linked to a stock image on Shutterstock that seemingly breaks the platform’s licensing rules regard…::A promotional poster for the second season of Loki on Disney Plus has sparked controversy amongst professional designers following claims that it was created using generative AI.
Not to suggest that Disney is innocent or couldn’t have done more to avoid this, but I wouldn’t be at all surprised to learn that the marketing art materials were outsourced to a dedicated studio who decided to use AI (possibly even without telling Disney).
Lots of outsource-focused art studios overpromise and overstretch to win their contracts, and then the artists end up having to cut corners to meet the crazy deadlines they’ve been given.
You almost hit the nail on the head. Disney is not to blame in this situation at all. One of their designers went to shutterstock (totally normal) to buy and use some art (again, normal, industry standard), shutterstock sold the art that had been uploaded by an independent artist (that’s how this all works).
HOWEVER, the artist used AI to create his image and neglected to add the “Created using AI” tag to his art which is required by the terms and conditions of shutterstock.
In this instance both Shutterstock and Disney got taken for a ride and are getting the negative press because of an individuals decision.
You could technically blame shutterstock a little bit for not vetting what they host but as far as I am aware there are no reliable tools for determining if an image is AI with 100% certainty.