Recent controversy and criticism surround a promotional poster for the second season of Disney’s hit TV series Loki. Professional designers and artists are concerned that generative AI may have been employed in producing the poster, which has a spiraling clock as its background. Discussions over intellectual property rights and the place of AI in the creative sector have been rekindled by this instance.

The AI Allegations and the Loki Poster

The Loki poster sparked controversy when cartoonist Katria Raden noted on social media that the picture appeared to have been created using artificial intelligence. Specifically, Raden brought up the existence of artifacts and elements that seemed to have been arbitrarily transformed into meaningless squiggles—features that are frequently connected to content produced by artificial intelligence.

Numerous creative community members voiced their worries that AI picture generators would exploit their creations without giving due credit or approval. This circumstance has brought up concerns regarding artificial intelligence’s capacity to replace human artists, a subject of intense discussion in recent years.

The dispute was heightened when other users, such as Raden, pointed out that the backdrop image of the Loki poster bore a striking resemblance to an already-existing stock image on Shutterstock called “Surreal Infinity Time Spiral Space Antique.” According to the contributor guidelines, AI-generated content cannot be licensed on Shutterstock unless it is made with the company’s in-house AI-image-generating tool.

Disney’s Reaction to Past AI Controversies

Disney has already been under fire for using generative AI in creative endeavors on previous occasions. The studio had already faced criticism for its work on the Marvel series Secret Invasion, where it was alleged that artificial intelligence (AI) tools were used. Despite Disney’s claims that using AI does not lessen the need for human designers, there are still worries in the creative sector.

The ongoing discussion over the application of generative AI in creative ventures is brought to light by the controversy around the Loki season 2 poster. Significant concerns are brought up regarding consent, intellectual property rights, and the possible effects of AI-generated work on human designers and artists. It is still crucial to solve these issues and strike a balance between AI’s capabilities and the worth of human creativity because AI is going to continue to play a big part in the creative business.