Secret Invasion was all over the news as soon as it came out because of… the intro? Yes, the intro. The title sequence of the show was made entirely with AI. One executive producer, Ali Selim, says that it’s about the visual style .
Late Night with the Devil is a recent horror movie that’s been put into the spotlight for not only being really good, but for using AI to transition images.
However, from an artist’s perspective, I believe this movie uses AI in the closest way to being “correct” that we’ve seen so far. Instead of using it to just provide the imagery, they hired artists to come in and refine the images rather than replacing the artists with AI.
Granted, that doesn’t mean it’s free from worry. If you don’t know how AI is trained, it’s reasonably simple: they just scrape the internet. It takes images from every social media platform, (also, check to see the rules of AI training on platforms you’re on— try and opt out if possible!) from Google, and from every website or source you know.
One of the main issues people have with the use of AI is that people are worried that if they excuse it or say it’s okay, studios will start to use more and more AI. They’re worried they’re going to give these studios an inch and they’ll take a mile.
I do want to note, however, that both Secret Invasion and Late Night with the Devil were completed before the WGA (Writers Guild of America) and SAG (Screen Actors Guild) AI strikes in 2023, though both came out either during or after.
“Honestly yeah, AI can be used for a lot of good, but a lot of times AI generated images have a lot of consequences,” said VPAA Art Strand junior Anna Wolski. “It could endanger art as a career option.”
But visual artists aren’t the only ones impacted. There’s also been a huge spike in the usage of advanced AI voices— often trained without permission from celebrities or character’s voices.
“I am definitely worried about how it’ll affect music going forward, I’m worried it’ll take the creativity and passion out of music,” said Thorn Rockel, VPAA Vocal Strand junior. “While stupid AI covers and songs are funny it’s genuinely concerning that with just a small voice clip AI can mimic your voice to make you say things you haven’t.”
Hatsune Miku is an example of an AI voice created ethically, with the voice actress, Saki Fujita, volunteering her voice and being paid and credited for her work.
In my opinion, as someone who is both an artist and someone with a devoted love of media, AI is neutral. It’s just a tool. The problem comes with how it’s used and how it’s trained. When the AI scrapes the internet, it steals. It takes from artists, photographers, and everyone who’s posted on social media. Most platforms are opt-out rather than opt-in, so most people don’t know that their content and the things they’ve created are being used to train these AIs. Sites like Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and X (formerly Twitter) are all used to train the AIs that are being used to create these images, audios, and chats.
There’s another problem with AI— specifically image AI. It’s destroying itself. Because of the saturation of AI images and “art” and the way AIs are constantly training to become better and better, it’s feeding off of its own images and as a result is getting worse and worse. Not to mention, they’ve finagled their way into many Google search results.
In the end, it’s up to you to decide whether or not you use AI. Still, I want you to remember that every message between you and your favorite characters is scraped from fan fiction and other writing, every fake song is stealing someone’s voice, and the images are collages of stolen pictures.
