Disney Says Its "Fantastic Four" Posters Aren't AI, They Actually Just Look Like Absolute Garbage

Were the new posters for the upcoming Disney comic book movie "Fantastic Four: First Steps" AI-generated? Apparently not, Marvel says: they actually just look that bad.

As The Wrap reports, Disney-owned Marvel Studios has denied that the widely scrutinized marketing materials were in any way created with AI technology, following a flurry of accusations on social media.

It's not hard to see why fans were worried. The four posters — and this one in particular — do have that uncanny sheen that's come to be associated with AI. 

They're also pocked with strange details, like hands that appear to only have four fingers — a telltale sign of AI-generation — and duplicated faces.

But if Marvel and Disney are to be believed, these are just the products of someone doing a shoddy Photoshop job — not of an experimental technology evaporating a lake somewhere.

Marvel — and Disney — has a history of using AI. For the superhero franchise's TV miniseries "Secret Wars," AI was used to generate images shown in the opening credits sequence, with wonky results. And prior to his passing, Disney obtained approval from Darth Vader voice actor James Earl Jones to clone his voice for future "Star Wars" projects using AI.

With other high profile films being embroiled in AI scandals of late, including "The Brutalist" and "Alien: Romulus," fears about how the technology is making inroads into the film industry are running high.

This latest episode might be evidence that the hysteric climate has reached a fever pitch. Of course, all the concerns and criticism surrounding AI in the arts are warranted: it flaunts copyright law by cribbing original work, it destroys human jobs, and is arguably antithetical to art itself. 

But maybe we're forgetting that bad art isn't the exclusive purview of AI models. Aren't comic book movie posters these days — if not the products they're advertising — usually pretty hideous?

That said, it says a lot that audiences no longer trust these big moviemaking institutions to not capitulate to AI — because that's exactly what many of them are doing.

And, we have to say, some of the poster details are pretty suspicious. Even if Marvel says it's all human-made, it's not outside the realm of possibility that a few AI assets got used at some point in the process without a higher-up knowing. Remember the AI-faked critics quote fiasco with the "Megalopolis" trailer?

So sure, this could all just be the result of shoddy workmanship. Disney, after all, has been criticized for the abusive conditions it forces visual artists to work in. It does not like paying artists.

Anyway, this is where we're at now — being driven insane by AI, unable to distinguish the real from the unreal, and vice versa.

More on AI: Google Retroactively Edits Super Bowl Ad to Remove Embarrassing Error Its AI Made

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