Spider-Man producer's stance on AI is great to see

Generative AI is creeping like a spider into many sectors, and film is no exception. Many industry observers and Hollywood execs themselves have said they expect AI to transform jobs in the industry. But fans of one major franchise were able to breath a sigh of relief this week when a producer ruled out the use of AI art.

Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse (formerly Across the Spider-Verse Part Two) producer and co-writer Christopher Miller responded to pleas from fans on X to say that the upcoming sequel will not make any use of generative AI. And the reason he gives is that the film aims to break new ground, not steal and rehash old ideas.

“There is no generative AI in Beyond the Spider-Verse and there never will be,” Miller wrote on X after a fan asked Sony Animation to keep AI away from the film making process. The plea came after Sony Pictures chief executive Tony Vinciquerra told an  investor conference in Japan last week that the company "will be looking at ways to use AI to produce films for theaters and television in more efficient ways."

But Miller added that "one of the main goals of the films is to create new visual styles that have never been seen in a studio CG film, not steal the generic plagiarized average of other artists’ work."

It's great to see a producer respond personally to fans' calls for clarification, and also to see such an unequivocal stance. In some cases it's seemed that filmmakers have been open to the incursion of AI, with some testing the waters to see how much fans will accept. 

Marvel's Secret Invasion credits were controversial for their use of AI art, even if it fit the show's theme, and A24’s Civil War posters faced AI allegations from fans. Netflix even faced controversy for apparently using AI retouching in a true crime programme. As viewers start to suspect everything, producers are increasingly going to have to adopt a clear stance. The challenge may be to stick to it, because fans are going to be watching out for signs of the promise being broken.

Set in a multiverse of alternate universes, Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse will be the third and final movie in a trilogy of animated films that began with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) and continued with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023). While it was originally scheduled for March 2024, it has been delayed due to the writers' strike. There is no new estimated release date as yet.