10 Biggest TV Controversies Of 2023
2. The AI-Produced Opening Titles - Secret Invasion
Beyond the controversy of just how disappointing it was, the MCU's Secret Invasion caught all the wrong headlines the very day it premiered, when it was revealed that the title sequence was created using artificial intelligence tools.
Given that there's been growing concern about the use of AI in Hollywood in recent times - namely how it theoretically appropriates existing work without credit and threatens to put real artists out of work - there was naturally considerable backlash against Disney for using the tech on such a mega-budget TV series.
For their part, however, the company who designed the titles, Method Studios, assert that AI didn't result in any artists being replaced, but rather that a "custom AI tool" was used to help generate "otherworldly and alien" aspects of the sequence.
Either way, the discomfort about the tech creeping its way into the creation of art is understandable, especially given the speed at which AI can evolve and the current lack of regulation surrounding its use, as was a key issue of the then-ongoing Writers Guild of America strike.
Others, however, found it appropriate that a show about uncanny mimicry built its opening titles in such fashion.