Supergirl Faces New Controversy Over AI Art
DC Takes Down Behind-The-Scenes Video That Showed Gen AI Being Used To Make Supergirl
A behind-the-scenes look at the production of Supergirl has been hastily taken down after it did very little to win people over. Rather than showcase the talents of the crew, everyone's attention was on one moment of the video: the team AI generating concept art for one of the characters.
A shot in the behind-the-scenes footage shows some crew members looking at different AI-generated iterations of the character Lobo, played by Jason Momoa. Instead of getting some lovingly drawn concept art to pore over, we see Momoa's face AI-generated with different design ideas, and few are pleased to find out that this was part of the creative process.
DC Seemingly Caught Off Guard By Anti-AI Backlash To Supergirl Video
The behind-the-scenes video was centred around the character of Lobo, and how he was brought to life in the new Supergirl film. However, you won't be able to watch the official upload anymore, as the video has been made private.
This came after a clip from the video was widely circulated online. Here, you can clearly see the crew looking over AI-generated concept art to decide on an aspect of Lobo's design. This proved incredibly controversial, with many voicing their disappointment and anger that generative AI was anywhere near the production of Supergirl.
While we haven't seen it being used elsewhere, this has now cast doubts on other areas of the film. Even if it was just limited to concept art, there's a chance other characters got the same treatment. I suppose it's possible that the really early stuff was still human-made, with AI used to finalise the designs, but that would still be disappointing, given that film productions used to get by just fine with human creativity. It's also hard to argue that a comic book film would need AI as a reference.
Of course, it hasn't been confirmed that it was the AI backlash that got the video taken down, but it seems to be the most likely cause. It's the part of the video that got the most attention anyway. It does just make you wonder what the move is now, though. Will it be reuploaded with that part removed? It's a bit late for that. Will we get some kind of statement that explains how generative AI was used to make the film? That seems more likely, with the video then being quietly made public again once this has all died down.
One thing remains clear, however: big studios are still a long way off normalising AI slop.