Skybound exec Marge Dean says AI could be a danger to creativity ‘if we let it be’

Invincible

Artifical intelligence (AI) could become a danger to creativity if audiences become indifferent to how a show is produced, according to Skybound Animation chief Marge Dean, but the Invincible exec producer added that the nascent tech could help supercharge the development process.

Dean, who joined the Robert Kirkman-owned company in 2022 following a stint at Crunchyroll, told TBI that she considers AI “not to be a good or a bad thing, but a tool that can be used and which has benefits.”

The veteran animation exec, who has worked on shows ranging from Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken to Prime Video’s Invincible (S2 debuting 3 November), said AI has not yet “evolved” to allow mainstream use in production.

Marge Dean

She pointed to the tech’s struggles with consecutive frames and its inablity to render life-like hand movements as limitations, adding that most AI-powered animation is detectable.

“Maybe it just hasn’t evolved yet but I can instantly recognise an image that is AI-produced, there is a certain creepiness, a darkness about it,” she said.

Dean added that viewers would ultimately dictate how much the tech is used across the creative and production process as it develops.

“In some ways, I feel like if we let it be [dangerous to creativity] then it could be,” she continued. “But not if the audiences let us know that they want something that looks and feels like it has been created by a human.”

Development stages

Dean added, however, that AI is already proving to be beneficial to the development process and improving efficiencies.

“A lot of people are using it in development and that makes sense to me, because development is throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks – let’s come up with all the different versions on AI, I can see it helping with that.”

The former chief of California’s Stoopid Buddy Stoodios added that it can also help with “admin steps” of production, such as the “very tedious process” of script breakdowns.

“If you can just throw the script in and it gives you an inital breakdown of how many assets you have to design then that’s great. Let’s bring more of that on.”