'At the end of the day, these are businesses and corporations that see ‘dollar signs’': Jeanette Moreno-King on AI in Art

Interview by Sophia Battle

August 17, 2025

Jeanette Moreno-King is no stranger to the cartoon and entertainment industry. She is the president of the Animation Guild who came up through storyboarding for industries like Cartoon Network, Warner Brothers Animation, and more. 

Now, as the rise of AI has come into effect throughout the world, all fields of art are in jeopardy, including the animation and cartoon industries. As you would expect, this has already come into effect throughout many companies like Disney and Lionsgate, threatening the jobs of millions of artists worldwide. Moreno-King, however, is making efforts to combat this, preserving the authenticity and creativity that human artists bring to art.

Moreno-King reflects on the use of AI in art and the industry’s approaches. “I personally don't see how AI would be able to capture that unique human. Anytime that I see anything from AI, it's kind of vanilla," she said on a Saturday video call, explaining the limitations of using AI for art and creativity.

Mostly, she hopes to maintain the diverse, authentic ideas of human art while finding an ethical approach towards AI in the industry, with use of regulations, communication, and listening to the voices of artists.

“We don't know yet what that looks like. It's such a black box. But I really do feel like [the next generation] is young enough to make the pivot.” 

Here are some edited excerpts from our conversation.

With job displacement being one of the biggest challenges with AI in the workplace, what are your thoughts on cartoon and entertainment industries using AI?

The displacement that's going on right now is a few things with AI being one element of it. What's going on right now is that the way that people consume media is changing a lot. People's viewing habits are changing and the media companies are trying to figure out how to meet their audience. So, the longevity of the way that we've been making shows and TV, the old way isn't working. 

It’s really a whole shift in habits and social culture, not just technology.

Yes, like people have gotten used to streaming, and streaming isn't ad based. So the way that they made money in the past was through ads on their shows. What [companies and industries] are doing is they want to spend less money making shows because they spent a lot of money competing with each other when they were building up their streaming services. And they've been outsourcing. They've been not ordering shows, and they've been looking into how to use AI to make these shows. 

The thing is though is that they're being super secretive about it. 

AI is becoming a lot more apparent in society, but I feel like it’s not talked about enough or fully in the picture yet.

Yes, this isn't just animation. This is also regular entertainment. Where you're seeing it the most is when people are pitching shows., like, before they've sold the show. The thing that's changed is that they are not using as many concept or character designers; roles for those really early concepts that are being pitched. 

But right now, a whole lot of stuff is not being bought. Like, there just aren't that many shows. So AI, it's really weird. Right now, [AI is] being used more in live action than it is in animation because they haven't quite cracked that nut yet. 

Right now, a lot of the studios are afraid to use generative AI because it's putting their properties at risk, and there's a potential for them to be sued by using it. So right now, they're waiting for these court cases to make their way through the courts to figure out whether they can use it or not. 

What are some personal cultural experiences that you find authentic and unique to yourself? And how do you think these experiences can be beneficial to represent in cartoons, like, as opposed to AI?

Personally, I grew up in Texas; in a poor family; a single single parent family. And, you know, it's unique. There aren't that many people in entertainment writing shows like that, you know? Especially I'm Latina. My dad's from Mexico, and I'm a first generation in my family. And it's rare to get something really authentic like that.

The way AI works is basically an average; it's taking everything that it knows and then basically averages everything out. There's not much media representation for minorities like myself. So how would AI have the ability to reflect my perspectives and experiences? 

The issue is that many other countries don't have regulations for AI, leading to [studios] competing with independent creators. It's kind of a money thing and a legal thing. 

I personally don't see how AI would be able to capture that unique human. Anytime that I see anything from AI, it's kind of vanilla. I don't know how else to say it. It's pretty plain. 

With your standings on authenticity and creativity, I also wanted to start by getting a better sense of where you stand with the things ongoing in the industry. Why do you believe traditional art forms and human creativity must be protected from AI? And why is it so important for society to see the urgency of this issue?

It's gonna be hard to protect artists because with art –especially animation– it's also a business. And you can't make it without investment and money for teams of people. And it's those people that are deciding how they're gonna spend their money. 

I think it's important to protect artists in general because art is what makes us human. You know? Like, why? Why would you want a machine to make art and take away the very human aspect of life?

Unfortunately, we live in this capitalist society where the people that have the money are the ones that don't want to pay, and they think they want it for free. The truth is, though, that it's not gonna work out the way they think it will. It's not gonna deliver what they think it will.

And this isn’t just in the art world– AI is gonna affect everybody. It's not just artists. We're already seeing waves of giant layoffs because [workplace industries] are trying to figure out how to not hire people. And it's almost like the people who make these decisions and that are investing in this technology lack a basic understanding of civil duty and how society works. There is an obligation that we have to each other as humans in order for there to be a stable society. 

I think that's urgent. If we end up with a whole generation of people not working, what is that gonna look like?

Yeah, recently I’ve just been thinking how hard it's gonna be for my generation to find certain jobs with AI.

It's probably gonna land somewhere in the middle, right? There's like a lot of these tech guys think that this is gonna lead into some kind of utopia. One of the earliest lectures that I went to was by Moustafa Suleyman, who was one of the creators of DeepMind from Google (an early form of AI). And his whole thing was like, ‘we're gonna free you from work. Imagine all of the things you're gonna be able to do.’ But we also have to pay our rents and our mortgages. We also have to buy food. On one hand, they have this extreme utopia where there's no currency. 

We're not supported and eventually, society's gonna break down. But I honestly feel like the resistance against the AI stuff coming in are people. The thing that has slowed down AI coming into animation is executives in the middle that have to make it happen, and they don't want it to happen either. The hope is that it will be like other shifts in society where some jobs go away and new jobs start. We don't know yet what that looks like. It's such a black box. But I really do feel like your generation is young enough to make the pivot. 

Now, on a more positive side, would you say there's some benefits of using AI in art, whether it'd be, like, conceptual or just, like, kind of those early starting blocks like you mentioned? 

There's such a cost benefit thing going on because when [artists] switched to digital, some people stopped learning how to do watercolor and how to paint because they're doing it digitally. And I feel like it's still worth learning how to use traditional materials because it informs the choices that you make when you're working digitally. I feel like AI is the same way where you need to know what you're looking at. But, some of the things that they're talking about using it for is like ideation. What really needs to happen is proper regulation to assist artists, not harm them.

Although the cultural impacts of AI are yet to be fully seen, without proper regulation, do you think it has the potential to change artistic and societal cultures?

AI has the potential to change the way society works through cultures. Society is constantly changing. It's always changing. So change happens all the time anyway. I don't think that you can blame AI for cultural changes, you know? It might change the culture of work. It might change the culture of school. I just don't see it affecting the culture of a people, but it will affect the culture of work and the way that we interact with the people around us.

As the rise of AI continues to put artists' jobs and creativity at risk, Moreno-King continues to advocate for the importance of human originality, authenticity, and creativity, which art embodies. While the future of AI in art and broader society remains uncertain, it is certain that advocacy and voicing important matters are vital towards reaching global change. In a world where technology and AI are advancing, we must remember the importance of humanity—human integrity, imagination, curiosity, passion, creativity, and authenticity are all vital parts of society through the ability to create change for the better. Maintaining these values is key to a better world.