Blue Zoo's "AI Manifesto"

Blue Zoo's AI Manifesto

Blue Zoo, one of the UK's leading animation companies, has published their "AI Manifesto".

The AI Manifesto sets out how artists and animators at the studio can navigate the world of artificial intelligence "ethically...leveraging technology for the betterment of society and creativity".  

AI Inclusivity

The key element of the manifesto is an inclusive approach to AI, giving animators "the freedom to decide whether or not to use AI".  Animators and artists who "wish to use AI tools should and will be free to do so, as long as they recognise and abide by the policies outlined in this Manifesto".

Areas of Concern

The key areas of concern identified by Blue Zoo are: 

• Legalities and ethics of training data
• Quality control of resulting output
• Resulting job displacement caused
• Environmental footprint of the compute
• Resulting lower job satisfaction
• Reinforcing biases

Ethical Use of AI

Adobe Firefly) - trained on authorised data. 

As long as artists can follow the guidelines for ethical use of AI, they are free to use the tools, at least those (like Adobe Firefly) that are trained on authorised data. 

Key tools used at Blue Zoo

Comfy UI

Key AI tools used at Blue Zoo include:

• Comfy UI (running in a sandbox) 
• Nano Banana 
• Claude Code (developing internal tools and scripts) 
• Foundry AI tools 

 

What Blue Now Expects of Graduates

Blue Zoo now expects graduates to be able combine traditional tools with AI in order to solve problems and increase efficiency. Graduates should be "proactive rather than reactive" when it comes to using AI to find solutions. 

Blue Zoo is one of the UK's leading animation companies, regular industry partners and also a leading advocate of corporate responsibility in the Creative Industries. 

Escapees at Blue Zoo

Many Escapees have joined Blue Zoo after graduating from Escape Studios. 

The Escape Studios Animation Blog offers a personal view on the art of animation and visual effects.
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