Artificial Intelligence is poised to create a seismic shift in entertainment, and the technology isn’t just in development. It’s arrived and Hollywood needs to be prepared.
That was the message of a SAG-AFTRA-hosted CES panel, as AI-driven tools permeated the consumer tech show’s exhibition halls. Nina Schick, author and advisor on generative AI, projected that 90 percent of content may be — at least in part — AI-generated by 2025. She further predicted that everyone in the audience would be planning to use some form of generative AI within the month.
With these predictions, she raised some questions that Hollywood will have to grapple with as the technology becomes more widespread in areas of content creation, including deep fakes. “Is this technology automating us or augmenting us?” Schick asked. “Is this better than human intelligence?”
Where the critical area of deep fakes is concerned, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director and chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA, reported that the Guild is working on policies aimed at how to create opportunities — not take them away — while protecting its members from having their likenesses exploited; particularly how to maintain ownership and control of their likenesses at a time when it becomes harder and harder to distinguish the real from the synthetic. He asserted that performers need to give their consent and receive fair compensation when their likeness is used. “That solves a whole lot of ethical issues.”
Looking ahead, he added, “As this technology democratizes and becomes more accessible and available, this is going to turn into a broader public policy issue.”
AI-enabled production tools were also part of the discussion. Joanna Popper, chief metaverse officer at CAA, reported that her agenda is about getting “metaverse ready.” As an example, she cited CAA’s investment in companies including Deep Voodoo, the AI entertainment startup formed by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, that is developing deep fake and other tools.
Scott Mann, co-founder and CEO of startup Flawless, spoke about his company’s AI-enabled system designed to create lip-synced versions of movies and other content in multiple languages. “We built the technology so that it looks like [the dialogue] was performed in that language,” he explained.
Matt Panousis, co-founder and COO at VFX venture Monsters Aliens Robots Zombies, discussed his company’s proprietary AI-driven software for de-aging and other cosmetic work, which he claimed has the potential to speed up this process and make it more cost-effective than competing methods. He added that it’s been used on productions including Spider-Man: No Way Home and the latest season of Stranger Things.
CES concludes today in Las Vegas.
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