Artificial intelligence is about to cause a seismic shift in entertainment, and the technology isn’t just evolving. It’s arrived and Hollywood needs to be prepared.
That was the message of a CES panel hosted by SAG-AFTRA, as AI-driven tools permeated the consumer technology trade show’s exhibit halls. Generative AI author and consultant Nina Schick predicted that 90 percent of content could be generated by AI — at least in part — by 2025. She further predicted that everyone in the audience would plan to use some form of generative AI within the month.
With these predictions, she posed a number of questions that Hollywood will have to grapple with as technology becomes more widespread in content creation, including deep fakes. “Does this technology automate us or augment us?” Schick asked. “Is this better than human intelligence?”
On the critical area of deep fakes, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director and chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA, reported that the guild is working on policies aimed at creating opportunities – not taking them away – while empowering its members protects from their similarities being exploited; especially how to maintain ownership and control of their likenesses at a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish the real from the synthetic. He argued that artists must give their consent and receive fair compensation when their likeness is used. “That solves a lot of ethical issues.”
Looking ahead, he added, “As this technology democratizes and becomes more accessible and available, it will become a broader public policy issue.”
AI-assisted production tools were also part of the discussion. Joanna Popper, chief metaverse officer at CAA, reported that her agenda is to make “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, which develops deepfake and other tools.
Scott Mann, co-founder and CEO of startup Flawless, spoke about his company’s AI system designed to create lip-synched versions of movies and other content in multiple languages. “We built the technology the way it looks [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 anti-aging and other cosmetic work, which he argued has the potential to speed up this process and make it more expensive. more effective than competing methods. He added that it has been used in productions including Spider-Man: No Way Home and the last season of Stranger things.
CES ends today in Las Vegas.
