Discussing the future of filmmaking: Can AI break (or remake) Hollywood?

Everyone is talking about Amnesty InternationalWhether they want it or not. Every day, it seems like there’s a news story about how technology is evolving to improve/sabotage Our lives, and many conversations about artificial intelligence either come from a place of deep fear or growing optimism.

As someone who works in the entertainment industry, I wondered if these reactions reflected the actual state of technology out there. Well, as I’ve learned over this year AI on a lotthe world’s largest conference focused on AI in media, the disconnect is important — and there are no ways to bridge the gap from fear to understanding, and perhaps acceptance.

The event, which attracted approximately 2,500 attendees over its three days, was held near (and partly on) the back lot of Amazon MGM Studios in Culver City, California. I was only there for a day, but that was enough time for me to experience the product hype and technological optimism firsthand. (Ongoing concerns about human displacement and environmental damage were rarely mentioned.)

One thing you should know about me: I’m a card-carrying member of SAG-AFTRA, and just a few years ago, I joined the strike Which raised red flags about non-consensual use of Generative artificial intelligence In the field of entertainment. Now, here I am — AI skeptic, actor, and CNET journalist — entering the belly of the beast.

Recent films like Grinding hellwhich caused a stir at the Cannes Film Festival, and Violet dreamwhich has generated controversy for being the first fully AI-generated film to screen at Tribeca, shows the direction the film industry may be headed: faster, cheaper production with fewer humans.

I wanted to change my mind about the state of the entertainment industry and the potential of AI to improve Hollywood operations overall. By the end of the day, I left feeling more conflicted.

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Albert Cheng, President Amazon AI Studiosgave the opening statement on the day I attended. During the hour, he told the audience that his team’s approach to AI is “humans first.”

“We truly believe that in every part of the creative process, humans should be an active participant and decision maker in the process,” he told the crowd while standing in front of the Volume Wall at Amazon MGM Studios — an AI-powered production tool used to transform a soundstage into any setting imaginable.

He continued: “Whether it’s a writer, a director, or an actor, it’s really important that humans are involved in driving this process using AI as tools to empower, empower and accelerate everything we do. And with that combination we’re going to get a better creative product, we’re going to get more creative product, and we’re going to get more voices.”

An hour later, Amazon has greenlit three new animated seriesCreated using artificial intelligence; That afternoon, Jorge R. Gutierrez (The Book of Life, Maya and the Three), creator of Punky Duck — one of the announced titles — She canceled the project Entirely due to peer criticism and online backlash.

A day later, screenwriter Paul Schrader, best known for writing the film Martin ScorseseHis films Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ took the same stage as Wall of Sound to counter Cheng’s words by rejecting the need for human actors altogether.

“We, as carbon-dependent idiots, will spend our money empathizing and caring about silicon-based innovations, and then they will want the next one,” he said during an event. Part of his speech. “We know where this actor lives, and he works for nothing, working 24 hours a day.”

Schrader also took aim at background actors — a legitimate job that can help performers earn a living and qualify for union-provided health insurance (I’m speaking from experience) — whom he described as utterly expendable: “Why pay an extra $180 a day when they look so plastic anyway? We have to dress them, we have to feed them, we have to deal with their complaints when it gets too hot. Why don’t we just make them?”

Two keynote speeches, two very different views of AI. On one end of the spectrum, you have the human-driven message that AI is controllable and should be viewed like any other tool of production — not the death knell for humanity and creativity as we know it.

On the other hand? Throw all that out the window and let AI take the lead.

This is where we are with AI and Hollywood. On the one hand, there are people, such as Steven Spielberg and Quentin Tarantino, who look down on the use of this technology in entertainment.

The other side of the debate about artificial intelligence in filmmaking includes people among them Roger AvaryTarantino’s former writing partner, is using artificial intelligence to make films — just as Darren Aronofsky was doing with his An AI-made series about the American Revolutionary War. Martin Scorsese has also jumped on the AI ​​bandwagon, Investing in an artificial intelligence company That helps in making storyboards.

Do such moves make people in the industry nervous? definitely. But taking sides and continuing to argue about this will get us nowhere. It is clear that artificial intelligence is here to stay. What are we supposed to do about it?

Everyone I spoke to on the ground did their best to educate me on the reality of AI as a tool — comparing it to the likes of production software like Adobe Premiere Pro for editors or Final Draft for writers — which, in their eyes, would bring work back to the empty soundstages scattered throughout Los Angeles.

“We’ve built a tool whose core core (called Artlist Studio) is to allow you to make the same decisions, like casting, location scouting, lighting, framing, and direction,” said Ari Belsky, co-founder and co-CEO of the artificial intelligence production company List of artistsHe explained to me. “Now you can do it entirely with AI, but you can also bring in real actors that you’re working with, so you can get the performance and you can get the likeness to add shots.”

Artlist recently partnered with Paranormal Activity producer Steven Schneider to create a Full-length hybrid horror film It’s called a terrarium. He regularly mentioned the need for human input and real actors in productions like his. He was in the minority.

Apparently, productions are already using AI tools on set to speed up workflow and cut costs. During his keynote, Cheng spoke of a reality where engineers and scientists, focused solely on artificial intelligence, will become a regular presence on Hollywood sets, while the size of crews is reduced and the number of AI-powered projects greenlit increases.

The result, I was presented with, is more work coming to Hollywood, with more diverse stories being produced.

But my fear of losing the job is still there.

I mentioned Volume Wall earlier, and as cool as this technology is, it’s hard for me not to think about all the location-based placements that this type of AI technology would eliminate. Yes, having the ability to recreate any location while never leaving the group is great, can save time, and bypass budget red tape and side variables like weather delays. However, there is still a stark sense of artifice that can be seen in the final product that can feel disconnected from the reality it is trying to replicate.

Belsky pointed to strong and unique storytelling skills as the answer that will get us through this decline. This was echoed by Luc Arrigoni, CEO of Lotte, A The company that removes deepfakesI was told earlier today about the appeal of privacy and weirdness in entertainment — something that artificial intelligence cannot emulate.

This seems to be where all this talk about human intentions comes into play. Yolande Yan, co-founder and CEO of AI Production Tool Convenient user interfaceEcho the sentiment.

“The people with the highest level of creativity, ability to control, and quality of taste will actually attract most of the world’s attention,” he said. “They have the taste, they have the content, they have the writing, they have the script, they have the technical competence; and those are the ones who end up getting almost all the views.”

But in an attention economy where views are a highly sought-after currency, would any of this matter? I still don’t have an answer. However, I don’t think it matters that I don’t have an answer.

What matters is this gray area of ​​fear and anxiety that many of us find ourselves in now, and the real fears that AI will make any number of professions obsolete. This pressure is evident throughout Hollywood, where business has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels.

“I think the likely thing that will happen is that we will see a lot of things being manufactured,” Belsky said.

He and Yan told me in separate conversations that AI is already leading to more production work — Mostly in advertising. Television and film are the next frontier, Whether we like it or not.

So what is the solution? I asked that several times that day, and was met with the same two words: Use it. I was asked to learn the tools needed to understand and move beyond fear. Even if it means Water is wasted.

“I think more people will have the opportunity to actually show their talents,” Belsky added reassuringly. “You’ll see some amazing things emerge.”