Gen AI in Hollywood | Equinox AI Lab

Author: Juan Camilo Sarmiento

The TV and Film industry, as well as many other industries, has been full of technological advances, including IA. Most recently, a trending topic has been Generative AI in Hollywood, which represents a paradigm shift that is transforming the essence of storytelling and filmmaking. This also comes with its ethical dilemmas, as we have been able to observe from the concerns of the different workers in this industry during the latest writers’ strike. As IA continues to evolve, the industry will do as well, making the people inside of it adapt and use it to their advantage rather than replacing the people inside of this industry.

In this article, we will explore some of the technological advances that Inteligencia Artificial has had in Hollywood and how this can affect the industry’s workers. As well as highlighting the ethics behind the use of IA in the industry.

From recommender systems to AI-generated content

The use of IA in Hollywood isn’t new. As a consumer of TV and film, you probably have interacted a lot of time with sistemas de recomendación, which recommend series or films that you are likely to watch based on previous content you have watched and liked. One example of this is Netflix’s recommendations system, which they describe as the core of its product, as it provides its members personalised suggestions to reduce the amount of time and frustration to find great content to watch. (Netflix,2023)

But sistemas de recomendación are not only for consumers. Sistemas de recomendación have been used and studied in the production side of this industry. Data from social media, box office, streaming and TV have been used to train models to predict the risk of producing a movie. (The verge,2023). In 2020, for example, Warner Bros signed a deal with Cinelytic, intending to use the recommendations for decision-making assistance. An important aspect to remark on is that Cinelytic’s CEO stressed that IA was only an assistive tool, as AI cannot make any creative decisions.

Apart from that, we have seen rapid adoption of IA Generativa tools as there is a low barrier to entry, and it also exploded in popularity this year (2023) as the tech industry’s hottest new thing. And as it is trending in all sectors, it has already been used in the creative industry, with some applications like the ones that we will see next.

Use cases of Gen AI in the creative industry

In the use of IA in the production of TV shows and movies, the applications have evolved more than just image processing, for example, for scaling images, and now, IA Generativa in Hollywood can be found in different areas like script writing and storytelling, editing and post-production, visual effects and animation, video generation and voice cloning among others.

Writing and storytelling

Writing can be a challenging task, and writing scripts is the base of the film industry. Scripts are an essential tool for decision-making, serving as a tangible representation of a film’s potential and viability. And writing a script requires the ability to weave words into engaging narratives, create complex characters and build intricate worlds.

For writing and storytelling use the tool AI movie script generator.

In the case of writing, large language models (LLMs) are the main tool to generate new text. By now, you may have already heard of ChatGPT, a chat platform in which an LLM answers your questions and can help you with different tasks. An example of ChatGPT being used for a movie script is the movie The Safe Zone, released by 28 Squared Studios and Moon Ventures, which was the first-ever film written and directed by AI.

In fact, not only was the script generated by ChatGPT but a shot list was also generated to know about the camera angle, lighting and other production aspects.

Video Generation and editing

For some years now, a company by the name Runway has made different IA tools that have been used by studios to edit parts of movies or to generate films.

An example of a movie where Gen AI in Hollywood was used is Everything Everywhere All at Once. In this movie, not only machine learning algorithms were used to automate editing processes like rotoscoping for green screens, but IA Generativa tools like Stable Diffusion were used to create some of the scenes. Stable Diffusion allowed the filmmakers to create a high level of visual complexity and an otherworldly scene. The film’s multiple parallel universes and timelines were achieved by seamlessly blending different images and videos.

Taking more about the tools for video generation, Runway created Gen1, el tool that generates videos out from existing ones, and Gen2 that has the capability of creating video from text, text and images or text and videos. Using Gen2, the production company Waymark was able to create the short film The Frost, which is completely generated by IA.

Voice Cloning

Another growing application of IA Generativa in Hollywood is voice cloning, which, as its name says, involves using Machine Learning to analyse and replicate a specific individual’s speech patterns, intonation and vocal characteristics. It allows for the creation of synthetic voices that can mimic the nuances and uniqueness of a person’s voice.

Voice cloning is helpful in multiple industries, for example, education, medical studies, video game development, music, TV and film. Inside the TV and film industry, it has many possible applications, as it can be used for advertising, dubbing and localisation, animation, or bringing back voices from actors who have passed away.

An example of voice cloning used in films and TV series is The Mandalorian from Disney+, where the character Luke Skywalker was set to make an appearance in the final episode of the second season of The Mandalorian. With Mark Hamill, who interpreted Luke in the original films, being 68 years old at the time, the tool Respeecher was used to clone Mark’s younger voice.

Ethics of Gen AI in the film industry

The increasing role of IA Generativa in Hollywood filmmaking industry raises important ethical considerations that the industry and its stakeholders must address. Some of these involve authorship and the impact of the usage of IA on creatives, representation and bias, privacy and consent and the regulation of the IA Generativa systems.

With the latest writers’ strike, one point of concern was the usage of IA Generativa, as it can affect the job of some of the creatives that are not part of the big companies in this industry. Considering that now you can write complete scripts using IA, another thing that raises concern is authorship. The creative process has long been associated with human ingenuity, and attributing creative works to IA can lead to debates over copyright, intellectual property, and recognition of human talent.

Regarding representation and bias, we must consider that the different models are trained with vast amounts of data, and these datasets can sometimes have biased data*. In the case of the film industry, it can lead to issues of stereotyping, discrimination and underrepresentation in films when it is not intended. This also comes with the privacy and consent issue, as the likeliness of some of the actors and creatives can be used in some scenarios that are not good and can be used unethically to create misleading content or invade an individual’s privacy.

*To learn more about cognitive bias read this article: Handy resources to avoid cognitive biases in Data Science.

Having said all of this, the most important thing is that as IA is a growing technology, a set of rules or indications of its use must be established, as only some of the developers and users of these technologies consider the ethical implications of it.

Conclusion

The impact of IA Generativa in Hollywood and the entertainment industry is undeniably transformative. While it offers immense potential for creative enhancement and efficiency, it also brings forth a myriad of ethical considerations that must be thoughtfully addressed.

It’s crucial to emphasise that IA is primarily an assistive tool in the creative process, not a replacement for human ingenuity and likeliness. As technology evolves, it will be used more in every industry, and specifically in the film industry, it will allow us to have new ideas, characters and stories to tell. Overall, the film industry should embrace AI as a tool for innovation while preserving the essence of storytelling and human creativity, and as in every industry, we should be informed on the technology and its use, not to misuse it and make a positive change in the world.

References

Hollywood’s writers are on strike. Here’s why that matters.

All About the Writers Strike: What Does the WGA Want and Why Are They Fighting So Hard for it?

What’s the Latest on the Writers’ Strike?

Is the Hollywood writers’ strike over? The provisional deal explained

‘Bargaining for our very existence’: why the battle over AI is being fought in Hollywood

‘Embrace it or risk obsolescence’: how will AI jobs affect Hollywood?

AI & YOU #19: AI’s Toolbox in Hollywood: From Voice Cloning to Digital Re-aging

AI & YOU #18: AI is Coming for Hollywood and the Industry Should Be Worried

HOW AI VIDEO TOOLS ARE CHANGING THE FILM INDUSTRY 2023

‘This Is an Existential Threat’: Will AI Really Eliminate Actors and Ruin Hollywood? Insiders Sound Off

Hollywood is replacing artists with AI. Its future is bleak. (from 2020)