The use of generative AI had caused Hollywood’s greatest shutdown two years ago, when almost the entirety of Hollywood actors and writers had asked for more artistic protection from the dangers of AI stealing their work.
Recently, AI work has been slowly and steadily creeping into Hollywood work, as many producers and marketers prefer the work of AI for its efficiency and low cost. It has steadily been gaining a strong hold in the movie industry. With its cheap output and efficiency, and stunning ability to consistently improve, AI generated videos and AI generated content is steadily gaining the trust of major Hollywood producers and big clients for its effectiveness.
The Inevitability of AI in Movie Culture
As a DJ played ’90s hip hop, computer developers rubbed shoulders with actors and executives, in a sign of the changing power players in the industry.
AI in Hollywood is “inevitable”, says Bryn Mooser, the party’s host and the co-founder of Moonvalley, which created the AI generator tool Marey by paying for footage from filmmakers with their consent. Mooser says that while AI may still be a dirty word, their product is “clean” because it pays for its content.
“Artists should be at the table,” he says, adding that it’s better to build the tool for filmmakers rather than get “rolled over by big tech companies”.
Artificial Intelligence has long been depicted as a villain in Hollywood. In The Terminator, AI used by the US military decides it must destroy everyone on earth.
But it’s AI’s creators, and not the technology itself, that has received the brunt of real-life criticism.
The Villanization Of AI’s Creators
The real reason for the major villainization of Artificial Intelligence is not the negative portrayal in the media, but it is the intricate training of AI models from open source data which regularly contain pirated and shared sources of sensitive and copyrighted data. Effectively destroying the hard work of artists, turning private pieces of artistic integrity into publicly available content.
Any person who would work for hours endlessly to perfect their craft would get agitated seeing their own style being so effortlessly copied and used to make content in seconds.
“We’ve all fought very hard for copyright laws, and nobody wants to see their work stolen to have somebody else profit from it,” Mooser says.
Utilization of AI in Hollywood Movies
Hollywood has begun toying with the new technology. The Oscar-nominated films Emilia Perez and The Brutalist used AI to alter voices. Adrian Brody won the Academy Award for best actor, even with the help of AI to fine tune his accent when he spoke Hungarian in his starring role in The Brutalist. AI has even been used to de-age actors like Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford.
Artificial Intelligence is seemingly everywhere. OpenAI hosted an AI film festival in Los Angeles earlier this month. Marvel directors Joe and Anthony Russo told the Wall Street Journal they plan to invest $400 million to craft AI tools for filmmakers.
But the impacts on how it will alter the future of the entertainment industry remain unclear.
