Artificial intelligence (AI) has been a hot topic in Hollywood and beyond this year. So it made perfect sense that the fourth edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival (RSIFF) would focus on AI during a Sunday panel at its home market, the Red Sea Souq.
“Can AI be a creative partner? was the title of the session organized as part of another full day of activities in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The panel, moderated by Saudi businesswoman and AI expert Fatmah Baothman, included Chris Jacquemin, partner and head of digital strategy at WME, Diana Williams, CEO and co-founder of Kinetic Energy Entertainment, and Jennifer Howell, director of creation at Deep Voodoo, the AI and deepfake video company of South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. He also explored the opportunities and challenges of AI, its potential impact on creative jobs, and how AI is currently being used in the entertainment industry.
Jacquemin mentioned that audiences haven’t really seen any major AI films from Hollywood until now. “Interest from studios has increased a lot over the last year,” Howell said, however. “We met with all the studios. We do productions with a handful of them. However, everyone is still in the early stages of figuring out how to use it, she concluded.
Deep Voodo, which raised $20 million two years ago, has used its technology for content such as the YouTube series Sassy Justice and a Kendrick Lamar music video. Deepfakes use AI and machine learning to replace characters’ faces. In Impertinent justicethe technology has been used to parody Donald Trump and Mark Zuckerberg, among others. And for Apple TV+ series Beforehis team took video samples of Billy Crystal’s face to digitally age him.
The panel was generally positive about the opportunities AI will create to speed up production processes and more tedious and technical work, freeing up time for creatives to focus on key creative decisions rather than eliminate most human jobs.
For example, Howell said Deep Voodoo views AI as “a storytelling tool used by humans for profitability and creativity, whatever the case may be.” And Jacquemin called AI a “co-pilot tool,” sharing that WME clients use the technology particularly “early in the creative process,” for example to create mood boards and visual ideas, or to use ChatGPT for story outlines.
He said technology “gives you a certain set of superpowers” that can speed up the creative process, but argued that “unless someone has an incredible artistic vision, they’re not going to end up making a movie (or any other creative work). better.” He added: “I don’t necessarily believe that it’s going to produce significantly better works than what we’re seeing today.”
So where will AI lead to job losses in Hollywood? “The actors are extremely important,” Howell emphasized. “If you’re doing a traditional… deepfake scenario, it’s the actor who is the puppeteer, if you will, of the puppet.”
His take: “You can’t have a credible performance without an actor. Other jobs, I think, will change,” however. She cited similar changes in employment under past technological advancements, such as how editors have had to change their skills in the face of the rise of digital tools. “There are going to be changes more than a dramatic job loss,” she concluded, saying new roles will be created as part of this change. “Five years ago, there was no deepfake artist work,” Howell pointed out, for example.
Jacquemin echoes: “There are more productions possible”, even if “there will be jobs that will be eliminated”. And he emphasized: “I think we will see AI effectively democratizing access,” emphasizing: “About 20 years ago, when YouTube was created, it ultimately gave birth to a whole new generation of storytellers. »
Williams stressed, however, that the economic and financial impact of time savings thanks to AI on manufacturers has not yet appeared. And she stressed that intellectual property and copyright are so essential to the Hollywood giants that companies will keep them front and center amid the rise of AI.
“All of our films and television shows are made in conjunction with all licensed material,” Howell emphasized.
The session began with an on-screen video showing animated voices that, Baothman said, were created using AI.