News – AI’s Impact on Media – and the Backlash

It’s no secret that I am not a fan of AI. Well, more accurately, I’m not a fan of generative AI, chatbots, and the infrastructure necessary to support it.

Not all AI is bad. There are many AI tools, based on machine-learning, that are very useful in enabling us to work. Apple’s Magnetic mask and Adobe’s Object mask are two recent examples. In these cases, humans are actively involved in the creative process. The key, for me, is the role of the creative individual as AI creeps ever deeper into the creative process.

Image: ThisIsEngineering, via Pexels.com.

Last week, Time magazine published a cover story on “The People vs. AI, Behind the Growing Backlash.” (Link) The entire article fascinating, but here’s a key take-away:

“Not much unites Americans these days. But a growing cross section of the public—from MAGA loyalists to Democratic socialists, pastors to policymakers, nurses to filmmakers—agree on at least one thing: AI is moving too fast. While most Americans use the tools, the U.S. is one of the most AI-pessimistic countries in the world.”

Recently, McKinsey & Company published a study based on discussions with over 20 media leaders, including studio and production executives, talent agents, AI innovators, and academics on “What AI could mean for film and TV production and the industry’s future.” (Link) Again, this article is worth reading.

Here are some relevant quotes:

“The rise in AI comes at a moment when video industry players are already under immense pressure. Consumer attention is fragmented amid an abundance of content and finite viewing time…. At the same time, investment in content is leveling off… as buyers turn to sports rights and licensed programming.

Image: Alex Knight, via Pexels.com.

“For example, a former executive at a major media company projected that once AI is adopted, it could accelerate current processes and eventually define new AI-native workflows in animation and VFX projects. Once tools reach what RTL’s Jan Lacher called “professional-grade resolution and consistency,” post schedules could shorten significantly, according to leaders, and AI could start to blend post-production into the pre-production process.”

McKinsey offered three key takeaways.

1. Scaling of changes to current production workflows

Leaders we interviewed noted that it is likely AI will increasingly impact production workflows, given the early signs their organizations have already seen. “I looked at every step of the workflow from ideation to distribution, and I really think every single piece of it will be significantly disrupted,” said B5 Studios’ Sean Bailey…. However, interviewees said industry players will need to address the many concerns about the technology’s use in artistic and creative endeavors, such as how it affects creativity or authorship.

2. Wide-scale democratization of professional-grade content creation

AI could also enable smaller studios and creative entrepreneurs to compete more directly with large studios, with the potential to increase total content supply and open up new opportunities for the broader creative community…. It may depend in part on whether the smaller creators apply AI to deliver more high-end content rather than simply to increase the volume of content they produce” i.e. AI slop.

3. The creation of new content formats and distribution channels

To the extent that AI gives rise to new content formats and distribution platforms, not just shifting distribution across existing platforms, it could significantly redistribute economic value pools among industry participants. The shifts from stage plays to cinema, linear to streaming, and long-form to short-form each contracted incumbent revenue by an average of 35 percent in the five years after the technology was widely adopted.

Ethical Risks

However the industry evolves, AI’s expanding role in content creation brings risks, many of which are already here. Across our interviews, three concerns emerged most consistently: talent and creative implications, IP and other rights infringement, and potential hallucinations or bias in model outputs. Leaders interviewed pointed to the critical role of regulatory and ethical frameworks, including measures such as training models on IP-safe content, standardizing AI use compensation, and ensuring creator consent with meaningful control over digital likeness.

McKinsey concludes:

“Ultimately, those who understand the potential implications, prepare for the risks, and begin to rewire their organizations for AI where needed are likely to help define film and TV in the decade ahead.”

Larry adds: Both these articles highlight how AI will increase pressure on budgets, decrease production and post-production schedules, and increasingly limit the role of the creative individual in the creative process.

The AI genie is out of the bottle, we can’t put it back. Instead, we should focus on protecting human creativity, provide reasonable identification and regulation of AI-generated material, and make sure we are adequately compensated when AI systems are trained on our creative output.

In other words, protect and focus on what makes us human and reflect that in our story-telling.