AI Is Transforming Media Before Our Eyes – and Accelerating Cable’s Demise | PRO Insight

As formerly (thankfully!) striking writers justifiably emphasized: AI is transforming Hollywood. It already has. The major streaming services have long used artificial intelligence and machine learning to enhance overall viewing experiences, accelerating cord cutting — and fundamentally transforming Hollywood economics — in the process. Cable simply can’t keep up as AI sifts through massive amounts of data about your viewing habits to give you better recommendations and personalized trailers on all your major streaming platforms. That means you watch more and churn less.

At the same time, on the production side, AI-enhanced data-driven decisions enable the streamers to make better (lower risk) financial bets on content, and then bring those bets to their target audiences more cost-effectively. Those bets don’t necessarily translate into higher art, but they certainly please Wall Street bean counters.

In this media era now punctuated by majority viewing via streaming, Netflix, Apple and Amazon are best positioned to excel in their use of AI vis-à-vis the major streamers brought to you by more “traditional” media. All three, after all, boast Silicon Valley tech DNA that immediately sets them apart. By their very nature, they are likely to feel more comfortable accelerating their use of AI than the others who are more beholden to the ghosts (and executives) of Hollywood’s past.

One prime example of what to expect on Amazon’s Prime Video and other major streamers is the use of AI dubbing to localize content on a massive scale. Companies like Flawless already give them that magic. Case in point, the new Korean film “Smugglers” will use the company’s TrueSync AI technology to generate two versions of that film — one in Korean and the other in English — each of which will seamlessly synch the same actors’ mouths in both languages. That AI magic instantaneously expands the film’s audience, opening up the entire world for it and other films and series that previously were largely landlocked in their domestic territories due to the need for subtitling (a process which itself has been made significantly more efficient by AI).

That certainly is a boon to the streamers and all media companies as they seek to expand their footprints without massively scaling their content budgets. Newly global audiences for all titles open up newly juiced global revenues of every flavor, subscription, ad-supported and theatrical. Filmmakers will also cheer this kind of AI-enabled expansion, since more eyes and ears will see and understand their works.

But one person’s boon is another person’s bust, as bots take on more and more roles formerly held by humans in a process of Hollywood disruption and dislocation that always comes with revolutionary new tech territory — but will be exaggerated here in ways we cannot anticipate.

Tech-first streaming giants will likely move fastest to use AI to cut film production costs, not to mention the number of humans needed to accomplish those tasks (WGA strike settlement be damned). Efficiency and expediency have always been their top priority after all, and generative AI is already widely used in the writing and production of films and series, not to mention the generation of music used in those productions.

Tech-first streaming giants like Netflix — which already increasingly features lower cost documentaries like true crime series “The Jeffrey Dahmer Tapes” — will move fast to harness AI’s mesmerizing power to squeeze more content out of their budgets (much to the delight of Wall Street). Expect an endless flow of new AI-generated documentaries. Just plug in the latest headline crime storyline and key data points into an already-winning true crime equation and, shazam, out spits another streaming “win.” Not exactly art, but certainly algorithmic science.

All of this further reduces dependence on humans, of course, so much so that AI-generated actors will increasingly populate dramatic productions as well. After all, those synthetic actors can work 24/7, no trailer needed (and no pesky personalities with which to deal). Just program them once and then wash, rinse and repeat.

Many of those “synths” will use the licensed likenesses and voices of real human actors, of course. James Earl Jones — the long-time voice of Darth Vader — retired from acting long ago. Yet his voice lives on in new “Star Wars” productions via AI. So imagine Tom Cruise in the next “Mission Impossible” (OK, maybe not the next one, but certainly the next one after that). Just digitally capture his voice, body, movements and face on a good hair day and let AI do the rest. Cruise stars in the film without needing to be on set for one single day. He’ll be able to watch his credits roll — and royalties roll in — as he sips margaritas on a very real beach.

All of this (and so much more that we cannot even fathom) are coming soon — sooner than you think — whether you like it or not. If there is any doubt, Sony Pictures chief Tony Vinciquerra recently did his best to try to dispel them. While conceding that AI presents a “very complicated subject” for formerly striking writers and still striking actors, he also scolded those who resist it.

“You can’t get in the way of technology,” he proclaimed. “People who get in the way of technology don’t last long in the business.”

That same theme was repeated over and over again at AI LA’s “AI on the Lot” summit earlier this year. Academy Award-winning VFX expert Robert Legato unhesitatingly doled out the following advice to young media mavens in the audience: “The people who hate [AI] or are fearful of it are insecure about their own talent,” he said. He then asked the crowd whether they feared AI’s impact on their jobs. Not surprisingly, not a hand was raised, as either blind tech and AI idolatry or good old-fashioned social pressures had taken over. I recall marveling at the time (I was in the audience) that we now collectively deify technology so much that it is considered weakness to even question humanity’s role in the creative process. And, to be clear, I say this as someone who has served as CEO of tech-forward media companies — not as someone who fears the power of tech.

So yes, media companies across the board — especially the major streamers — will seek to harness the power of AI across literally every facet of their business. But while we acknowledge the business logic for doing so, let’s not forget the human and creative toll that inevitably comes from accelerating reliance on AI. Algorithms may seek to replicate human emotion and experiences, but only human creators can truly bring those stories to life based on their very real, organic lives.

And let’s not also forget that this simple acknowledgment and stake in the ground for humanity doesn’t mean that our heads are in the sand about this new game-changing tech, especially as the captains of industry who seek to propagate AI across Hollywood (and all aspects of our lives) essentially admit that there a no guardrails to control it.

The WGA was absolutely right to place AI issues front and center in their negotiations, although we don’t know the full contours of their resolution just yet.

NOTE: These and other issues will be discussed and debated in my upcoming AI and Hollywood panel discussion at TheWrap’s annual “The Grill” event on Oct. 4. Guests will include leading creators Justine Bateman and Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, business executives Rick Hack (head of Media and Entertainment Partnerships at Intel) and Erick Opeka (president and chief strategy officer at Cineverse), Hollywood-focused AI pioneer Thobey Campion (founder, Lore Machine) and industry leader Dr. Moiya McTier (explAIner-in-chief, Human Artistry Campaign).

For those of you interested in learning more, visit Peter’s firm Creative Media at creativemedia.biz and follow him on Twitter/X @pcsathy.

The post AI Is Transforming Media Before Our Eyes – and Accelerating Cable’s Demise | PRO Insight appeared first on TheWrap.