AI: 'Nothing to See Here'. RTZ #350

As the AI Tech Wave and the latest LLM AI technologies like OpenAI’s video LLM AI wonder Sora, rapidly scale up globally to generate text to video at an extraordinary rate of improvement, a new dilemma arises in Hollywood around AI. The concern is of course, what if anything should be disclosed about the AI used in its products worldwide. Axios summarizes both sides of the issue in “Hollywood’s Disclosure Dilemma”:

“Generative AI has hit Hollywood, but you have to look hard to see it.”

“Why it matters: With no laws or standards governing when and how to tell viewers about AI’s involvement in the creative process, film and TV makers are winging it — and further eroding the line between reality and fiction.”

“Driving the news: Media companies and content creators keep getting caught not disclosing their use of generative AI.”

• “Netflix’s recently released true-crime documentary “What Jennifer Did” included images that appear to have been created or altered with generative AI, as first reported by Futurism.”

• “HBO’s “True Detective” fans also noticed posters in the background of one scene that showed telltale signs of AI.”

• “The directors of the horror film “Late Night with the Devil” had to go on the defensive to explain their use of AI for three still images in the movie.”

“Documentary fans argue that AI-generated images introduce falsity into the historical record, while fans of fictional dramas say that AI art steals jobs from artists. which ruins their enjoyment of the films.”

• “True Detective’s” showrunner tweeted that the posters were meant to poke fun at generative AI, but she later deleted those tweets.”

• “The “Late Night with the Devil” directors called their use an experiment.”

“The big picture: Aside from scores of AI copyright issues, viewers simply do not like to be fooled.”

The piece goes on to outline a range of disclosure angst and concerns. But then also goes onto to lay out the counter-point of the AI technology debate n Hollywood:

“The other side: Film and video are technologies, and Hollywood has been altering images from its earliest days.”

• “If you think of generative AI as the latest in a long tradition of special effects, it looks less like doomsday for truth and more like Hollywood business as usual.”

“Reality check: Disclosing or labeling the use of AI is hard. AI-generated media rarely exists without some human input, and any disclosure requirement isn’t going to work if it’s a simple, binary “AI or not AI” label.”

• “Most of what we see on television and in the movies is already a collaboration between humans and machines. We don’t expect disclosure for the use of special effects or digital editing.”

• “You don’t need AI to manipulate photos or video in stunningly and meaningfully misleading ways,” Denise Howell, technology lawyer and host of the podcast “Uneven Distribution,” told Axios.””

Here too, the piece goes onto to illustrate how technology has gone a long way to alter how Hollywood does its thing for decades now, and puts AI in the proper context of just the next Wave to change how the entertainment sausage is produced.

And how the spoiils are to be divided off the new technology.

This issue of AI use disclosure and labeling is deemed an important one in the early days of this and most new technologies. But in the longer picture, it’s how technology has always changed how we’re entertained. AI is just the latest set of ‘accelerated computing’ tools now changing Hollywood productions. Generally for the better.

Nothing to see here in the long term despite all the current angst. Stay tuned

(NOTE: The discussions here are for information purposes only, and not meant as investment advice at any time. Thanks for joining us here)