How AI is generating a revolution in entertainment

Summary

The entertainment industry is undergoing a revolution with AI and big data transforming content creation and consumption. AI algorithms are identifying new artists and predicting hit songs, while generative AI creates new art forms and challenges traditional jobs. The technology is also reshaping film production, with AI predicting box office success and impacting legal debates over copyright. Despite concerns over job displacement, AI's potential to democratize creativity and boost the global economy is undeniable.

Takeaways

• 🚀 AI is revolutionizing the entertainment industry, with the potential to disrupt every aspect of it.
• 🎵 AI algorithms can analyze global music data to predict trends and identify new artists, as demonstrated by the success of Alfie Castley.
• 📈 Big data and AI are being used to spot opportunities and trends in the digital era, turning listeners into talent scouts and democratizing the selection process.
• 🎬 Streaming services like Netflix use data to inform content creation and user engagement, changing the structure of songs and the way profits are made.
• 🤖 Generative AI is introducing new possibilities for creating content, with implications for the job market and the nature of creativity.
• 🎥 AI is being integrated into film production to predict box office performance, helping studios manage budgets and reduce financial risk.
• 👽 Generative AI's ability to clone voices and create synthetic content raises questions about originality and the potential for job displacement in the arts.
• 💡 The debate over generative AI's impact on the industry includes concerns about derivative content versus innovation and the risk of content fatigue.
• 📉 The rise of AI in entertainment has led to strikes by Hollywood actors and writers, highlighting concerns over compensation and job security.
• 📚 Legal and ethical issues surrounding AI-generated content, including copyright and consent, are becoming increasingly complex and contentious.
• 🌐 The global impact of generative AI on the economy is predicted to be substantial, but the regulatory landscape for AI in entertainment remains uncertain.

Q & A

How is AI transforming the entertainment industry?

AI is revolutionizing the entertainment industry by predicting trends, identifying new talent, and creating new forms of art. It analyzes data from social media and streaming platforms to spot opportunities faster than traditional methods.

How did AI help discover the artist Alfie Castley?

AI algorithms identified that Alfie Castley had a significant fan base in Southeast Asia, despite being a UK-based artist. This discovery was made by analyzing streaming data and social media engagement across different platforms.

What role does AI play in the music industry today?

AI is used to analyze metadata from social media and streaming platforms to identify trends and potential hits. It helps in talent scouting, playlist curation, and even in the creation of new music through generative AI.

How has streaming services' use of data changed the music business?

Streaming services like Netflix and Spotify have used data to determine content creation and structure. They pay musicians per play, incentivizing the creation of songs that capture attention from the start to prevent skipping.

What is the function of the AI company Cytic in the film industry?

Cytic uses AI to predict a film's performance by analyzing various variables such as cast, crew, genre, and budget. It provides a detailed risk-rated forecast for box office and other revenue streams.

How does generative AI differ from traditional AI in content creation?

Generative AI creates original content by learning patterns from large datasets and producing new outputs when prompted. It has been used in music, choreography, and even impersonating voices, offering new possibilities for creative expression.

What challenges does generative AI pose to traditional jobs in the entertainment industry?

Generative AI threatens jobs by automating tasks that were traditionally done by humans, such as creating special effects, lip-syncing, and even acting. This has led to concerns about job displacement and the need for regulation.

What was the AI's prediction for the film 'Barbie' and how did it perform?

The AI predicted that 'Barbie' would be a successful film but did not foresee it becoming a cultural phenomenon. The film exceeded expectations by joining the 1 billion Club just 17 days after its release.

What are the concerns regarding AI and copyright in the creative industry?

There are ongoing debates about the need for active consent each time an artist's work is used by AI. The complexity of determining the influence of individual data points on AI output makes it challenging to establish clear copyright rules.

How might the entertainment industry regulate the use of AI?

Regulation of AI in the entertainment industry is inevitable but faces challenges in defining the rules and their effectiveness. It may involve ensuring consent for using artists' work and could impact the way AI companies operate.

What is the potential economic impact of generative AI on the global economy?

Generative AI is estimated to add between 2.6 and 4.4 trillion to the global economy annually. In the media and entertainment industry, it could increase revenue by 60 to 110 billion dollars a year.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 AI's Disruptive Impact on Entertainment

The entertainment industry is facing a revolution driven by Big Data and AI, which are transforming how content is discovered, produced, and consumed. AI algorithms analyze global music consumption to predict hits and generate new art forms, posing both opportunities and threats to traditional roles within the industry. Swedish record labels exemplify this shift by using AI to identify artists with international appeal, such as Alfie Castley, whose music went viral in Southeast Asia. AI's predictive capabilities extend to the film industry, with companies like Cytic using AI to forecast box office success and inform production decisions, although it's acknowledged that outliers like the film 'Barbie' can still surprise the system. The script also touches on the democratization of talent scouting through digital technology and the potential for AI to streamline content management.

05:02

🎬 AI in Film Production: Predicting Success

AI's role in the film industry is explored through the company Cytic, which uses AI to analyze numerous variables to predict a film's financial performance. This technology assists producers in budgeting and risk assessment by providing detailed forecasts for box office, home video, and TV revenues. The AI considers factors such as cast, crew, age rating, genre, and budget, and allows for dynamic recalculations based on different inputs. However, the success of 'Barbie' highlights the limitations of AI in predicting cultural phenomena. The discussion also includes generative AI's potential to create new content and the ethical and creative implications of AI-generated art, with concerns about derivative work versus originality and the potential for content fatigue.

10:04

🎭 Generative AI and the Future of Creativity

Generative AI is enabling artists to create new forms of art by learning from existing data and producing original content. The beatboxer Harry Yee, also known as Reeps, collaborates with AI to generate a 'second self,' expanding his sonic lexicon with synthetic voices. Similarly, the Leipzig Ballet in Germany incorporates AI-suggested movements into their performances. While generative AI opens opportunities for artists, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds, it also raises debates about its derivative nature and the potential for content saturation. The impact of AI on jobs is also discussed, with concerns about the displacement of human labor in voiceover work and other creative fields.

15:05

👩‍🎤 The Human Impact of AI in Entertainment

The human side of AI's impact on the entertainment industry is examined, focusing on the potential threat to jobs and the ethical considerations of AI-generated content. British actor Marcus Hutton expresses concern about AI's ability to clone voices and the implications for voiceover artists. The discussion includes the cloning of Hutton's voice using Speechify's technology, which, despite being trained on a small amount of data, raises questions about the future of personal identity and the authenticity of AI-generated voices. The potential economic benefits of generative AI are noted, but so are the legal challenges regarding copyright and the need for active consent when using an artist's work with AI.

20:06

🛡️ The Regulatory Future of AI in Entertainment

The final paragraph addresses the inevitable regulation of AI in the entertainment industry, with a focus on the challenges of defining rules and the power consumers have in shaping the adoption of AI technologies. It highlights the importance of consumer choice in the face of AI-driven automation and the need for clear guidelines on consent and copyright. The paragraph also suggests that the regulation of AI will be a significant issue in the coming years, with the outcome likely impacting the creative landscape and the balance between human creativity and AI-generated content.

Keywords

💡Revolution

Revolution refers to a significant change or transformation that fundamentally alters the nature of something. In the context of the video, it is used to describe the impact of AI and big data on the entertainment industry, suggesting a major shift in how content is created, distributed, and consumed.

💡Big Data

Big Data is a term used to describe the large volume of structured and unstructured data that inundates a data-driven organization. In the video, big data is portrayed as a catalyst for change in the entertainment industry, influencing everything from content creation to marketing strategies based on consumer behavior analysis.

💡Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. The video discusses AI's potential to disrupt the entertainment industry by predicting trends, creating content, and even posing existential threats to traditional roles within the industry.

💡Generative AI

Generative AI is a subset of AI that focuses on creating new content based on learned patterns from data. The video highlights generative AI's ability to generate new forms of art and content, which can be both beautiful and intimidating, indicating a paradigm shift in creative processes.

💡Algorithm

An algorithm is a set of rules or procedures for solving problems or accomplishing tasks. In the video, algorithms are mentioned as tools that can analyze vast amounts of data to predict what people will listen to and watch, thus shaping the entertainment landscape.

💡Spotting Opportunities

Spotting opportunities refers to the ability to identify potential areas for growth or success. The video illustrates how AI can spot opportunities in the digital era by analyzing metadata from social media and viewer behavior to identify trends and patterns that may indicate future hits.

💡Streaming Services

Streaming services are online platforms that offer content such as movies and TV shows on-demand. The video discusses how the advent of streaming services like Netflix has changed the entertainment industry, from content creation to monetization strategies, and how AI enhances these services.

💡Data Mining

Data mining is the process of discovering patterns in large data sets. The video explains how data mining has completely transformed the music business and the world of video, with Netflix using data to choose content and serve it to viewers based on their preferences and behaviors.

💡Democratizing

Democratizing refers to the process of making something accessible to everyone, not just a select few. The video suggests that AI and digital technology are democratizing the selection process in the entertainment industry by turning millions of people into talent scouts, allowing for a more diverse range of voices and preferences to be heard.

💡Generative Outcomes

Generative outcomes are results that are created through the process of generation, often in the context of AI creating new content. The video mentions generative outcomes in relation to AI's role in choreography, where it suggests new dance movements based on a dataset of existing ones, illustrating the potential for AI to innovate in the arts.

💡Content Fatigue

Content fatigue refers to the state where consumers are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of content available to them. The video raises the question of who will consume all the audio segments and videos generated by AI, hinting at the potential issue of content fatigue in the face of AI's ability to produce vast amounts of content.

💡Regulation

Regulation refers to the rules and guidelines set by authorities to control an industry or activity. The video concludes by discussing the inevitability of regulation in AI, particularly in the entertainment industry, and the challenges of determining how to effectively govern this transformative technology.

Highlights

AI is transforming the entertainment industry, predicting trends and generating new art forms.

AI-driven names were two of the top stocks in the S&P 500, indicating a significant market impact.

Generative AI poses an existential threat to traditional TV and film industries.

AI algorithms can analyze vast amounts of data to identify new talent and听歌趋势.

Spotify, YouTube, and SoundCloud are platforms where AI looks for signs of potential hits.

AI has turned the traditional music selection process on its head by democratizing it to fans.

Streaming services like Netflix use AI to choose content and target audiences based on data.

Cytic uses AI to predict film performance, helping studios tailor budgets to expected returns.

AI can analyze 19 variables to forecast box office success within seconds.

Generative AI allows for the creation of new content, challenging traditional artistic creation methods.

AI's role in the entertainment industry is causing job displacement concerns among artists and actors.

Hollywood actors went on strike in 2023, partly due to the impact of AI on their jobs.

Generative AI can create characters and effects quickly, threatening jobs in VFX and other areas.

Legal questions over AI and copyright are becoming increasingly complex.

The debate over consent and the use of artists' work by AI is ongoing and contentious.

Generative AI could add trillions to the global economy but raises ethical and regulatory challenges.

The future of AI in entertainment hinges on how it is regulated and how consumers respond.

The potential of AI to democratize creativity is weighed against the risk of content fatigue.

The entertainment industry must navigate the balance between AI innovation and human creativity.

Transcripts

it's Revolution time again in the

entertainment business wrers make your

favorite show Big Data is bringing big

change and faster than ever before AI

has the potential to disrupt every

corner of the entertainment industry a

new wave of artificial intelligence is

beginning to transform the way entire

Industries operate we can build an

algorithm that listens to all the music

in the world determine what we listen to

and watch the AI predicts much money

this F make and generate new forms of

art generative AI moves from being

something that I think is quite

beautiful to occasionally a little bit

intimidating so who are the winners AI

driven names were two of the top stocks

in the S&P 500 and losers generative AI

is an existential threat to the TV and

film industry this is a real earthquake

not just for the entertainment industry

but for our lives in the 21st

century

losing home I tell you baby I'm going

under I can't help

[Music]

you

God in this studio an artist Alfie is

playing a new song to the boss of his

record label anit anit could you hit

space bar just so I can see my levels

please it's the kind of scene that's

been typical of the music business for

decades we're good to go I

[Music]

think but it was not anit who discovered

Alfie it was

[Music]

AI Alfie castley was one of the artists

that we found through our algorithm

ankit's label is based in Sweden and

uses AI to find new artists across the

world AI hit the right note when it

identified that london-based Alfie had a

big fan base thousands of miles away on

another

continent he's an artist from the UK his

five biggest cities in terms of where

his fans come from are all in Southeast

Asia Alfie's biggest hit teenage Mona

Lisa had about 700,000 streams in his

home country but 7 million in Indonesia

and over 16 million in the Philippines

in its first year it's been viral here

in the Philippines for good Lord knows

how long technology helps you kind of

like find these let's say

counterintuitive patterns I think this

is the one that that both Carl and Savin

and Ramy and kits company is using AI to

get better at spotting opportunities and

Trends in the digital era

AI can analyze metadata from social

media and the behavior of viewers and

listeners faster than other

Technologies you look across Spotify

YouTube SoundCloud any platform that has

data you're looking for signs of someone

raising their hand and saying I think

this is a good song it could be an

addition to a playlist a comment on Tik

Tok the footprints in the

sand the biggest use that we've had for

AI has been how do we take this just

fire hose of content and distill it down

to something that's manageable um on a

human

level yeah I think let's call it if

that's right

guys back in the day the whims of

artists and music Executives dictated

what songs the public would hear digital

technology boosted by AI has now turned

that model on its head you're turning

hundreds of thousands sometimes millions

of people into talent scouts you're

democratizing the selection process to

the

fans you like oh I God that was amazing

oh thank

God AI is the latest chapter in the

story of how big data has completely

transformed the music business over the

past

decade the arrival of streaming services

changed everything from how profits are

made to how songs are

structured musicians now get paid per

play and so there's a particular

incentive to make sure that songs sound

good right at the beginning so that

people don't skip them big data mining

also completely disrupted the world of

video Netflix which launched its

streaming service in 2007 led the way in

using data to choose what content to

make and who to serve it up

to on Netflix everything you do on the

platform is a data

point whether it is overing my mouse on

a tumbnail or opening the browser or for

rewinding and those data points are

being used to train the

algorithm and so with this data they

know what people like they therefore

know what to commission the availability

of big data sets has made it much easier

for creators of all kinds to determine

what kind of content is going to be

popular but AI has really turbocharged

that

effort and that's what one new company

is hoping its use of AI will do to the

film

industry cytic is based in La the

traditional home of Film

Production but it offers a very modern

approach to doing

business using AI to inform decisions

about many aspects of movie

making the ultimate goal is an accurate

prediction of how well a film will do

enabling producers and Studios to tailor

their budgets to expected returns and

reduce the risk of losing

money we identify 19 variables that

really Dy FM performance and move the

needle within 20 seconds thei is able to

provide you with a very detailed risk

rated forecast for box office home video

and TV numbers the beauty of it is you

can go back change any input and within

seconds you have a new forecast let's

start with some key decisions choosing

the cast and crew the AI draws on a

database of nearly 600,000 people and

offers different predictions depending

on who is

selected let's swap our Tom Cruz with

Matt Damon also very strong well

recognized actor that did an action

franchise as well that was very popular

internationally we can rerun this

forecast leaving everything else

constant we can now assess every Talent

out there actor writer director producer

we created algorithms that figure out

the real economic value of this

particular talent in relation to the

particular content project that you have

in

mind the AI also takes other factors

into into account including a film's age

rating genre and

budget and thanks to the fast pace of

technological change there's now another

variable in the mix one that tobas

thinks could be the single most

important of all the script what that

means is breaking down a script in

certain patterns in certain archetypes

characters and really figuring out how

these stories could connect to humans

cytic says its predictions are 85 %

accurate but stresses there are always

outliers our tool can really help you

get a much better understanding of how

your film will perform in the future

this analytic is not built to predict

outliers so it's time to put its powers

to the

test before the release of Barbie we

asked the multi-million dollar

question how much would it make at the

box

office Mar Robbie has been very strong

20 18 19 20 then maybe over the last

couple of months she really had a bit of

a rougher patch in the questional with

Barbie will she bring in the

crowds we're now talking 700 million for

this film in theaters home video TV over

10

years I got in my pocket Barbie has

joined the 1 billion Club just 17 days

after the film was released two months

after the release of Barbie we caught up

with tobas again and asked about

Barbie's phenomenal success and why the

AI did not predict the full extent of

this our tool actually did exactly what

it was supposed to do it helped to show

that Barbie will be successful film and

would be a positive green light this is

not a crystal ball we did not foresee

that it will become a cultural

phenomenon Barbie is a once in a decade

outlier it's a reminder that AI and big

data do not yet have all the answers I

think there's been a bit of a turn back

towards thinking that actually human

judgment has its place competition can

be stiff for companies in the

entertainment business especially for

streaming services which have

proliferated in recent years subscriber

numbers are Plateau at the same time

companies are finding that they're

having to keep spending billions upon

billions on new content to keep people

subscribed enter stage left generative a

I a new plot twist for the industry and

a new world of possibilities for

creating

[Music]

content generative AI allows people to

actually create

things it got onto the radar of most

Ordinary People in about 2022 when apps

like chat GPT and mid Journey came along

allowing Ordinary People to register for

free and experience some of the

seemingly magic powers of generative AI

generative AI works by training deep

neural networks on large data sets of

for example images and text the system

learns to identify patterns and when

prompted it can generate new content

this new form of AI is enabling some

artists to create new forms of art

people like beatboxer Harry ye also

known as reaps

100 beatboxes use their own voices to

make percussive sounds

through my music and through uh my art

form I've spent a lot of my life trying

to sound like a machine using a data set

of Harry's vocalizations an AI system

has generated these percussive noises a

voice that Harry calls his second

[Music]

self when these synthetic voices were

generated I realized that now a machine

was trying to sound like me the aim was

to produce an interaction almost like a

vocal chess match with some of this

synthetic voice this phrase where I

would

normally is

gone and it's added extra ghost notes or

new

phrases my sort of Sonic lexicon started

to grow what comes out the other side

are streams and streams and streams of

this organic second self something that

is me but not

me the idea of automating has been a key

part in music culture the newness of it

is that identity can be

automated Harry has also used AI for a

groundbreaking collaboration with the

leipsig ballet in

Germany the dancers's movements were

recorded and this was used to create a

data set AI then suggested new movements

which the dancers incorporated into

their performance on

stage for the choreography we were able

to have uh video and images so that

becomes a data set so you're then able

to start producing uh generative

outcomes which are new movements new

emotions Harry hopes it's a sign that AI

will open up new opportunities in the

Arts to those from less advantag

backgrounds and areas that I up where

you have no access to resources or

anything you can now with a click of a

button have access to Intelligence on

tap although generative AI promises

fresh opportunities and Creations debate

will continue about whether it remains

more derivative than Innovative and

whether it will deliver quantity over

quality I think the real worry about

generative AI is that it is essentially

parasitic it sucks up stuff made by

humans and remixes it and CHS it out

again and up to a point that's great but

I think at some point you do need

something genuinely new and I think the

jury's still out really on whether

generative AI is capable of producing

something truly original or whether that

still needs a human I think we should

ask who is going to consume all of these

audio segments and videos and I think

that what we need to pay attention to is

the level of content fatigue on The

Human

Side of all the concerns around ai's

impact on the entertainment business

perhaps the biggest relates to human

jobs AI is seen as a huge Threat by many

current

workers with generative AI one can

create characters at the click of a

button and in a fraction of the time

that it would have taken VFX artists to

do the same

job generative AI is already rewriting

the script for how movies are made from

special effects

waa to lip syncing for foreign films and

it's all my

fault the de aging of actors f is a fo

the disruptive power of AI is one reason

why in 2023 writers and actors swap

delivering lines for Picket lines

Hollywood actors are on strike for the

first time in 43

years the strikes that we've seen

recently in Hollywood by writers and

actors are mostly about how they get

paid but part of the strikes also is

about Ai and I think that's partly

what's helped to capture the public

imagination here the idea of computers

and Robots coming for the jobs of

writers and actors is something that

everybody can understand they got the

money we got the power these workers are

very much canaris in the coal mine

they're telling us what other Industries

are going to face we have the capacity

to scan the body voice and the facial

expression of any given an actor or Exar

and then you can use this digital Avatar

in future projects I'm going to show you

some magic AI driven accounts

impersonating the big stars are already

popular I I I don't know why I need to

speak Spanish but it's those who are

less well known both in front of and

behind the camera who may have most to

fear welcome to the last human voice

podcast exploring the moral legal and

ethical issues in artificial

intelligence in the creative sectors and

in performance syst British actor Marcus

Hutton believes AI could mean the Final

Act for much of his profession certainly

not anti any AI tools that make

workflows simpler or easier I am

uncomfortable about AI systems that are

pretty much designed to wipe out a

Workforce one group of workers under

threat are voiceover

artists skills built up over a lifetime

can be copied at the click of a button

using AI Markus fears many artists could

be facing their Curtain Call there's a

whole ecosystem a whole set of working

practices that could be just chucked in

the bin yeah it feels quite sad for me

how you look how you speak these are the

things that define you and to have it

sort of taken away and synthesized I

don't think we're ready as a as a

species for that Ready or Not the

technology is here and Marcus agreed to

have his voice cloned to test out the

ai's effectiveness so I'm going to give

speech if I AG go they've got a free

trial of Clone your own voice with one

minute of speech in a quiet environment

and by the way as the person narrating

this film I'm as interested as he is to

see the results one minute of material

is not a lot of training data but be

interesting to see what happens

speechify voice cloning allows you to

create a clone of your voice in the

future we believe everyone will clone

their voice so they never have to

re-record a voiceover when a script

changes let's see what it sounds like or

anyone else looking to elevate your

projects with top-notch voiceovers I

highly recommend giving speech by a

try it was such a small amount of data

to be trained on I can hear it's me

that's what's kind of weird it's me and

there's a bit of nuance and stuff in

there so perhaps us voiceover artists

have been granted a brief stay of

execution but AI is capable of cloning

voices and the threat to jobs is

real it's very weird the idea that you

might be competing with yourself AI is

definitely taking away jobs rapidly

station announcements checkout machines

all that kind of stuff this is the bread

and butter work for a lot of voice

artists I'm going to delete the files

now because I don't want a digital

version of me to

exist I think some people are probably

right to be looking over their shoulder

to see if the robots are coming for

their jobs the counter argument to that

is that the lower cost of producing this

content will mean that there's more

abundant stuff there's more things being

produced and all of that will ultimately

need more people to work on

it one estimate suggests that generative

AI could add between 2.6 and 4.4

trillion to the global economy annually

in the coming decades within the media

and entertainment industry this

technology is expected to increase

Revenue by 60 to $110 billion a year

as the technology improves legal

questions over copyright promise to get

thornier some argue that consent should

be obtained each time an artist work is

used by AI once your data your image has

been captured your voice has being

captured it can be repurposed multiple

times and you have no control over what

the output will be we're talking about

what we call Active consent your consent

has to be gained for each piece of work

exactly when and how consent should be

obtained is complex and not easy to

decide and it's an argument that's

already playing out in high-profile

lawsuits now some of the biggest and

bestselling authors in fiction are suing

open

AI in any dispute like this the real

winners are always the lawyers the AI

companies May well argue that what they

do constitutes a fair use of that kind

of content rather in the way that if I

read a book and it just informs my

thinking in a a general way I don't

necessarily have to pay the author of

the book if I write something on a

related subject the way in which AI

works is that it sucks up so much

information that it's very hard to

pinpoint the effect that any one data

point has on any of the output and so it

may be that they're able to argue that

they don't really owe people anything

for this it could turn out though that

it's exactly the other way around and

they find that they have to foot an

enormous bill for every piece of

information they've ever used in their

training just as it is certain that AI

will transform the entertainment

industry on many levels regulation of AI

is also so inevitable but so far it is

unclear what this will look like or how

effective it will be I'm not sure that

legislation alone would be enough to

stop this tsunami of Automation and I

think we as consumers actually have more

power than we normally realize and we do

need to tell companies if you're going

to use AI then we are not going to give

you a credit card there's no doubt that

regulation is coming to AI who comes up

with those rules and when is one of the

big questions of the years

ahead hi I'm Tom way I'm the tech and

media editor of The Economist if you'd

like to watch more about generative Ai

and entertainment business please click

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