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When it comes to AI, for futurist
Peter Csathy, you have to get real: “I understand the fear, but we can’t put
our heads in the sand. We need to look at things stoically.”
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Csathy is considered a leading expert
in Media & Entertainment and in particular where M&E meets future tech.
In a new presentation, that you can watch below, he shares his thoughts on the
current state of play of generative AI in the overall creative economy,
highlights “compelling opportunities” to leverage its power for all players in
the entertainment industry, and assesses the sobering risks it poses to artists
within the entertainment ecosystem.
“I’m certainly no engineer, but I
understand [tech] pretty deeply and I’m not afraid of it,” he says. “But with
AI and with all new technologies, we need to be stoic about it, understand not
only the possibilities, but also the risks and the impacts on life as we know
it today and on the industry that we love so much.”
AI may be a mainstream topic in
Hollywood, he says, but it is the Big Tech companies that will make the most
money and have most control and power.
“Let’s look at the realities of
economics. Big Tech has multitrillion-dollar valuations. Whereas the biggest
media company out there, a traditional media company, which is Disney, has $150
billion market valuation. Ultimately, Big Tech is the big winner here. And I
would say that Big Tech is the big winner on the backs of creators, artists,
musicians.”
Certainly, creators, artists and
musicians can learn to leverage AI for their benefit, but ultimately, “the
scale of it all really inures to the benefit of Big Tech.”
That said, not even the CEOs of
Microsoft, Google or Amazon know precisely how the sausage is made. “They don’t
know precisely how a work is created [by generative AI]. They know generally
how it’s created but they don’t know precisely how the ultimate output is
achieved, when it comes to the black box of generative AI and the inputs that
we put into it. Even the smartest minds developing the technology don’t know
exactly how it does what it does, or where it’s going to be going.”
While that spreads inevitable
confusion, uncertainty and fear, Csathy cautions that Media & Entertainment
companies historically tend to “put their heads in the sand.” Ignoring AI is
not a sound business strategy.
He advises CEOs to think about what
Pixar did to traditional animation. “Before Pixar, Disney artists would be
hand-framed, drawing each picture. Now, there’s a beautiful art to that. But
imagine the length of time it takes to realize the vision of the film, while
Pixar came in with computer generated animation and really disrupted and
transformed the industry. Now, for some, it was not welcome because it
disrupted their job as traditional animators but, on the flip side, it created
an entirely new industry with new jobs,” he explains.
“I don’t want to minimize the human
pain of that,” he adds. “It’s akin to what happened with factories on
automation.”
Csathy suggests that governments are
not equipped to create guardrails or regulation on AI, due to a lack of
understanding and “demographic imbalances” in Congress. However, the biggest
guardrail for Media & Entertainment companies using generative AI is
existing copyright legislation, which in the US prohibits AI-generated works
from receiving protection.
“While it’s daunting, just because it
creates entirely new creative words doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s
cannibalistic. I certainly believe that humans love engaging with cool content
and experiences. There may be some cannibalizing because we have limited time
in a day, but nonetheless, if I liked this AI generated work, I still may like
the song I was listening to that is not AI generated. They’re not mutually
exclusive.”
He imagines likeness and voice licensing
opportunities for actors like Tom Cruise (“So you can imagine a case where Tom
Cruise Mission Impossible 20 is in production, and Tom Cruise
is on a beach sipping his margaritas,” while, the script, the actors, etc., are
auto-generated) but this doesn’t address the fears of the 99% of talent without
Cruise’s star power.
Of course, SAG has yet to agree terms
with the studios, with AI royalties being a sticking point. Csathy says the WGA
has been smart to agree to a time limit of three years in its new pact with the
studios. This will allow the guild to survey the changing landscape and
determine if contracts need to be updated.
“You have to learn to understand the
language of AI, all of you no matter what role you play in the ecosystem of
creativity, M&E, or technology. So you get it yourself. So you can speak
the vernacular. So you have credibility. So you can work with other people and
collaborate with them. It’s very important and follow developments closely,” he
concludes.
“You got to create your game plan.
Like I said, you can’t fear AI. This is the reality. This is where we are.
Stoicism is key.”
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