What are the risks and benefits of artificial intelligence to the film and high-end television sector?
Evidence submitted for the DCMS, Call for Evidence on British Film and High-End Television Written Evidence (Sept, 2023).
Submission reference: SRD802255
By
Introduction
It is my pleasure to submit this evidence, which is informed by my research into the application of emerging technologies to the creative industries. My expertise across future media, artificial intelligence, and working with the arts sector across many formats leads to my focused response on the subject of AI for the film and high-end tv sector.
The Story of Creative Innovation
For over a century, the creative industries have grown alongside and become constituted by new technologies, often establishing new formats of entertainment, artistic expression, and educational artefacts. Technologies of the moving image are the defining example of this from the last century, becoming established as the canvas for the most innovative form of storytelling since theatre, photography, and radio. The moving image also established the radical principle that innovation can be treated as a creatively relevant criterion of excellence and this is relevant when seeking to evaluate the implications of artificial intelligence for the film and high-end television sector.
However, support for innovation is not wholly embraced by the creative practitioners whose labour underpins the industry. There has been considerable resistance from many within the sector for years who regard innovation to have been detrimental to the process of creating compelling, rich, and historic stories. Understanding this resistance is crucial when seeking to address the impending challenges presented by artificial intelligence. However, before we arrive at this consideration, it is important to acknowledge that creative innovation has become an established characteristic of the arts sector and, in particular, its investment ecosystem. In this respect, securing an innovation pipeline for film and television is central to safeguarding its future, especially the range of creative workers who sit alongside the writers.
Amidst such debate, what unifies creators in their pursuit of telling extraordinary stories is the shared belief that the medium should serve this purpose and advance the breadth and richness of human expression. This view is underpinned by the deep seated conviction that the function of storytelling to humanity is not merely an incidental feature of human civilization or as a means of entertainment, but as a core component of humanity’s development and maintenance, an idea that is evidenced by human evolutionary theory. In this respect, safeguarding the future of television and film is also a project that is more widely in the service of safeguarding humanity’s future and this is true especially when faced with the impacts of artificial intelligence.
Historically, the challenge from technology for storytellers has always been to ensure that it works in the service of the creative process, rather than detracts from it, but there have always been compromises within this configuration. For example, the birth of pop music in the form of the three-minute song was a limitation which followed from the creation of early recording devices, including the phonographic cylinder and the vinyl disc, whose physical proportions dictated the length of the audio recording that could be made, and the subsequent artistic works that were created for it. This is not dissimilar to how social media platforms today limit the creation of content for its user, as for the beginning of Twitter, TikTok, or Instagram. These limitations, which derive from the technological systems that have underpinned their creation, are a persistent feature of artistic expression and the creative challenge is to produce work which maximises the potential of any of these obstructions. What we know from such examples is that storytellers have always found ways to craft their art to such limitations and that this has not been to the detriment of the practice. In some cases, the limitations may even be in support of excellence, removing inhibitors to expression.
An appreciation for the persistence of good storytelling, regardless of humanity’s technological circumstances, is a helpful starting point when seeking to evaluate and establish the best response to the emergence of ACI (artificial creative intelligence). Already, we are witnessing the rise of the ACI artist and some of the most accomplished works in artistic practice are being demonstrated by those artists who have been experimenting with forms of AI for nearly 20 years. Many of these practices have been found in spaces which have protected experimental arts and, today, we see further investment into such work through such funding environments as UKRI. We have also seen growing integrations of AI into a variety of production studios, which have delivered applications that are, both, seen on screen and behind the scenes.
Central to the value of these innovations is the idea that they can further enrich the storytelling experience and, in so doing, perhaps even establish new, sometimes hard to reach audiences. One of the most prominent examples of this is found within the rise of computer games as forms of storytelling experience. Our most accomplished computer games evidence the evolution of storytelling, placing the audience further into the heart of the story, allowing them freedom of movement, decision making, and discovery which, at its best, may even transcend the limitations of all previous formats.
While it is an unpopular idea to suggest that the best computer games may be better than our best books, the prudent position to take on this subject is that each, in their own way, allows access to a rich form of cultural experience. Thirty years ago, this view of the games industry was not apparent but, today, with the craft having been honed for decades now, it has begun to occupy this space. This is evidenced by the recent adoption of gaming as a subject of excellence and interest by such organisations as BAFTA or the BFI. One hundred years ago, similar speculative debates might have been had about the function of film and its comparable merit to live theatre. With perspective, what we witness is the establishing of new art forms and values, drawn out of the creative affordances of each new storytelling revolution and this is likely to recur with the era of ACI. Moreover, what we learn from a century of innovation in storytelling is that, only by being given the opportunity to nurture a new creative medium do we realise its potential to extend what is artistically possible. This insight should drive the strategic response to the rise of ACI and its impact upon the arts, including film and television.
Evolving Creative Practice
As with any new innovation, the rise of ACI will be a story of redundancies or, more optimistically, a story of evolution. Indeed, in a similar way to how we may lament the loss of the spoken word as a precursor to the written word, we should and must seek to preserve prior formats of creative expression through traditional techniques, especially where those techniques elicit unique forms of meaning, without which human heritage may be impoverished. In this way, the creative industries must work towards establishing and safeguarding the art of the arts, while allowing innovation to prosper, especially where this can further expand the breadth of insights that the arts can generate.
Some commentators have argued that there is something exceptional about AI. Such world leading figures as Elon Musk or the late Stephen Hawking have stated that AI is a special kind of threat to humanity, unlike anything the world has seen before. Moreover, globally, various scientific communities have warned that the impact of AI is far beyond what anyone has imagined and can imagine, in terms of its threat to humanity. It is crucial to address this directly, but there is more evidence to reveal that this challenge to storytelling has been a persistent theme of humanity’s entire history and, yet, people have not lost the art of telling stories. Certainly, it is likely that some of our best computer game script writers might, instead, have become great novelists, in the same way that some of the 20th century’s greatest film directors might have been. Yet, it is more likely that film created entirely new forms of storytelling; formats that became ever more collaborative and, at their best; even more extraordinary than those derived from the works of the single writer and their editorial team. It is more likely that innovation has created new audience experiences and new audiences, which have expanded the breadth of what we recognise as creative work.
The compromise brought by ACI might be that more people will gravitate to these new forms of storytelling, perhaps turning away from traditional forms of television, film and theatre. Yet, this shift in audience interest may be best treated as an expression for an evolved appreciation for what storytelling could be, not a loss of tradition, but as an expression of how much more it can become. It might be that immersion into such stories provides access to certain truths that are not available to audiences in other formats. While it is tempting to believe that this could mean the loss of traditional art forms, we also can look back and recognise that, despite these changes, people continue to read books and go to theatre. Furthermore, what we’ve seen in the arts in recent years is a growing desire to integrate some of these new forms from emerging creative practices into their programmes. In this sense, innovation from outside the established arts sector is not merely a threat, but can become a creative opportunity and examples abound across arts, culture and sport. From the Olympic Games integrating virtual reality and esports activities into their programme to the Royal Shakespeare Company staging an immersive audience experience during the 2021 covid-19 period, the arts are continually evolving their formats to embrace new technological opportunities.
The consistent approach to thinking about the potential impact of artificial intelligence for the creative industries should be one of optimism for its capacity to usher in exciting, new forms of storytelling, which have the potential to take the art form derived from a new imaginative palette.
Yet, this potential is set against a growing backlash within the established creative industries towards AI, exemplified by, what may later be regarded as, the world’s first workers’ AI revolution, namely the strikes by members of the Writers Guild of America. However, this reaction needs to be understood carefully, before concluding that it follows simply from recent achievements in AI. Rather like the often misunderstood Luddites movement, it is not a reaction that opposes technology per se, but a reaction born out of a concern over threat to livelihood and concern about the imposition of a technological system which has little or diminishing regard for the worker’s contribution. The eventual erosion of certain roles within the arts is a real threat, which will spark a reconfiguration of roles within the sector and this requires a managed transition.
Optimising Opportunity Through Artificial Creative Intelligence
As for any technological revolution, AI may be deployed to either curtail creativity or enhance it and a central facet of ensuring that creative growth occurs is embedding innovative learning techniques into the curriculum. The specific concerns of the WGA members — and the wider industry — are over the manner in which it can be used as an economic lever, rather than a creative medium. The anxiety is primarily about how the intellectual property of creative workers would be remunerated or how skilled staff may be made redundant, as a result of AI integrations.
Examples of AI applications within the film industry include its use for writing or editing. For example, AI might be employed to generate a first draft of a story, after which human writers are employed to refine and improve the work, possibly paid at a lower rate, as opposed to their being tasked with creating human-originated storylines. Alternatively, AI might involve comprehensively scanning a performer’s digital image, which is then held in perpetuity for auto-generated re-casting into film sequels, without any freedom from the performer to limit such use, or the way in which automation might obscure or obstruct the creative freedom of the artists involved in establishing the visual aesthetic of film productions. These are very tangible concerns and follow from the industry’s pursuit of economic efficiencies which have led to many critics of contemporary practice drawing attention to the increased corporatisation of the creative industries.
It is well known within the industry that production interventions can, at times, work to the determinant of creative achievements and some of our most decorated artistic works on the screen over the last 20 years speak to this risk. Such writers as Ricky Jervais, Steve Coogan, or Larry David have produced stories within television series which speak to these risks and their impacts on the state of storytelling today, as found in film and television. This historic trajectory towards studio managed creativity is a critical node in the history of automation within artistic practice, but it is a form of automation which lacks the creative capabilities that allow artistic practice to flourish in any other way, except economically. The consequence is a thriving industry of mediocrity, rather than a community of pioneering artists and this is the tension that all creative industries economies must reconcile, before and after AI.
The opportunity presented by AI to the creative industries is in its capacity to evolve the practice of human-led storytelling, where AI is treated as a collaborative entity within the process of creation, rather than a tool for human use. While this is a significant change in how humanity thinks about the function of tools, it is a far more productive and exciting way of approaching the integration of artificial intelligence into the creative industries, which can safeguard the role of humanity, while maximising the capabilities of AI.
Transforming Creative Values
However, there is a more critical consideration that is important to document within this new set of creative conditions, and this is found by examining what is taking place in the arts beyond film and television. For example, the Institute of Digital Fashion in the UK is a creative community seeking to transform what it sees as some of the problematic structures that limit creative freedom within the fashion sector, while drawing on the growing popularity for digital fashion artefacts. The IDF is instructive to the film and television sector for demonstrating that there are emerging audiences who want more from the sector, who want a different set of values to underpin the creative labour that supports its art, while also drawing on new kinds of societal ideals to establish new economies. The film and television sector have felt this threat over the last two decades from the rise of social media and its intransigence to embrace these new audience formats have become the biggest hindrance to its sustainability. It is crucial that the same mistake is not made with artificial intelligence.
In sum, a failure to integrate ACI into film and television will limit its sustainability, while the pursuit of its eradication will lead to further demise. Investments should focus on growing a critical, educational programme for the arts to operate as world leading creative collectives, seeking to maximise the potential of ACI to safeguard its future. This requires a large-scale transformation to the skills that underpin the talent pipeline in the sector more widely, along with further integrations across the arts, which would enable further collaboration between film, television and a range of other art forms.
Determining whether technology is likely to be catastrophic for the creative industries has always been a matter of contention. Unavoidably, technology presents a challenge to established art forms and the industries which support them, causing artists and producers to experience uncertainty about the future of their practice. This feeling exists alongside a desire to evolve art forms through new methods and understanding how to nurture creative development without undermining the contributions of the most talented creators is always a challenge and, inevitably, unavoidable.
One of humanity’s key weaknesses in adequately responding to technological change has been its pursuit of separating STEM subjects from the Arts and Humanities. Support for this separation is rapidly eroding within the academy, with many public intellectuals advancing a re-thinking of national priorities in how we think about the value of knowledge. From the STEAM movement (putting Arts into STEM) to the rise of the SSHAPE and MESH learning advocates, who foreground the need to integrate the humanities, ethics, and social science into STEM, there is growing support for the idea that the pursuit of knowledge requires a radical re-thinking, and this is true especially when examining the educational pathways into the film and high-end television sectors.
About the Author
Professor Andy Miah, PhD (@andymiah), is Chair of Science Communication & Future Media, in the School of Science, Engineering and Environment at the University of Salford, UK, where he is also the Institutional Lead for the Metaverse Special Interest Group, Principal Investigator for the Innovate UK project, the MediaCity Immersive Technologies Innovation Hub, and Artificial Intelligence Ethics Academic Lead. His research focuses on examining the ethical, social, and cultural impacts of new technologies and his career has spanned the areas science, technology, art, media, and culture. Author of 10 books and over 150 academic articles, he is also a frequent media commentator and has written for Vogue, BBC, Wired, and many other outlets. Recent publications focus on the ethical deployment of XR, AI, drones and esports, with contributions to the UN ITU agency on the AI for Good programme. He is currently Commission Member for the Global Esports Federation and sits on its Metaverse Council, along with holding Board Memberships of British Esports and the Science and Industry Museum. Recent contributions to government inquiries include the Council for Science and Technology project ‘Harnessing Research and Development in the UK’s Creative Industries’ (2023).
