As Artificial intelligence (AI) advances, the entertainment industry faces new risks, generating fears and uncertainties for practitioners and potentially leading to a wave of job losses.
Artists, producers, and other industry professionals are worried that AI will soon replace them.
Most jobs in the entertainment industry, such as editing, writing, and acting, are done by humans. AI is now capable of doing many of them.
According to The Challenger Report, AI was responsible for 3,900 of the approximately 80,000 job cutbacks that occurred in the US in May.
“Between January and May, there were about 417,500 lost jobs, making it the worst five-month start to a year since 2020, when the onset of the pandemic led to more than 1.4 million layoffs. Outside of the pandemic, the start of 2023 has produced the worst layoff numbers since the 820,000 layoffs that took place to start 2009,” it said.
It is becoming increasingly clear that AI has the potential to revolutionise the way people create and consume entertainment.
Peter Dukes, a multi-award-winning director and producer, said AI should be used with respect to the needs and best interests of those whose works are being used.
“Companies using it need the artist’s consent, and they should be credited and compensated and everything needs to be transparent,” he said.
AI is already being used in a number of ways in the entertainment industry. For example, AI-powered software can be used to create realistic-looking images and videos, which can be used in movies, TV shows, and music videos.
It can also be used to generate new scripts, analyse scripts that will be turned into films and help filmmakers manage the process more effectively.
According to Akinyele Solchild, a creative director and entertainment analyst, artists should learn, join the trend, participate in the operation of AI, and become knowledgeable about it. “They will suffer if they do not because people can utilise their knowledge to address problems as a service without them. They must adapt and maintain control over the operation of AI.”
“On the bright side, AI will create solutions to problems that are difficult for humans to solve, as well as allow people to be entertainers without being limited by the human element,” he added.
As AI continues to develop, it is likely that it will become even more sophisticated. This could lead to a situation where AI-powered artists and producers are able to create content that is indistinguishable from human-made content. This could put a lot of people in the entertainment industry out of work.
In addition to the threat of job losses, experts say people in the entertainment industry are also worried about the impact of AI on the creative process. AI will stifle creativity and make it more difficult for artists to come up with new and original ideas, they said.
Artists and film producers must be able to defend their intellectual property from encroachment by AI, as well as anti-piracy measures in terms of unauthorised distribution, according to Yemi Daramola, a filmmaker and distributor.
“This is why regulation is critical to the entertainment industries; without regulation, everyone will suffer,” he said. “Music artists and film producers can start learning and using AI-powered tools to improve the production process. AI can be used in areas such as sound editing and mixing, VFX and video editing.”
He added that Nigerian music artists and filmmakers should also work with AI firms to develop AI-powered tools that can help automate aspects of the creative processes as a way to improve productivity.
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