American movie and television industries have been brought to a stand-still as Hollywood actors have taken the unprecedented step of striking after 43 years, partially out of concern for the repercussions of AI.
After negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild of the United States and the AI Rights Representatives ended without a successful compromise, a strike ensued.
The union cautioned that "artificial intelligence has the potential to put creative professions in jeopardy".
What is it that has people worrying about a future in which technology plays a major role?
There have been instances of voiceover artists being supplanted by AI-generated work, and the technology is already featured in movies - e.g., in the form of synthesized voices, and in visual effects such as deepfakes and de-ageing.
Industrial official Liam Budd of Equity, the acting union, noted that his greatest apprehension was towards "performance cloning", which involves AI being employed to replicate a performance with the use of an actor's image or voice.
He noted that the technology is being employed in a variety of applications, such as automated audiobooks, synthesised voice recordings, digital avatars in corporate videos, and even deepfakes in films.
Mr Budd indicated that Equity members were experiencing a sense of "fear" and the union was doing its best to inform them of their rights in a quickly changing atmosphere.
Justine Bateman, a filmmaker and writer, told the BBC Tech Life earlier this year that she does not believe the entertainment industry requires AI.
She stated that technology should serve a purpose, and AI is not a solution to any existing problem. There is already an abundance of writers, actors, and directors in the world, thus AI is not necessary. "
The issue this solution addresses is for companies that feel their revenue margins are too low - as eliminating the cost of wages can make Wall Street pleased and result in more advantageous financial reports.
If the use of AI becomes widespread, the entertainment industry will be completely destabilized.
It may not be long before ChatGPT or Bard are able to devise a creative movie script or transform an idea into a box-office smash screenplay.
People argue that although Artificial Intelligence might never have the same emotional understanding of humans that is essential to crafting a good script, there are still worries that it could result in scriptwriters being out of work.
The Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) is a trade union that stands for writers of television shows, films, plays, novels, and video games in the UK. They have many issues, including:
The WGGB has suggested several measures to shield writers, such as requiring AI engineers to only use writers' work when expressly authorized and being forthright regarding the data being utilized for training their software.
Lesley Gannon, deputy general secretary of WGGB, noted that it is essential to consider the potential risks and rewards when it comes to new technologies, and to make sure the rate of growth does not outpace, or impede, the safeguards that writers and other creatives rely upon to earn an income.
Clearly, regulations are necessary in order to preserve employees' rights and shield audiences from deceit and erroneous information.
The fast growth of AI in the last 12 months has caused the idea of owning something to become difficult to understand.
Once someone submits their likeness into a portrait app created by artificial intelligence, such as DrawAnyone, DALL-E or Snapchat, the corresponding images are considered to be in the public domain and available for anyone to use.
The new image is not subject to copyright.
Mathilde Pavis, a lawyer specialising in digital cloning technologies, informed the BBC that UK copyright legislation must be altered.
It seems peculiar to me that your face and voice are not afforded the same level of security as your car, laptop, telephone, residence, or books—that is the present legal status.
She remarked that they had not anticipated that their ideas would be so susceptible to reuse and replication with the aid of AI.
Tom Gerken and Tom Singleton contributed to this article.
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