A positive angle on AI in film? I wouldn’t have believed it unless I was writing it myself. This Friday (January 23), the new Amazon MGM studios movie Mercy is released in theaters, following detective Chris (Chris Pratt) after his imprisonment in an AI-generated courtroom for a murder he didn’t commit.
Its messaging on whether AI is a good or bad thing in society is extremely ambivalent, instead asking us to assess whether both technology and humans are capable of making mistakes. For an industry that’s embroiled in a divisive battle over how to use it, it’s the safest direction to take.
‘We’re in a creative revolution right now’
“Over the course of the past year, I decided in the makeup trailer of the projects that I’ve [been] working on that instead of scrolling, I wanted to educate myself,” Pratt tells me. “So I’ve been using a lot of different AI platforms to learn a lot of different things. I love it. I think it’s fantastic, amazing tool. You can get so much stuff done using AI. It’s incredible.”
It almost goes without saying that not everybody in film and TV – or indeed audiences – is going to feel the same way. Look on TikTok and you’ll see trends dedicated to taking life offline again, committing to analogue consumption of media.
If you do stay online, you’ll see news announcements with public figures like Matthew McConaughey and Michael Caine, who have partnered with studio ElevenLabs for AI audio deals.
There’s no clear winner, nor is there any single way to effectively to amalgamate AI into existing life. But for Pratt, he feels hope rather than fear.
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“Well first of all, I understand that there’s a harsh reality with introducing new technologies,” Pratt adds. “We’re in a bit of an intellectual and creative revolution right now. So I think that there are people who have had steady jobs in the film business that are probably going to be displaced by AI. That should be first and foremost recognized as what’s troubling and painful, and my heart goes out to people who would lose their jobs in this industry.
“Secondly, I think implementing this new tool is going to potentially create incredible opportunities for people to tell stories. I think you’re going to see a lot more movies and a lot more of people’s visions being brought to screen because of generative AI and what it can do to help take those visions and put it up on a screen. For the jobs that it offsets, I’m hopeful that it will create incredible opportunities for people to use it as a tool. It almost becomes a new department in collaboration of many.”
Am I completely convinced by Pratt’s line of thinking? Absolutely not. Much like any significant change, I think things are likely going to get worse before they get better. There’s also the risk of handcraft (e.g. VFX, animation) being lost, especially if generative AI is more cost-effective for studios.
However, I do like the fact that somebody sees a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is a Hollywood A-Lister. I just hope that independent movies and lower-profile actors can use AI to their advantage, rather than be wiped out by it.
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