Artificial Intelligence (AI) is currently one of the most talked-about topics in our culture. In recent years, we have witnessed remarkable advancements in AI technology, such as chatbots that can write stories, essays, songs, and recipes, and AI-generated art that can create unique styles and pictures. These developments demonstrate the immense power of technology and how it could potentially impact our daily lives, particularly in media consumption.
According to filmmaker Joe Russo, the influence of AI on the film and television industry is just beginning, and we can expect to see significant changes in the next few years. Speaking at the Sands International Film Festival alongside Epic Games executive Donald Mustard, Russo discussed the future of AI and its potential impact on film, TV, and gaming. While some of the predictions may be speculative, the consensus is that AI is here to stay, and we are just scratching the surface of its potential to revolutionize media.
The prospect of AI technology transforming the entertainment industry is exciting, and we can’t wait to see how it will evolve and shape the future of media consumption.
For Joe Russo, the filmmaker behind “Avengers: Endgame,” he believes that AI is going to create a world where anyone can tell a competent story.
“As I said, we just have to assume we’re gonna be in the future, so that future whether we want it or not,” Russo said. “But the value of it is the democratization of storytelling. That’s incredibly valuable. That means that anyone in this room could tell a story, or make a game at scale, with the help of a photoreal engine or an engine and AI tools. That, I think, is what excites me about it most.”
As for when we might see AI create a real film on its own, Russo guesses “two years.” But that’s not the real future the filmmaker thinks is on the way. He believes that AI is going to create scenarios that we have only truly read about in science fiction.
You could walk into your house and save the AI on your streaming platform,” explained Russo. “‘Hey, I want a movie starring my photoreal avatar and Marilyn Monroe’s photoreal avatar. I want it to be a rom-com because I’ve had a rough day,’ and it renders a very competent story with dialogue that mimics your voice. It mimics your voice, and suddenly now you have a rom-com starring you that’s 90 minutes long. So you can curate your story specifically to you.”
Of course, you can’t talk about artificial intelligence without folks getting a little freaked out by the prospect. Not just because storytellers that get paid lots of money to create content might just lose their jobs, but because “Terminator 2” taught us that the robot overlords are going to wipe us off the planet. Russo understands those fears but thinks that people are working to prevent evil AI.
“I’m on the board of a few AI companies, I’m gonna speak from my experience of being on the board of those companies is that, there are AI companies that are developing AI to protect you from AI,” he said. “And unfortunately, we’re in that world, and you will need an AI in your life because whether we want to see it developed or not, people who are not friendly to us may develop it anyways. So, we’re going to be in that future. The question is, then, how we protect ourselves in that future?”
A few years ago, the idea that AI-created films seemed like a pipe dream. Now, it appears we’ll have that in just a couple of years, perhaps. It’s a wild time.
