Defining Content In the AI Age 🧑🏾💻
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping industries and redefining human experiences in ways we can barely keep up with.
Part of the difficulty has to do with the nature of content.
The primary way we perceive anything is through the creating, the sharing, the receiving of content. And content is one of the main things caught up in the endless conversations spiraling around AI.
It was almost a year ago when the creative industrial complex was shocked by the debut of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and the sudden rise of image generators like DALL-E and Midjourney.
Content creation has undergone a profound transformation since then.
This shift was brought into the spotlight during a captivating panel discussion I participated in last week at the Montclair Film Festival.
Moderated by Late Show host Stephen Colbert, the other panelists included:
James Schamus, co-founder of Focus Features and 3x Academy Award nominee Sense & Sensibility; The Ice Storm; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; Hulk and Brokeback Mountain)
Dr. Anna Feldman, chair of the Department of Linguistics and Professor of Computer Science at Montclair State University.
Among a range of topics, such as the business impact of AI and its relation to privacy issues, education, health tech and others, we grappled with the implications of AI on content.
As I noted, there's a direct connection between the mainstreaming of AI and the web3 movement. Artists are exploring innovative content distribution methods and community development. AI also enables creative mashups, such as merging historical images of quick-service restaurants with high-end fashion, representing a new cultural movement.
“One example of a creative mashup I’ve been impressed with — call it art or call it fashion — is the combination of historical images of quick service restaurants and apparel,” I said. “The idea is that 7-11 could sell branded shoes that appear crafted by a high-end designer. It’s a whole new way of thinking about fashion.”
The Future of Content
Since that Sunday discussion, I've been thinking more deeply about the state of content today and where it’s going. As little as 20 years ago, TV, radio, movies, books, and art were understood through decades-old containers.
Even in this early gen AI moment, content is no longer limited to the traditional theatrical productions or television broadcasts. It spans a wide spectrum, encompassing everything from 15-second TikTok videos and short-form content on YouTube to live Twitch streams of gaming and NFL Sunday Ticket broadcasts on YouTube TV.
It includes the latest blockbuster releases, audio podcasts on Audible, and so much more. The diversity of content forms has exploded, and it's no longer a linear progression from filmmaking to film festivals.
The rise of the creator economy has further disrupted the traditional content creation paradigm. Both professional producers and content creators contribute to this dynamic push and pull, blurring the lines between established and emerging voices in the industry.
However, the introduction of AI adds another layer of complexity.
AI's disruptive potential extends to various aspects of content creation, from generating human-like text that can be translated into dozens of languages simultaneously to creating digital avatars/chatbots, and even optimizing short-form videos for diverse screens.
Taylor Swift's decision to bypass traditional movie studios and negotiate directly with AMC to bring her concert film to audiences showcases the changing face of content distribution. The distinction between in-person and virtual experiences is also blurring, giving rise to the mixed reality era, where audiences can engage with content in multiple dimensions. The MSG Sphere U2 phenomenon is a clear demonstration of this.
These shifts force us to reconsider what content is and where it lives. The old paradigms of distribution and consumption are giving way to an interconnected web of immersive experiences.
The future of content in the age of AI is a landscape where boundaries are fluid. AI-driven content generation, the creator economy, and newer gaming platforms (Roblox, Fortnight, etc) are converging to redefine the way we audiences media consumption habits to even greater extent.
Content makers are responding.
While the writers strike ended in September, the actors’ strike has dragged on for about 150 days and counting. The role of AI is at the center of the labor battles. So the pressure is on Hollywood studios to figure out how to find the proper role for AI, even as every other industry presses ahead to even greater degree.
There is an emerging consensus about how AI is being incorporated into entertainment production.
“The best-case scenario is that AI takes on the work that’s repetitive and opens up human time for more creative and imaginative pursuits,” said Joanna Popper, former chief metaverse officer at CAA, who led the go-to-market strategy and core business priorities in the metaverse for the talent agency and its clients. “We work together with AI to create and collaborate for more and better stories than we can alone.”
The Late Show With … Artificial Intelligence
Reduced costs, resources and skills required to work with AI tools and create are also expected to lower barriers to content creation and bring a democratizing effect and a surge of creators.
Here’s some examples of how one company I came across before my appearance with Colbert is bringing AI to mainstream content creation:
Runway, an AI startup, that builds generative AI models and offers a suite of over 30 AI-powered content creation and video editing tools and is already in use by major studios and productions, including “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and CBS’ “Late Show With Stephen Colbert.”
Founded in 2018, Runway ML offers a suite of AI tools powered by models trained on quantities of video data for artists, filmmakers and creators. VFX artists have been using Runway to complete manual tasks that previously took days and costly professional software and equipment.
For example, with Runway’s inpainting tool, filmmakers can use AI to seamlessly remove objects or backgrounds in the video editing process. (Remember that pesky Starbucks coffee cup that somehow made it to Winterfell in Game of Thrones?) The company’s suite of video editing AI tools also enables motion tracking and even greenscreen.
“Editors that have been working in filmmaking for a long time are working in very inefficient ways,” Runway’s Valenzuela said. “With AI, an edit that could take hours, days or months of work can now translate to just minutes, hours or weeks.”
So time-saving and cost-efficiency are the general go-to reasons why all companies are embracing AI. But as I’ve said many times, for AI’s centrality in business, Large Language Models will need to prove themselves as an aid to revenue growth and human-centered creativity. And the companies — whether they’re the studios or tech companies — that unlock AI’s fullest most creative applications will be the content giants of tomorrow.