Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1504940
16 FA L L 2 0 2 3 I C A S Q U A R T E R L Y else. You turn on Netflix while you're folding the laundry. If TV is only something like that—and it's not something that we're really listening to—the soundtrack isn't something that grabs us like the beautifully crafted Succession finale or a brilliantly mixed Star Wars. SB: I don't want to see sound dumbed down by an AI. I don't want it dumbed down so we lose the audience knowing what actual quality is. I certainly wouldn't be surprised if an AI could make a mediocre mix. But without us managing the AI, the writer might mean for one line to be whispered way, way under their breath and the AI might analyze it and mix it into a clearly stated "You've got cancer" line. That information was not meant to be revealed. An AI would be more likely to make it intelligible on its first pass. So, the first pass is where AI will be introduced. Beginning directors or producers and studios would think, "Yeah, we're gonna do the first part of the mix on AI and we're going to give you three days to refine it instead of the two-week mix." So, they'll try to do that in the beginning. My guess is it fails miserably. KK: I've been on mixes where I start halfway through with somebody else having started the material and seven times out of 10, you have to start again from fresh because it doesn't correlate with the new throughline the creators have chosen. Things like a scene becoming a flashback sequence instead of a loud and bold fight. So it evolves from big and bright to muted and reverberant and it all has to be rebalanced. I can definitely see how starting with AI in some scenarios could easily take longer. SB: My main two points for sound are, one, I think we should promote active listening and better art, because half the time people aren't paying attention to the TV show because the TV show isn't grabbing them. And you and I have both been in the situation where the director is like, "More music, more music, more music! I want to grab the people here, I want to really grab them!" And my answer is that I'll make the music louder, but at a certain point, it's not up to the sound to grab people. At a certain point, it's up to the story to grab people. So better art will promote people wanting to listen more actively. It sounds to me like some of those creators will start thinking AI will grab people for their show. This is not the way to necessarily make better art, right? Nor to make it more listenable or more enjoyable. An AI might be a way to put more material out faster, but it's not necessarily a way to make it more engaging for people. If we're going to talk about the finances of the television and film business, engagement is the thing they want. More than voluminous quantities of content. AI can probably do more volume at lower cost, but it can't do more engagement. I think when you're talking about budget levels, that's not the way one creates art, either. KK: Do you think that maybe in the future, we'll have stratified shows where a lower budget level will rely more on AI? Similar to how there used to be three mixers on a higher budget show, two mixers on a medium-budget show, and then lower budgets only have one? That the new budget saving could be you get one mixer and AI, or you get two and more time? Maybe AI in the future will get stratified like that. If you're on a lower budget show, you'll have to rely on AI more. SB: You know, it's really possible that AI creates audio fast food. It's really possible. A lot of people love McDonald's! KK: I'm hoping that similar to the situation after the big strike in 2007, when there was a flood of reality TV, that the viewing audience grew tired of what the networks first thought the audience would be satisfied with. I'm hoping that people will be able to tell the difference between AI- and human-produced projects. I know the AI projects will exist, but the audience might begin to engage more with shows where humans are mixing, not just machines. SB: I love that, and it could happen that way. I'm not saying we'll actually start it, but we could see competing movements where one guy is bragging about how his film was made by AI and another guy is bragging about how his film was made by humans.