Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1521235
42 M PS E . O R G Assistive AI, which may be thought of as traditional AI, refers to tools that use predefined rules and discrete models 1 , usually with relatively narrow focus. They simplify tasks, help us organize, but are not frightening. In audio, think noise reduction for dialogue; for music, the separation of individual instruments into stems from a mixed song. Many in the sound community are implementing assistive AI tools in their daily workflow. The results are predictable, controllable, and duplicatable. These tools can be very efficient and produce remarkable results, but they aren't creating original content. Generative AI, in contrast, has the core directive to create original content. The input ("prompts") can come from a human or another program. The output is something wholly new and unique, albeit derived from the pre-existing content it was trained on. In terms of sound, think of a 'voice' speaking or singing that never originated from air passing through the vocal cords of a human. A 'robot' that doesn't sound like one. The subject matter expressed by the GAI voice may even be created by GAI, too. Amazon's Alexa uses GAI 2 and Apple will soon expand implementation of GAI in Siri 3 . It's the generative side of artificial intelligence that is the most worrisome for creative professionals who depend on the value of human contribution to provide a livelihood. While new tools bring new opportunities, the presumptive fact is that stakeholders in the creation of entertainment content will be displaced. he keynote speaker of the summit, Renard Jenkins, Board member of MovieLabs and the president of SMPTE, approached this issue right away. To summarize, he acknowledged that in show business, there are many people on the 'show' side with justifiable fears about GAI's impact on content creation and workforce deterioration, and that many folks on the 'business' side don't understand this fear. There has to be an elevated awareness that without the 'show,' there is no 'business,' and humans need to remain at the core of the 'show.' A clear and present observation from everything discussed at the Summit is that the creation of the same volume of content being output today will require much fewer humans: • An author boasted of not needing to hire human artists to illustrate his latest book. Verbal prompts into an online tool generated the imagery he liked for accompanying his story. $20,000 saved for a $20 subscription. • A show creator boasted of using GAI to produce a project to present to investors in days, by herself for pennies, instead of hiring writers, designers, production, and post-production humans to help create it. • Wowzer.ai Chief Growth Officer Amin Tavana recalled that in the 12 months prior to the Summit, computers generated 15 billion images, which is as many as human photographers have taken in 150 years of photography. There were many other such examples of machines displacing humans as the conference went on. Christian Cantrell, founder of Concept.art, stated that "A prototype is worth a thousand meetings." From this, we can imagine a television show creator implementing publicly available tools doing an end run around the need for other people to help formalize an idea. GAI gives the power of dozens of specialists to a single idea-person. A show creator can generate concept art, script extrapolations, character performances, soundscapes, and score as a prototype, without the need for the time and expense of many people and many meetings, along with many misunderstandings that come with trying to explain an idea to other people. In a relatively short time, with relatively little money, a creator can produce a completed idea to decision- makers using GAI as a creative collaborator. At this point, it's not a properly T 1 "Traditional AI vs. Generative AI: Understanding the Differences." Vitac, accessed 17 Apr. 2024, vitac. com/traditional-ai-vs-generative-ai- understanding-the-differences-and- advantages 2 "Alexa just got three new generative AI skills—here's how to try them" ZDNet, accessed 17 Apr. 2024, zdnet. com/article/alexa-just-got-three-new- generative-ai-skills-heres-how-to-try- them/ 3 Q: "Is Siri Ai?" No, but Watch for Announcement at WWDC." TechHQ, accessed 17 Apr. 2024, techhq.com/ 2024/01/is-siri-ai-coming-in-2024/