The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in content production is revolutionary, but currently in its infancy. It marks part of the transition from what has been defined as ‘Web 2.0’ – that is, the web as a platform created by its users, into Web 3.0 where much of the content and its presentation will be at least assisted by intelligent machines.
AI in content creation is inevitable
That content creation will be enhanced by AI is an inevitability. As social media transformed the distribution of online content from the mid 2000s, it became an inevitability, and the vast majority of companies, indeed people with Internet access, established some sort of presence on major social networks.
AI’s general availability, its ease of use, and its potential to enhance content and creative workflows, makes it similarly impossible to ignore. AI refuseniks who avoid it will simply be much slower at production tasks, which inevitably leads to higher costs vs those who use it effectively. The use of AI is at its most basic a productivity hack, but it will be so ubiquitous that it will lend itself to all sorts of processes.
Anxiety about AI in the creative process
Of course, there is a certain anxiety around AI’s involvement in the creative process. What is the value of human creativity if that can be replicated, or indeed bettered, by AI?
Answering that specific question suits an academic essay rather than an online article, but in our view AI tools offer enhancement to creative productivity, rather than being a giant displacer. Many aspects of the creative process are indeed hampered by the technical intricacies of the ‘process’.
For example, in podcast production, fixing low quality recorded audio has been a useful skill for audio editors, but often a tedious one. With that tedious task already somewhat resolved by features of AI tools like Eleven Labs or Descript, audio editors now have more remit to add value in more interesting aspects of production, such as sound design. Of course, sound design too will be enhanced by AI, but to say an audio editor is redundant because of this folly. The production process will be enhanced, and those who embrace it have license to thrive.
New forms of storytelling
Alongside the enhancement of production processes, new ways of storytelling will be opened up. As an example, visual source material relating to any period before the photograph was invented essentially amounts to paintings and drawings. Some of these are primary sources, but often contemporary illustrators have been commissioned to create representations that fill in the gaps.
If you wanted to make a video of a popular folk tale, previously it would be impossible to make without incurring the cost of either doing the artwork yourself or paying an artist.
Well, why don’t you just pay for that? Unfortunately, for the creation of a one minute Instagram Reel or TikTok, which in themselves drives little to no revenue, such expenses are unviable even for publishers with deep pockets. With AI assistance it can be done much more cost effectively.
Artists will understandably have reservations about a process in which they appear replaced – but in this case it is not so much replacement, but enabling viability. Such a piece of content would have likely been unviable. Thus AI allows new forms of storytelling, and artists should look to how they can be involved in such a process rather than rejecting it.
The great video shake up
This has particular ramifications throughout any medium where there are moving images. Of all the televisual processes, animation is one of the most complex and requires a high degree of specialist skill and powerful (and expensive) computers for rendering. It is likely that the creation of visual assets, from illustration to 3D models, will become democratised.
It is already happening at significant scale through Adobe applications, and it is remarkably easy to create assets like a business logo or simple icons using AI. Adding motion and movement to such assets or characters is really the next step and is already available – but doing this to broadcast standard still requires a high level of difficult to learn skill.
Conversely, generative video has the potential to revolutionise the television and film industries. The cost of getting high level production shots of actors in a specific location will likely be further reduced by virtual production – itself a growing part of the film and television production process.
Making video and animation production ubiquitous essentially opens up a creative world where any story can be told much more cost effectively. That will certainly create new rivalries – Disney’s market leading position in animation appears challenged – but it does not spell the end for the industry.
For creators, this can be discomforting. But it is quite inevitable. As drones made aerial photography significantly cheaper than hiring a helicopter, AI will reduce the cost of many other forms of creative production. The high skills of the future will be about mastering the available AI tools. Social media and streaming revolutionised the distribution of content. AI will revolutionise its very creation.
