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If anyone is going to use artificial intelligence to bring down costs while cutting those pesky meatbags called “talent” out of the equation, with their shouty agents and unreasonable salary demands, it’s going to be Hollywood, OK?
China is basically living in the future now, outpacing most technological achievements of the West while we pay them to do it. An act of mass civilisational self-harm of the kind that the West seems determined to inflict upon itself because we are ruled by fucking idiots. One of these areas is AI.
While we all work on crafting the bestest ever ChatGPT prompt we can, Chinese models are outstripping ours for both speed and capability. CEOs of major US companies are coming back from fact-finding trips to Beijing both dumbstruck and scared by everything from the tech to the infrastructure they see.
When a powerful new AI video tool was launched by TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance, Hollywood sat up and took notice. Primarily because it arrived with a video clip of Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt fighting that was close to flawless.
The Motion Picture Association is concerned over this, and is leaning on copyright as the weapon to fight back.
Silly rabbits, don’t they know that in China, copyright is something that happens to other people? The MPA said, in an interview with the BBC:
“In a single day, the Chinese AI service Seedance 2.0 has engaged in unauthorised use of US copyrighted works on a massive scale.”
Major US studios Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Prime Video & Amazon MGM Studios, Sony Pictures, Universal Studios, The Walt Disney Studios, and Warner Bros Discovery are to join forces via the MPA.
ByteDance has responded, saying they have suspended the ability for people to upload images of real people, and they claim they respect intellectual property rights and copyright protections, taking any potential infringement seriously.
They say this AI content was created as part of a limited pre-launch testing phase.
The MPA’s chairman and CEO, Charles Rivkin, said:
“By launching a service that operates without meaningful safeguards against infringement, ByteDance is disregarding well-established copyright law that protects the rights of creators and underpins millions of American jobs.
ByteDance should immediately cease its infringing activity.”
Meanwhile, users have flooded the internet with ByteDance-created content based on everything from The Lord of the Rings and Avengers, to Friends. Deadpool writer Rhett Reese responded to this onslaught by saying:
“I hate to say it. It’s likely over for us. So many people I love are facing the loss of careers they love. I myself am at risk.”
He went on to say:
“My glass half empty view is that Hollywood is about to be revolutionized/decimated. If you truly think the Pitt v Cruise video is unimpressive slop, you’ve got nothing to worry about. But I’m shook.”
Others think this is just visualisation, and to come up with the original ideas is where the action is at, and AI can’t replace that. Saturday Night Live and Rick & Morty writer Heather Anne Campbell compares this to fan fiction:
“All of these people who have access to the latest AI visualisation engines, like Seedance – they’re being given total control to create anything they can imagine – and they’re turning out fanfiction like a Breaking Bad new scene or Goku in live action.
Seems like it’s challenging to make something new even when you have the infinite budget to make lifelike tv, film, or animation. Almost like the original ideas are the hardest part.”
Heather, I am not sure you are ready to hear this, but Hollywood’s record on original ideas isn’t too hot lately, either.
Battle lines are being drawn over AI, and this is just the start.
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