The panel highlighted AI-generated storytelling, ethical concerns, industry shifts and tools like StoryBoarder.ai and ElevenLabs’ Voice Changer

l-r: Avi Armoza, Jason Mitchell, Eline Van Der Velden and Beatrice Rossmanith at the panel

On 25 February, during the first edition of MIP London, creators and experts discussed the potential future developments involved with Artificial Intelligence in a panel titled: “AI in Production: Mapping the latest developments, opportunities & challenges”. 

Mark Endemaño, partner and managing director, co-lead of media and entertainment at AlixPartners, opened the session with an overview of the situation regarding AI usage. He started introducing the world in which AI is having an impact. Key trends include documentaries and reality shows dominating across platforms, the rapid rise of sports content, and streaming distribution strategies evolving toward wholesale, D2C, and bundling. Additionally, production activity has relocated, now led by Western Europe and Asia Pacific, at the expense of the US in general and Hollywood in particular.

Endemaño also talked about the role of AI in this evolution: “In the foreseeable future, at least, AI will transform the production cycle in a way which is about driving efficiency and effectiveness and in the short term we don’t see any particular job loss as a result of that”. He then proceeded with showing a few case studies that involve usage of AI to bring back characters from the past. One example is the Netflix documentary Churchill at War, in post-production, which gave voice to a hundreds of speeches only available on paper, using ElevenLabs’ Voice Changer technology. 

Beatrice Rossmanith, founder and director at Mothership Media Consultancy, moderated the next conversation with three more guests participating: Eline Van Der Velden, CEO and founder at Particles, Jason Mitchell, founder of The Connected Set, and Avi Armoza, CEO of Armoza Formats. 

Mitchell began by listing the tools they use, including AI generated footage and chatbots to brainstorm ideas, but he confirmed not using them in live production because broadcasters don’t easily accept their usage. He also mentioned that a third of their business is animation, a sector in which a lot of people are quite resistant to AI. He went on to show an animation tool, named StoryBoarder.ai, that allows users to upload a script and make a storyboard out of it, breaking out the scenes, giving suggestions of shot duration and the type of camera to use. 

Finally, he discussed the potential ethical benefits of using AI to generate natural history programmes: “Rather than disturbing polar bears, why shouldn’t we generate polar bears using AI in an ethical way? The problem starts when we create behaviour that isn't authentic. So, you know, if the polar bear is then behaving in a human way, then obviously that's not ethical”. 

Van Der Velden explained how at Particles they’re working on drama series completely made with AI: “I would say what people underestimate is the creative process of that. You are heavily involved as a human when you are creating ideas with AI”. She later talked about how AI can reduce the cost of production, mentioning especially drama productions, where a lot of good stories are prevented from being told because of a lack of funding. Regarding the potential risks of job displacement due to this technological revolution, she said: “I always encourage people to start knowing what they're doing with AI, because the person who knows how to use it will get their job”.

The CEO and founder then enthusiastically discussed the potential of this period of change for companies like hers: “This is the most exciting time in TV history, because the traditional and big corporations, like BBC Studios, Universal and Disney, are ring-fenced with AI policies and they cannot do what we're doing as small indie companies. And so this is the time for small companies to take over and become the next big studio. This is our best opportunity to take over them”.

Armoza added: “I think the change is happening month by month, and in order to use it, you need to be on the right path. We can look into it as a threat, but I think it's a major opportunity for us as creators, because, at the end of the day, we are all storytellers, right? So the question has to be, can we use AI to enhance our creativity and to be able to tell stories from a different direction?” He asserted that, in his view, AI is not doing anything different from what humans already do and that’s why we should embrace it, without forgetting all the legal and moral implications of that.