25/02/2025 - BERLINALE 2025: The panel, divided into two sessions, delved into the topic with the help of a group of experts made up of AI policy makers and creators

On 14 February, the European Parliament's LUX Audience Award and the European Film Academy organised a panel discussion titled "Artificial Intelligence in the Audiovisual Sector – Innovation, Ethics, Democratic Values" held at Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau. The discussion was moderated by Sten Kristian Saluveer, director of the Tallinn Digital Summit and head of Cannes Next Marché du Film. The event was split into two sessions, each one involving different speakers.

Emma Rafowicz, Vice-Chair on the Committee on Culture and Education (S&D, France) said in her opening remarks: “Recommendation algorithms influence the discoverability of works, reinforcing cognitive bubbles and standardising cultural taste to the detriment of diversity. Generative AI, as we know it today, deregulated and dominated by private interest, represents a danger to the rights of authors and artists, to their fair remuneration and, by extension, to cultural diversity”. She went on discussing the need for sharp regulations, adding that Europe has a responsibility in shaping the AI role within our cultural and democratic ecosystem. 

Rafowicz then joined a round discussion titled "Upholding Ethics and Democratic Values" along with Renate Nikolay, Deputy-Director General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology at the European Commission, Mads Damsbo, producer of About a Hero [+see also:
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interview: Piotr Winiewicz
film profile], and Pauline Durand Vialle, CEO of FERA, the Federation of European Film Directors.

Nikolay stressed the importance of a holistic approach to the sector: “There is promise for the creative sector that AI can support creativity, part of what we can do from a European Commission perspective is to support that kind of development […] On one side, you need to push this industry to use this opportunity and not to close up against it, but on the other hand we need to watch the fair remuneration aspect”. Shortly after, Durand Vialle brought attention to the fact that “if the objective is only to cut costs, because that's where the industry can be right now if you’re looking at the broader picture, then we’re going to have a bit of a problem”. 

Damsbo, whose production About a Hero is an adaptation of a script written by an AI trained on Werner Herzog’s body of work, mentioned the German master’s initial scepticism, describing the film as “alarming” despite having granted his approval. “I am a techno-optimist by nature,” Damsbo admitted, “I think there is great potential for democratising audiovisual storytelling. With these powerful tools, we can hear voices from places that previously lacked access to the filmmaking industry as it exists today.”

The second discussion, titled "New Opportunities and Paths to Innovation", saw the participation of Diana Riba i Giner, Vice-Chair of the Committee on Culture and Education (Greens/EFA, Spain), Marcos Ros Sempere, Substitute Member of the Committee on Culture and Education (Greens/EFA, Spain), Volodymyr Ovsiienk, Business Development Executive at Respeecher, and Sodie Hvitved, Futurist Senior Advisor and Head of Media at the Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies. 

Riba i Giner talked about the risks of AI when it is employed in “making copies of our voices, of our faces, making digital doubles that look just like real people”, which can represent a danger for the sector, especially when it can reproduce a whole film in a very short period of time. Her colleague Ros Sempere highlighted the urgent need for action: “I have to say that we are all the time saying that AI is the future, but I don’t think so, I think it’s the present.” He went on discussing the importance of the concept of transparency, especially while making regulations involving the topic. 

Ovsiienk, who has spent the past seven years at Respeecher developing synthetic voices, contributed to approximately 180 projects. Some of these have earned prestigious awards, including Emmys, Webbys, and Clios, and two of them received a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination this year. “There is a lack of understanding and knowledge about the different types of AI-powered tools,” he noted. Ovsiienk took time to explain Respeecher's approach, emphasising that their process always integrates technology with human input: “I’ve heard a lot about AI taking people’s jobs, but in our work, we actually require a human in front of the microphone.” He concluded by reassuring the audience about the safety of their data usage, emphasising that it remains transparent and fair for all customers.

Towards the end of the discussion, Hvitved spoke in a positive way about the opportunities offered by AI and suggested to refrain from using the concepts of “fear” or “theft” when talking about it. She then compared the shifts that are happening in society to the ones caused by the invention of the printing press and described artificial intelligence tools as “opportunities to reach out in a new way, get engagement and bring stories out to people who might have not been interested in them before”.