Are AI Films The Future of Storytelling?

Source: malaymail

The advent of AI has sparked a lot of debate, mainly in creative fields, causing uncertainty among artists about their job security and regarding the ethics of using such technology for creative works. The majority consensus is that the assistance of AI to develop creative works is plagiarism, as the technology can never produce anything original and its output is an amalgamation of existing works. Among such contentious discourse, came an unanticipated development that will surely cause fierce dispute.

Future Studios, a Malaysian AI-driven animation company, developed the world’s first fully AI-generated film Pirate Queen: Zheng Yi Sao . It is a collaboration with Singapore-based FizzDragon. Everything from visuals to post-production was created using AI-generated content. The movie’s executive producer Professor Yoki Chin claimed, “AI is not here to replace us, but to give us more options for creative expression,”.

To gain insight on whether emerging industry practitioners share the same insight, we asked a Final Year Digital Media Production student Tan Qi Qian, whether creatives should learn to adapt and use AI to enhance their work or whether it might dilute one’s personal creative voice. She said,”I see it like drugs and steroids like the result is immediate and when you get high you feel like you can do anything, but just like with actual professional doping scandals your skills suffer and when you are ultimately found out you are disqualified and shunned by your fellow creatives. It's not worth losing everyone’s respect and your creative integrity just to win something.”

Reflecting on the film’s collaboration with 12 countries, we presented a question on whether AI would be able to comprehend cultural context or emotional nuance to the magnitude of generating a script that retains authenticity and personal depth. Tan Qi Qian explained,” AI works by scraping sites and work without consent of the owners and majority of the work being fanfiction is crafted from a Westernised lens that reduces characters of colour to stereotypes. Ask an AI to make a French person and they’ll be a fashionable diva, a Japanese person would be lovely and graceful, an Italian would be a cheerful romantic etc.” She added that when it concerns underrepresented cultures,” there will always be this fog like it's all a performance than an actual lived experience.”

Part of what makes movies often memorable is when actors take on unexpected roles and portray characters different from their image, as well as improvised moments that create authentic performances than what was scripted. Such as Heath Ledger, known for playing romantic roles, shocked the world with his menacing portrayal of Joker or Charlize Theron physically transformed into serial killer Aileen Wuornos in Monster, resulting in her Oscar win. Improvised scenes like Ledger’s slow mocking clap in the jail scene, heighted the sense of unease, reinforcing the sadistic nature of the Joker. So, AI being reliant on prompts and algorithms may never be able to emulate the spontaneity or emotional resonance of human instincts.

Chew Mun, a Second Year Digital Media Production student shared a similar sentiment saying,”Creative work comes from a deep place of emotions which adds to our originality. In script-writing, if we’re not deeply connected to what we are writing, I don't think that the outcome will be the best. And when it comes to acting, it is not about reciting lines, but putting oneself into the shoes of who they are playing, which takes high skill.”

In light of the world's first fully AI generated movie, we asked Chew Mun her impression of  AI-generated characters or faces in animation or video, and if they seem natural and expressive or if they noticeably seem off? “Most of the time, I find it quite uncanny,” Chew Mun shared."It's just very hard to replicate real human beings, particularly when it comes to the organic things that we produce such as films and true human expression. Even professionals can’t fully recreate it in VFX.

Hearing the sentiments of the emerging creatives, it is evident that AI can aid in multiple stages of production, however complete reliance on it raises concern. If the entire process of movie or animation production is carried out by AI, the future of entertainment risks becoming more about showcasing technological advancement rather than story-telling or the human experience being the primary focus.