Ethics vs. the bottom line: AI audio in video production.
Imagine a production company is hired to film an interview with a client coming in from out-of-state. There's a script that's been heavily revised, a teleprompter and a tight filming window. The client breezes in, has nothing memorized, and after several arduous takes, he's gone. While editing it's discovered he flubbed several words and misspoke a line about company values that can't be editied in a decent way. The client can't be bothered to record the needed lines and the deadline is approaching. Enter Artificail Intelligence. The production company takes some snippets of the clients voice, has them analyzed and soon has an AI audio file of exactly what was needed. It sounds identical, right down to the pauses and breathing. The client could care less and with a little B-roll over the tricky spots, the video is finished and the check is in the mail.
Now imagine a slightly similar scenario, but instead of a busy CEO, the production company hires a local actor to portray an employee. The actor does well but after filming the client requests a script change. "It's only one line", they say. The production company is at a crossroad: the talent has been paid, their contract fullfilled. Do they call them back and risk a new contract, scheduling and having to pay more money for a single line of dialogue? Or, like the first example, can they use AI to simply create an audio file? More importantly, should they?
Recent SAF-AFTRA strikes reportedly set hollywood back several billion dollars, and the main sticking point of the dispute was how AI should be integrated in production - if at all. While there isn't time to go into long detail on the back-and-forth (SAG's interview with the World Economic Forum is a great place to start: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/03/ai-hollywood-strike-sag-aftra-technology/), SAG's stance was that each production needs a language-specific contract about if and how AI is to be used. An actor or talent then has the option to agree or decline. And while SAG-AFTRA eschew the idea of a general AI contract statement, going forward your contracts may need something -preferably written by an entertainment lawyer- that indicates AI options may be on the table in certain situations. And there are plenty of new sites that offer AI sollutions to problems like the ones stated above. The temptations are there, so be sure as an orginazation you've set perameters on how to avoid moral and ethical ambiguity.
I'AMedia is a Columbus, Ohio video production company that endeavors to find a balance between AI, advancing technologies and traditional prodcution values.
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