Till when can artificial intelligence replace them?

A spring day in June, at the doorstep of Hollywood Studios. But the spirit of ‘happy ending’ was not in the air. Cartel in hand, a small crowd of actors came to perform.

Contacted by local correspondents of France 24, a screenwriter quipped about the situation: “We are the ones who conceived ‘Terminator’, so we are in a good position to know whether it will happen sooner or later”. It is possible”.

In the mythical neighborhood of Los Angeles, robots are not going to war against humanity, as imagined by James Cameron in 1984. But advances in artificial intelligence are raising fears within Hollywood.

tension in hollywood

three months ago, Huelga has 11,500 screenwriters, according to estimates cited by Reuters. Result: In addition to program cancellations, Huelga has disrupted much of the fall television season production and crippled major prestige films.

In July, the actor joined the ranks of screenwriters in Huelga. Their main demands are wage hike and limits on the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the profession.

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The latter is perceived as a threat. One demonstrator says, “I fear that more and more things are being handed over to artificial intelligence (…) and there is a villain who perfects this technology and is sure to be removed from the screenwriters”. “

On the other side of the Atlantic, Professor of Sciences Poe, Fabrice Appelboin, comments: “The danger these actors and screenwriters face is very real”.

Technical “grand replacement”

According to this expert on digital topics, we are “very close” to the day when feature-length films, documentaries and other audiovisual works can be realized without cameras or actors.

It is about a “great replacement” that comes to light on them, continues the academician. And that change has already begun, given the success of the recent film ‘Avatar 2’, which mixed real action sequences with computer-generated images.

“Artificial” visual effects have already invaded cinema. Sometimes they co-exist with authentic shots, above all to represent the crowd. The technique was mastered in 2001, with the trilogy of ‘El Señor de los Anillos’.

According to Fabrice Appelboin, the only thing preventing the advent of artificial actors is the promotion of films by stars, which is essential for the film industry. In other words, Netflix probably wouldn’t have registered 320 million hours of viewings of ‘No Mirren Ariba’ without it. sex appeal By Leonardo DiCaprio, presenting the film on television.

Professor Pierre-Jean Benghousie of the École Polytechnique admits that “I really don’t believe in a film without actors”. For this CNRS researcher, synthetic doubles can, however, “play” part of the cast list: “In the morning, the question for a producer would be ‘Why not cast this actor for four weeks instead of eight?’

AI can create an avatar of any actor through 3D modeling and facial recognition. And this treasure was already acquired in 2016, when in the film ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’, actor Peter Cushing, who died in 1994, was virtually resurrected.

illusion of creativity

According to experts, the threat presented by AI is minor as far as screenwriters are concerned. Indeed, if these technologies can replace an actor off the top of his head (or away from his voice), the screenwriter may find an ally in AI that enhances his or her own creativity.

Appelboin also indicates that the writing of a script – even if AI is relied upon – cannot take place without a human: for a screenwriter to master the craft of guiding a non-human intelligence is still Is necessary.Signal’ (Orders given to ChatGPT) OK.

However, “if a few screenwriters personally ’empower’ themselves through the use of technology, the increase in productivity will be so great that there will automatically be fewer jobs.” reduced”.

Even in the case of artistic creation, with minimal human supervision, AI continues to improve. In February, a series project, ‘Nothing, Forever’, which was largely conceived by AI, was broadcast on the Twitch platform.

“Replatos de cliché”, says a director interviewed by FRANCE 24 reporters in Los Angeles. The scenarios proposed by ChatGPT are “good for the Basura boat”. Benghazi agrees: “There is nothing fundamentally new in what AI produces”.

As other experts point out, AI can give the illusion of novelty, when in reality it does nothing more than “recombinate” what’s already in its astonishing database (Chat-GPT3 has 300,000 million words). .

insensitive robot

As Benghazi indicates, the public is looking for precisely this innovation: the western It was a huge success in the ’50s, before being exported to the stars via science fiction in the ’70s. “And then people have to see western“, including their spatial versions.

Ezzo lacks the human creativity of “thinking outside the box” to explore new cinematographic subjects, pointing out this lover of the seventh art. Because only a human being can bring an ‘extraordinary’ dimension to a work of art”, argues the expert.

In your opinion, the same thing happens with actors. AI will take a giant step forward the day avatars stop being exactly like humans and are able to transmit new emotions.

“We can see fifty representations of Hamlet without transmitting the same emotion or the same meaning. And this capacity still remains human”. at least for now.

This article was adapted from its original in French.