00:00Think about your favorite movie and now ask yourself, could artificial intelligence have done it like that?
00:05The fact is, technology has long been part of the film world.
00:08She helps with effects, editing and storyboarding and she replaces jobs.
00:12AI can be a useful tool for creatives.
00:14On the other hand, copying is often done without regard for copyright.
00:19What consequences this will have for the film industry is still unforeseeable.
00:22Can AI really be creative?
00:24Does it make films better or just cheaper?
00:30The fact that US actor Tom Hanks looks so young in Here is thanks to an AI.
00:36AI image editing tools are becoming increasingly popular in film productions.
00:39But what if AI is used to imitate the creative work of others?
00:43For example, the style of the Japanese anime studio Ghibli.
00:47Since March 2025, ChatGPT has new ways to generate images.
00:51And suddenly everyone was posting such memes, celebrities and themselves in the style of the famous anime films.
00:57For Ghibli fans, this was an attack on the filmmakers' creative work.
01:02AI is already very established in the film industry in Japan.
01:06In Japan, many anime studios are now deliberately using artificial intelligence.
01:12This also includes the K&K Design studio.
01:15Vice President Hiroshi Kawakami believes this will save a lot of time and effort.
01:20The animators give instructions and check the AI's work to make sure everything is correct.
01:32This 5-second anime requires about 50 drawn and colored images.
01:38And that can take up to a week.
01:40But now the AI can use the colors and movements within a day.
01:45For this she only needs two drawings.
01:47In the anime industry, the working days are long and the pay is poor.
01:51It is difficult to retain young artists.
01:54AI can help sustain the anime boom, says Roland Kells, professor and expert on Japanese culture.
02:00He wrote a book about anime.
02:04Inbetweening is the process of drawing the intermediate frames between the key frames.
02:08AI can do this very effectively and save the studio time and money.
02:15Many people think of anime as big hits, but there are thousands of productions every year, many of them for late-night programming.
02:23They are very inexpensive and such formats could probably be produced easily with AI.
02:31According to Roland Kells, technology is not seen as a threat in Japan.
02:38This openness comes from the indigenous religion, Shintoism.
02:42The focus there is on the worship of Kami.
02:45Spiritual beings that can dwell in all kinds of things, whether man-made or not.
02:49Everything is accepted as part of nature.
02:51Japanese creativity is very flexible.
02:55The very first anime hero was called Astro Boy.
02:58The figure was half boy, half robot.
03:01This idea was not so threatening to the Japanese.
03:06Nevertheless, there is concern about losing one's job because of AI.
03:10According to a 2023 survey, 60 percent of Japanese artists are afraid of this.
03:16And there is one more point.
03:19Copyright.
03:19Does AI use the style and work of the authors?
03:24The same survey found that 90 percent of Japanese artists have concerns about this.
03:32AI often uses copyrighted material.
03:36In order to create something, the models must be trained.
03:39For example with films.
03:40Disney and Universal now want to take action against this and have sued Journey.
03:45With the US company's AI, users can recreate protected characters like the Minions.
03:51But while the legal situation is still contested, AI production in film has long since moved on.
03:55In 2025, the Berlinale Film Festival premiered a film consisting entirely of AI-generated images.
04:02This film was the idea of Yi-Wen Sao, a young director from China.
04:10And it looks very different from what you normally see in the cinema.
04:15It's called What's Next?
04:16We met Yi-Wen Sao at the Berlinale.
04:24She had previously worked on another film for seven years and had not received any financing for it.
04:29Then she started experimenting with AI.
04:33Nothing in What's Next was filmed with a camera.
04:36Instead, Yi-Wen had the Runway software create the images using precise prompts.
04:41The magic is that I didn't have any outline or script beforehand.
04:52It only occurred to me after I started.
04:57I then entered more and more prompts and received over 20,000 short videos.
05:07I then sorted them.
05:09I didn't sleep for six nights.
05:11The first generated images then led to ideas for scenes.
05:17And with more and more prompts, what Yi-Wen wanted finally came out.
05:21Her film has no main characters and no script, but it shows how human greed is destroying the planet.
05:27Images of chained women symbolize gender inequality.
05:31Evil characters, distorted money, and meetings of rich men represent capitalism.
05:35And there are apocalyptic scenes triggered by the climate crisis.
05:38Climate crisis. But who is actually the creative mind here? The filmmaker or the AI?
05:44Yi-Wen believes that storytelling is a human ability.
05:47Filmmaking should always focus on the story.
05:53The story is the most important thing of all.
05:58AI is simply a technology.
06:01For me it's a kind of film, like a romance or a crime thriller.
06:08While some films cost millions to make, What's Next was produced by her and her computer. In just one week.
06:19It's difficult for a new director to get financing.
06:25Now I can show my attitude to the world and draw attention to myself.
06:34Many screenings of the film at the Berlinale were sold out, partly due to the curiosity of the audience.
06:39But the feedback was mixed.
06:42Producing an entire film all by myself, I find that really exciting.
06:49But at the same time, I also wonder, if this is the future of the film industry, won't a huge number of jobs be lost?
06:56In the US, actors and screenwriters have taken to the streets for precisely this reason.
07:02Over 150,000 people brought Hollywood to a standstill for several months in mid-2023.
07:09Artificial intelligence was also a trigger for the strike.
07:13It has even been described by trade unions as an existential threat.
07:17Screenwriters' fear that AI will write their scripts in the future.
07:22The actors' fear of being replaced by AI-generated replicas of themselves.
07:27These concerns are not entirely unfounded, as new technologies always bring about changes, says Max Wiedemann.
07:34He is Head of AI at a European film studio.
07:37There are some jobs that may be needed even more.
07:41There are some jobs that will change.
07:44There are some jobs that may disappear completely.
07:47There are other jobs that didn't exist yet, and they will be added.
07:50In Hollywood, unions were ultimately able to secure more protection against the influence of AI.
07:55But it is a fact that AI will continue to play a role.
08:03I just believe that those who deal with this technology and are involved
08:08will be most likely to be in a position to perhaps choose in the future,
08:12which of these jobs they will be in and in which direction they want to develop.
08:18Incidentally, around the same time, Bollywood had a groundbreaking ruling on AI.
08:23Film star Anil Kapur has won a court case.
08:27Now neither his name, his appearance nor his voice may be reproduced by AI without his permission.
08:33AI that copies.
08:35Creative people around the world are fighting back against this, especially in the film industry.
08:38In this area, artificial intelligence had a poor reputation long before it became a real threat.
08:44Over the last few decades, AI has been portrayed very differently in films and series.
08:51As robots, computers or figures that appear almost human.
08:57These protagonists, whom we love, hate, or fear, say a lot about our relationship with AI.
09:05Paula Murphy researches film and literature at Dublin City University and has also written a book about it.
09:11I think the first clear representation of AI was in the 1950s.
09:17Robot Robby appeared in the 1956 film Space Alarm.
09:23Robby was smart and nice.
09:26Outwardly a robot, but with human traits, such as humor.
09:29Nevertheless, he was perceived as a threat.
09:32According to Paula Murphy, AI is often portrayed as something evil that wants to take over the world.
09:37But why?
09:38I think AI in film reflects human fears about AI.
09:43And that's why we have so many negative portrayals.
09:48This is also reinforced by the fact that recent films show how closely we are connected to artificial intelligence.
09:56An AI that knows us, shapes us, and influences our world is exciting and frightening, especially when love is involved.
10:07Like in the film Hörl, in which the main character Theodor falls in love with a chatbot named Samantha.
10:13And that raises questions.
10:15Are they like us or not?
10:19What does this mean for our definition as humans if artificial intelligences have similar feelings and opinions?
10:29AI can also be portrayed as a weapon in film.
10:32The series Person of Interest, for example, also deals with how it can be used for extreme surveillance.
10:39What was once a dystopia is now reality, facial recognition and governments and corporations spying on us through our phones.
10:47And that raises ethical questions for viewers.
10:51Can an AI be completely good or bad?
10:53Or does it depend on how people control them?
10:56This question will certainly continue to concern us for a long time.
10:58AI is developing rapidly and we now even encounter it in Oscar-nominated films.
11:04In Emilia Perez, singing was enhanced with AI.
11:07And in The Brutalist, she perfected actor Adrian Brody's Hungarian accent.
11:12He even won.
11:14Despite or because of the help of AI?
11:16The big question that many people ask is, how much human labor is replaced in creative processes?
11:23AI and film expert Max Wiedemann believes that it doesn’t have to be an either-or situation.
11:28Parts of these creative tasks may be taken over by AI in the future, such as generating ideas.
11:33But human guidance is still needed to determine the direction in which AI should generate ideas.
11:39And most importantly, evaluating these ideas in order to really find a result at the end of the day,
11:45which is also inherently creative and unique.
11:51Collaboration between humans and AI can work.
11:54AI saves time, simplifies processes, and opens up new possibilities for filmmakers on a tight budget.
12:00But many questions remain.
12:02What about copyrighted content?
12:05And how do we prevent stars or extras from simply being digitally copied?
12:10Whether in Hollywood or Bollywood, the industry needs clear rules to ensure that the use of AI remains fair for everyone.
12:16That's it from me. Bye, see you next time.
12:19Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada
