How artificial intelligence is transforming the media industry — opinion

For context, expenditures on AI in 2019 were nearly six times lower. According to a study by McKinsey & Co, Generative AI has the potential to create added value in the range of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion in various industries, which is not surprising given the pace of its development.

Recently, the CEO of an Indian e-commerce company announced that he had replaced 90% of the technical support department with a chatbot. Summit Shah believes that work reliant on copy-pasting is becoming a thing of the past. And I totally agree with him. In addition, it helps with the most important thing at this time — optimizing budgets. Every specific, well defined task that consists of repetitive rather than creative work, or anything that can be algorithmized can be done by AI.

This is already proven by such a media giant as Bloomberg. A third of their texts are written by AI. They were among the first on the market to conduct a large-scale layoff of editors and reporters due to the automation of their work using artificial intelligence. AI scans the stock market landscape, assesses trends, prepares analytical reports, and presents these findings in columns.

Another area where AI is definitely useful for media companies—and beyond—is the generation of visuals. Give it clear instructions, and you'll have a video of children playing in the sandbox. For example, we have already created a video for the National Bank of Ukraine using AI. We also create nearly all visuals for Smachno.ua, a website dedicated to cooking, using Midjourney. Fifty photos from the photo bank would have cost us $100. With Midjourney, we only pay $30 for a subscription. Budget optimization is obvious.

AI predicts box office receipts as well as an astrologer, translates better than Google, and submits editing before the deadline

Porn actors may be among the first to be at risk of losing their jobs because of the AI.

Artificial intelligence can help film industry workers create the perfect promo and editing experience. It analyzes the footage, selects the best shots, and creates more appealing trailers based on data about viewers' requests. 20th Century Fox is already using AI. The IBM supercomputer created a promo for the movie Morgan for them. The same company integrated the Merlin system to select films for specific target audiences and genres. And Warner Bros. turned to the AI-based platform Cinelytic to predict the success of its films and box office receipts.

AI can also make it easier to work with subtitles, which we need to bring our content to foreign markets. Manually creating subtitles for a dozen languages will take hundreds of hours for translators, and AI can handle it much faster.

AI becomes our partner in creating both on-air and digital content. Our first digital-only content is also co-produced with AI. For example, ChatGPT helps us transform scripts from various authors into a stylistically cohesive text. The second neural network is used to create characters and scenes according to the plot, and the third helps these stories come to life in video format.

Deepfake technology brings legends to life on screen, provides insurance for unforeseen circumstances, and replaces adult film actors

A separate topic is the use of deepfake technology to create characters in content. AI is able to replace real actors with their digital copies, which, by the way, has already led to strikes in Hollywood. Or it is used in TV shows—for example, Deep fake love from Netflix. The Spanish have created a reality show where participants watch videos of their partners cheating and must determine whether the footage is real or a deepfake. Another recent example is Meta's launch of chatbots featuring AI twins of famous personalities. The resemblance to these celebrities is so striking that some users have described it as unsettling.

Another industry that actively uses deepfake technology is adult film industry. Over the past year, the number of deepfake porn has increased 9-fold. Such videos have already gotten more than 3.8 billion views. There’s no end to people’s erotic fantasies. Therefore, in a few years, it is quite possible that watching porn with real people will become just a tab on Pornhub, something niche. Porn actors may be among the first to be at risk of losing their jobs because of the AI.

Mother knows best? AI: Hold my beer

Netflix is the largest company benefiting from artificial intelligence, having saved $1 billion in content costs. With more than 130 million subscribers to various payment plans, the company uses machine learning automation algorithms to analyze what its viewers want to watch the most and make appropriate recommendations.

And there's more to come. Imagine an intelligent advertising system capable of not only delivering relevant ads but also determining the optimal time to display them based on a consumer's emotional state and daily routine. I am sure that this will happen in the near future.

We also have an example of using AI for data analysis and forecasting. We're collaborating with Kyivstar on a new innovative solution that will analyze the potential of content for viewership and monetization, both in Ukraine and globally.

Banksy, King, and Tarantino have nothing to worry about—AI won't be making a second Pulp Fiction. For now

The amount of data that people have to deal with in their work and personal lives is constantly growing. Obviously, processing this ocean of data and routine work are areas where AI will be able to optimize the staffing levels of many companies in the short term. At the same time, true talents will keep emerging. And it is AI that will be able to facilitate and strengthen their work, becoming a kind of muse for them, inspiring them to create original ideas that will capture the attention of millions of viewers. And you can and should experiment with AI.

At Starlight Media, we are actively working on building a corporate infrastructure of various artificial intelligence tools, for each of our creative and business requests. We are experimenting with integrating various AI technologies into our business processes—from creating motion graphics to meeting minutes, and from translating content into foreign languages to developing a virtual news anchor for social media.

At the same time, exceptional talent will continue to emerge

According to international analytics agencies, the artificial intelligence industry will develop after 2025 at a rate of 25% per year. I don't believe our growth trajectory will be identical, but it could very well be around 15–20%. It will be possible to watch AI-generated series on linear TV in 5-7 years. In 3 years, it will be actively involved in the development of promo videos, for example, for a new season of a TV show. It won't be enough to have just AI; we’ll also need someone skilled in crafting prompts for it. In other words, many people won’t be replaced by AI, but by others who can use it effectively.

When viewed from a broader perspective, the pace of AI development is impressive, yet somewhat unsettling. Today, it predicts what you want to watch; in a year, it reads what you might want to eat or where to go; in three years, it takes your job—what comes next? The predictability of everything raises questions about the meaning of life and the absence of free. Will Skynet become a reality? In the future, will data be read through our phones and used—with our consent—to create realities similar to those in the episode “Joan Is Awful” from Black Mirror? Given the turbulent times we live in, such a scenario is no longer perceived as a joke or purely fictional. There is much to think about and discuss.