AI in the Movies, …Aaron Sorkin can Rest Easy.

Will Aaron Sorkin be replaced by Watson? …not anytime soon. And despite what Nick Bilton and Vanity Fair would have you think, cinema is bigger than ever. In fact, 2016 was the highest-earning year in history, totaling $11.4 billion.

AI and machine learning will impact the movie business just as it will with any industry. But for this specific field, it won’t start by replacing the dreamers and creatives. AI will, however, disrupt how movies are positioned and marketed and, to a degree, how they are made.

Hollywood has been trying for decades to formalize success — studios will franchise anything that makes a profit. But give an audience another helping of what worked the first time, and nothing more, and you’ll find they lose interest quickly.

The key to success in Hollywood is to give the audience enough of what they want to get bums on seats and then exceed their expectations by bringing them on a journey they can re-invest in emotionally. This is something that AI cannot create — we need human intuition to produce such a narrative filled with emotion.

That’s not to say AI’s formulaic process won’t be creating content. On the contrary, there is an increasing demand for video content and advertisers will rely on AI to create and automate this process. Utilizing AI will allow for personalized, relevant content tailored to each consumer’s interests. And in doing so, time will be freed up for creative thinking — to dream up that next box-office hit.

For more AI insights and thoughts from the Blackbelt team, check out our Medium page.