How AI Is Reshaping the Entertainment Industry During the Pandemic
And why we should embrace it.
If you work in entertainment, the only way to survive right now is to implement radically new tools in your specific production areas. Even high-budget events like Burning Man, Lollapalooza, the Golden Globes, and the Olympic Games are either migrating online or getting rescheduled. So you also need to have a Plan B and Plan C and look for new ways to adapt.
Synthetic media is content — videos, gifs, music, or other interactive forms — generated with AI and deep learning.
Integration of synthetic media into your content production and communications reduces overall production costs by lowering expenses and increasing profits.
Throughout the last several years, I’ve been observing a significant shift in audience behavior — people are using social media proactively, embracing the numerous tools that keep emerging (TikTok, Vine videos, Snapchat filters, etc.).
The content creation process is becoming more accessible and democratized while the results get more personalized and innovative.
And these trends are challenging the entertainment industry.
All this leads me to a question — how exactly can synthetic media improve the movie, fashion, celebrity, and digital marketing industries right now?
Movie industry: Cheaper and faster production, more creative solutions
First of all, synthetic media help to optimize the process of video creation and post-production. For instance, the Gemini Man movie scene where Will Smith (aged 52) faces a ~20 y.o. version of himself took Paramount two years and a massive budget to create. Today, synthetic media AI tools can do a pretty good job of it instantly and cheaply. Just a few years ago, this would have been impossible.
And there are simpler practical uses for the current state of deep learning, face swapping, or digital makeup technology — for instance, historical personalities recreated from photographs or sculptures. This instrument may help Hollywood companies avoid whitewashing scandals since AI technology can recreate actors’ faces from the actual appearance of historical figures in a maximally realistic way.
Another advantage of synthetic media is that they allow us to reuse existing video content more creatively. It is especially relevant for large video content holders like Sony, Universal, or YouTube. With AI-powered face-swapping, they’d be able to create and distribute new synthetic content while spending considerably smaller sums on production than if they had to recreate it from scratch. For instance, they can integrate a new scene with new actors into an existing film set, substitute one actor for another in a pre-made movie, or preview an actor in a role before the video is even created.
Fashion industry: Creativity boost, less time spent on shopping
AI/ML technologies can give an overall creativity boost to the world of fashion by allowing people to make virtual shows, predict fashion trends, or create customizable, photorealistic artificial fashion models.
Furthermore, it is so much easier to do clothes fitting in the digital showroom or with face- or body-swapping technologies.
It eliminates the need to leave your home, lose time, and try clothes in crowded, non-sanitary dressing rooms. Even before the pandemic, in 2019, the brand Gucci debuted an augmented reality ‘try-on.’ Then, in 2020, test collaboration in Reface app ‘Become the face of Gucci’ allowed users to become the face of Gucci in its stunning commercials and make a personalized video.
Another elegant technological solution is an alternative to fast fashion provided by Dress X that creates virtual clothing items. It’s much more eco-friendly to buy digital-only clothes that will only be used for a single Instagram selfie than to support fast fashion.
Or the clothes can be real while the models aren’t. For example, three models tried on 20 faces of artificially created, nonexistent women for a fashion show by KSENIASCHNAIDER clothing brand.
Celebrities and influencer marketing: Everybody can be a star now
I’ve already mentioned that the live music and entertainment industry are having it pretty rough right now. So if you’re a major celebrity and your life is built around performing live — what do you do when travel and touring are next to nonexistent? People still want to associate themselves with their idols and feel close to celebrities.
So with the help of synthetic media, this October, Justin Bieber released a new video and asked his fans to join him virtually. They could insert their faces into Justin’s video and associate themselves with the pop singer — be there in the same video with him, not just watch it on the screen.
There are also highly popular CGI influencers who provide a unique way for brands to communicate with their target audiences. Another opportunity that synthetic media has opened for influencers and celebrities is more opportunities for creating eccentric and unusual content. It means that you don’t need to employ complex video or photo production capacities to stand out; you can reinvent existing content with the help of technology. It boosts the content’s potential virality and makes the search for new unique topics easier for creators.
Digital marketing: Advertising, personalization and anonymization
In advertising, face-swapping AI technology can help to create unique promotional mechanics or personalized ads — not just trailers based around your interests (like Netflix does), but making you the star of those trailers or commercials, showing you superimposed on a particular situation. In the past, somebody could shoot a video, and the viewer had to watch it as-is; nowadays, the viewer can personalize the video. As a result, you’re not just watching a movie — you’re starring in it! This can transform the whole industry.
Speaking of anonymization, digital marketing can up its privacy game with the help of face swap tech. In most cases, when a stock photo or video features a human, the platform that sells such a photo needs to have consent for commercial use from that human. The anonymization capabilities would allow you to change any face on the image or video to an artificial face with necessary parameters.
Afterword — Responsible use of the existing technology
Synthetic media are boosting our creativity and taking entertainment technologies to a whole new level, providing a better and more emotional customized experience.
Even though there are some dark spots on synthetic media’s reputation caused by misuse, fake news and deepfakes, I’m convinced that when used ethically and consensually, the technology itself is not harmful and shouldn’t be feared.
Both creators and consumers of content based on machine learning need to exercise responsibility and critical thinking. A clear agenda and regulations for synthetic media content should make it easier to view the technology as a useful tool, not an enemy.
About the Author: Dima Shvets is co-founder and Chief Business Officer at Reface. His focus is to establish partnerships with content owners and develop long-term corporate relations with businesses, implementing innovative tech AI-powered solutions for different industries.
