 is leaving no sector untouched. This time, it is the entertainment industry that is getting impacted, and not all for the good. AI-generated voices, deepfake videos and 3D generated life-like figures are having a run-in with the actual actors, and are bringing up questions of ownership. How is AI impacting the entertainment sector and will actors be displaced by AI?){kind=link}
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is leaving no sector untouched. This time, it is the entertainment industry that is getting impacted, and not all for the good.
AI-generated voices, deepfake videos and 3D generated life-like figures are having a run-in with the actual actors, and are bringing up questions of ownership.
How is AI impacting the entertainment sector and will actors be displaced by AI?
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‘Disturbing’ technology
Artificial Intelligence is being used to bring back late actors to life or to create digital clones of living actors from high-tech 3D body scans.
For instance, AI was used to recreate the sound of late actor Robin Williams.
But Robin Williams’ daughter Zelda Williams did not take kindly to it, terming the technology ‘disturbing’.
Robin Williams
“I’ve already heard AI used to get his ‘voice’ to say whatever people want and while I find it personally disturbing, the ramifications go far beyond my own feelings. Living actors deserve a chance to create characters with their choices, to voice cartoons, to put their HUMAN effort and time into the pursuit of performance”, she wrote on Instagram.
Yet others claim to use AI for educational purposes in a ‘good way’.
US-based software engineer Amarjit Singh last year posted AI-generated songs of the late Sidhu Moosewala and KK.
Sidhu Moosewala
“I wanted to use AI in a good way. The idea was to keep the voice of artists such as Moosewala alive for the next generation and pay my tributes,” Singh says.
However, Moosewala’s family asked him to take the videos down, since it was painful for them to see his voice being used to make new music.
Issues of ownership
Questions of ownership arise more so when AI is used to ‘copy’ a living actor.
In September, the Delhi High Court ordered 16 entities to not infringe on Anil Kapoor’s personality rights.
The entities were blamed for misuse of Kapoor’s image, name, voice, likeness or other elements of his persona through AI for monetary gains non-consensually.
Anil Kapoor
Anil Kapoor had said in a statement, “My intention is not to interfere with anyone’s freedom of expression or to penalise anyone. My intent was to seek protection of my personality rights and prevent any misuse for commercial gains particularly in the current scenario with rapid changes in technology and tools like artificial intelligence.”
Kapoor’s lawyer Ameet Naik said, “A lot of my clients are celebrities and they have iconic attributes which are getting misused and monetised.”
A similar situation happened with Amitabh Bachchan, when his image, and voice was used by mobile app developers and people conducting lottery.
However, some are pointing out in case of AI, innovation is key. TOI quotes publicist Dale Bhagwagar: “If celebrities pass on celebrity rights to their families or production houses, they can live forever. Their families can get monetary support and newer fans will not be deprived of their art.”
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