The rise of AI-created celebrities: Will real-time shoots be replaced?

Authored by Suchana Sarkar, Chief Brand Officer, Makani Creatives.

The debate of ‘Is AI good or bad’ is lost on me, simply because of the absoluteness of the questions surrounding; “Will AI take all our jobs?”, “Will AI kill creativity?”, “Is it time to panic over AI” – my answer to all these questions always seems to start with no, but…

The argument in favour of Generative AI in Creative Production is efficiency of cost and time. While the latest season of ‘Black Mirror’ has already taken a stab at answering the premise of this article, and ‘Virgin Voyages’ is a fantastic example of the sheer magic-like possibilities of Generative AI, I find myself questioning whether this path was chosen for ease of execution or to break clutter. If AI was adopted to ease the process of production, it is impossible to make any deductions without evidence on how time and cost effective it indeed was to create the digital likeness of JLO and whether she charged less for the brand to use her likeness than she does for her actual presence on set.

For this and many other reasons, I say, no, AI will not replace all IRL shoots in all scenarios. But, it could be a solution in select scenarios. What AI shoots can do marvellously is ease the heartache that involves finding a common date and time for multiple parties, yet meeting deadlines. The other argument in favour of AI shoots is cost. When I see shoots like these, I completely see how AI ‘shoots’ can compliment creative minds to create out of the world executions, pun duly intended. Yet, with celebrities, we could not simply rely on prompt engineering alone.

There is no doubt that AI could be the answer to many such challenges that comes with IRL shoots involving celebrities. But it begs to question the very reason for using said celebrities. Think back to the times singers and musicians faced flack for lip-syncing at their own concerts. How is using digital likeness of an actor, but not their acting different? If we were to make a sportsperson act impeccably, how do we address the question of authenticity? Will this approach not reduce celebrities down to just their appearances?

If a model exists that can create digital likeness, emulate speech and create lip sync, what protection do these celebrities have from their likeness being misused. Only last week, (June 21st), tech giants in the US have pledged voluntary adoption of responsible AI to the Government. The speed at which AI is evolving is far ahead of the pace at which regulations are coming into play. I cannot, in good conscience answer yay or nay, without a legal and ethical code of conduct coming into play with using AI.

As an Account Management comrade, nothing makes me happier to think that AI can finally fill in for the lack of control that comes with the territory of creative production. But, with everything that I have in favour of AI shoots, I wonder what happens to the livelihoods of talent who make shoots happen: from the Set designers to HMU artist to Gaffers – there is not only a question of reducing means to earn for the non-tech population, we are also looking at specialisations going extinct if the future to be nurtured only involves Command Engineering.

In the end, the guiding principle I use in life seems to apply in this case as well: just because we can, does it mean we should?

(The author is an advertising old timer and currently positioned as Chief Brand Officer at Makani Creatives )