The creative industry, like several other industries, has always had to deal with the evolution in technology. From as far back as the early 50s, when robots were introduced, with the idea of making heavy work easier, technology has always moved to set new world orders.
For film, robots started out as replacements for certain characters, roles. Even though many would later brand the idea as one that would promote new forms of violence, due to the roles portrayed by the robots, this form of technology kept evolving, and the industry, especially during production would get introduced to more sophisticated equipment like drone cameras that get work easily done, with a touch of quality.
With this background, the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI), now, only speaks to the fact that technology has always been a part of growth and evolution. The art industry only amplifies the dynamics caused by this innovation.
AI and music production
While this journey can be traced back to 1957, when American composer Lejaren Hiller generated a computer algorithm to compose a piece called Illiac Suite, it would be spot on to understand AI and music production from a more recent perspective.
In 2016, Google released the first AI-generated piano melody using its Google Magenta project that made rounds, evoking mixed reactions from among various music producers. It simply meant that a producer or recording artist would not need an actual piano or have to go through the hustle of programming a melody from scratch because, hey, an algorithm can get all that done.
This development would set the pace for the making of American artist, and storyteller, Taryn Southern’s I am AI – a whole music album generated by AI algorithms. This became the first solo album to be created by AI, with Southern’s only input being the melodies and lyrics.
The process is such that one only has to choose the mood, the genre and length of the song, and leave the rest to AI. In essence, you may not even have to be such a talented musician. Mind boggling, isn’t it?
It gets even more interesting; one can choose to replace their not-so-appealing vocals with vocals of a more prominent artist, and boy will they have themselves a banger!
In November, 2023, New York-based producer Sixfoot 5 broke the internet when he sampled a song that had Adele’s vocals on it, but wasn’t recorded by Adele. While he did not officially release the song, he warned that producers and artists world over should be afraid of this.
Back home, in Uganda, Swangz Avenue’s Azawi recently found herself in the crosshairs of this new phenomenon. In mid-February, the Quinamino singer released, on her social media platforms, a song titled Masavu. The song would slowly gain traction because of its punchy romantic lines.
Using AI algorithms, an unknown person, then created an uncanny replica of the late Mozey Radio’s voice, replacing Azawi’s voice on the same song – Masavu. This catapulted the song into unimaginable heights, with many wondering the deceased singer could possibly have recorded a song with Azawi, who at the time of his death, was not yet an established artist.
Upon the release of this version, Azawi quickly wrote on her X page saying, “Whoever did this, you’ve made my dream come true,” expressing her excitement to sound as though she appeared on the same song with Radio.
Alas, the excitement would be dampened by Weasel (Radio’s ex-singing partner), who insinuated that Azawi’s Masavu could have been a copy and paste of one of Radio’s written music. This didn’t sit well with Azawi who hit back at Weasel labeling the allegations as “absolute classlessness”.
In light of this, music producer Martin Musoke, known as Artin Pro, said, while AI in music may be a step in the right direction, it is likely to breed laziness among musicians and producers.
“AI may be good, but for those who may want to rely on it 100% are likely to spread laziness in the industry, killing the authenticity of creating a song from scratch,” Artin said.
The case of Azawi’s Masavu song also brought about conversations on the need for artistes to start rethinking their contracts to incorporate clauses that can protect their likeness or sound from AI infringement.
AI and the film industry
Through OpenAI Sora – a text-to-video AI model that makes production easier and less costly for filmmakers, with generated backgrounds and characters – filmmaking may be taking a whole different trajectory.
With Sora, filmmakers are able to simply use text description to bring their ideas to life. However, as of now, AI-generated videos can only go up to 60-seconds per video. This, according to film insiders, may not be conclusively sustainable to make and produce movies.
Despite its shortcomings, this form of technology is already influencing investment decisions in the film sector, the most relevant and recent case in point being celebrated filmmaker Tyler Perry’s decision to halt his $800m expansion project for Tyler Perry Studios.
“There is no need to do it,” Perry said, referring to the impending expansion of his 330-acre studios, a project that would have seen him add 12 soundstages to the property in Atlanta, U.S.
Perry told The Hollywood Reporter that he had heard about the emergence of AI in film, sometime last year, but had no idea what it could until it was demonstrated to him recently. “It is shocking to me,” he said.
For a huge film industry like Hollywood to worry about the threat that AI poses, one can only ponder on what this development must mean for the Ugandan filmmakers.
Uganda’s film industry’s new poster child – Loukman Ali, in an interview with Plugged, expressed himself as a not-so-worried player in the industry. Whereas he agrees that AI has come with quite the influence and will shake things up, he says this effect will eventually burnout.
“The thing with Ugandans at large is that we fear new things. We always get scared of what may be. But take, for example, when AI infiltrated photography and use of professional images; this did not take away the need to have professional photographers continue doing their job. Likewise, I think AI in film will either co-exist with the human way of doing things or simply die,” Loukman told Plugged.
Adding that, naturally, people do not like working with machines, and for AI, the authenticity is almost not there.
“Lately, when I receive content on my email, generated with AI, I don’t take that content serious,” he added.
Going forward, the Producer and Director who created Girl in the Yellow Jumper believes AI will have some level of influence in the form of getting certain shots in an easier way, but adds that ultimately, filmmaking will go down to actual brains by the different players.
He, however, urged content creators, YouTubers to make do with these AI technologies, since some of them may need basic production sets to create.
Still talking film, the visual advertising sector is already beginning to adopt AI. If you have been keen on the commercial for JINJERA (the upcoming reggae event to be held in Jinja), then you have noticed how revolutionary AI is getting.
Steven Niwamanya of Sterrac Technologies says, for the advertising industry, especially TV Commercials, AI is definitely going to have a great effect.
“We are already seeing characters in TVCs being replaced with AI-generated characters and animations,” said Niwamanya.
He points out the unfortunate eventuality of many Ad models losing gigs to the AI phenomenon.
To embrace or do away with AI?
With the AI trend infiltrating almost every aspect of life, it is more apparent now that we cannot do away with Artificial Intelligence.
While the biggest scare lies in the possibility of people having to lose their jobs, tech geeks believe the emergence of AI will also come with or introduce new job opportunities for computer scientists, software programmers and the like.
However, some creatives, especially writers, have recently moved to call for an absolute burn of AI tools, citing the threat it poses to creativity.
Last year, during the screenwriters’ strike in the U.S., the exclusion of AI in the industry, through contracts, was one of the most critical demands tabled by writers.
Creativity and film production requires the integration of human emotions and personal experiences. Creatives, therefore, say that tools like Sora cannot imitate something like that.
“For serious creatives who know what it means to create something right from the mind, AI should be their last source of worry. We should just continue creating as we have always done, and perhaps only incorporate AI where creativity doesn’t get compromised,” said Hannington Bugingo, an actor, comedian.
