Impact on Entertainment

Impact on Entertainment

The best way to introduce this section on the role of technology, specifically AI technologies in entertainment, would be to start with an example from the 1990s that underscores the increasing importance of entertainment in our lives. In an interesting collaboration, two of the authors, Uma in her role as CEO of Zee Education, the learning arm of Zee Telefilms, and Ganesh, then CEO of APTECH, a household brand for computer education, decided to launch a television-based computer education programme called The A to Z of Computers. In what was going to be a significant departure from the video and television-based education programmes that had been launched by some highly renowned government institutions, they decided that education would work best if it was mixed with entertainment. A young couple, Shyam and Angel, were introduced as the anchors of the programme. The then prime minister Narasimha Rao endorsed the programme, and history was created by the number of learners who benefited from this unique mix of education and entertainment.

Today, this example is no longer the exception. It has become the rule that boring books and learning content no longer suffice for an increasingly impatient generation of youth who seek quick gratification and interesting experiences in education, enlightenment or just entertainment. For instance, virtual and augmented reality could be used to change the aquarium experience for young children. All of us have been taken by parents to aquariums where there are fish swimming in various tanks, and we are expected to read the engraved descriptions to understand the characteristics of each fish. Very little learning truly happens, but by using these new technologies, children can be encouraged to pick one out of a dozen fish outlines on paper and also to draw and paint on it to develop the fish they like. This fish is scanned, and the children will see their fish appear and swim in the audio-visual environment that is created. Then can follow an amazing hour or more when the children’s fish encounter water companions and discover their characteristics by experiencing their actions and even avoiding predators like sharks. The learning and retention experience through this highly interactive process would be many times better than wandering around an aquarium, though the fish are simulated and not live.

In this context of expectations, we dive into the role of AI in entertainment. These range from the somewhat mundane acceleration of content production to quick dissemination to the more complex areas of hyper-personalisation, the use of AR and VR, and the enormous opportunities that lie in the area of gaming. For the entertainment enthusiast or the commercial opportunity seeker, this is arguably the most productive area for growth in the use of AI.

The composition of new scripts, music and audio and video special effects is the obvious area of AI deployment where the development of a new story idea with language that is appropriate for the target segment can be quite easily done by technology and delivered across multiple media. Companies like Kantar Media and Nielsen are able to capture audience response to every variation in screenplay and sound effects to enable producers of OTT seasons to learn from the experiences of previous seasons and garner additional viewership as the popularity of shows goes up with targeted variations.7 However, the borderline between AR and fake representation on audio and video of popular stars of the silver screen will need careful tracking to avoid doubts about the reality of what people are watching, which will steer attention away from the narrative or the story itself. In the area of content dissemination and distribution, the use of AI in choosing the appropriate channel for distribution of any content has been implemented with good impact on viewership for the last few years. Entities like Facebook and Google have practised AI-enabled targeted advertising for many years and also used the power of their acquisitions to garner intelligence from one app and use it to showcase purchasing options across the network. Entertainment will soon be served up on predicted demand to each individual in a family or community based on perceived preferences. Will this completely eradicate the concept of family entertainment, and will the group visit to the cinema for a popcorn and movie evening become an anachronism? Maybe not immediately but eventually without a doubt! One cannot rule out either the power of persuasion that AI can catalyse. Influencer marketing has been a phenomenon restricted to millennials and Gen Zs for some time, but influencers will be able to plant ideas in the minds of many citizens, which will be reinforced by marketeers seeking to exploit a forming opinion to sell more of their brand. Harari provides a real-world and somewhat disturbing description of the role social media and specific apps can play in forming public opinion and fomenting a whole movement in society. The case in point is the targeting of the Rohingya community in Myanmar, which was initially caused by one religious activist who posted divisive and hate-filled comments against the community on a well-known social media app. There were, as there always is, voices of reason that tried to assuage the feelings of the Myanmar majority, which is when, Harari suggests, the social media app realised that fanning the flames of hatred had more potential for attracting eyeballs and maximising time spent on the app than the peace-generating attempts.

It follows that the negative comments could be given more prominence while the positive ones were not highlighted, resulting in more voices against the Rohingyas and more commercial value for the app. While this example may not be related to entertainment, it shows the power of AI to influence at scale. Movie makers could well be using influencers and social media apps in the future to manipulate the ratings given to their productions, leading more and more unsuspecting viewers to endorse their work to avoid being part of a minority. Will that result in genuine entertainment being forsaken at the altar of manipulated public opinion? Only time will tell!