AI in the Entertainment Industry

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

AI, or artificial intelligence, is often depicted as an evil force in movies, but for the entertainment industry, it is anything but. According to BusinessWire, between gaming, personalization, and planning, the amount of money spent on AI in the industry is expected to increase by $1531.9 million. With AI becoming prominent in every facet of our life, including agriculture, security, and retail, it is no surprise that its role in the entertainment industry is also growing.

Two of the most common uses of AI in the entertainment industry are user personalization and creating subtitles. User personalization is the delivery of content that matches the user’s interests, whether this means showing you products you may like more first on Amazon or giving you ads for content you will most likely enjoy. AI is heavily used in such processes, as it can survey what websites and applications a user frequents and then display similar content. As found by a study conducted by Evergage and Researchscape International, 97% of the 300 surveyed companies said that user personalization has been beneficial and they will continue to use it. Furthermore, 54% of companies said that they found a 10% increase in sales with the implementation of personalization. Creating subtitles is another monotonous task that often takes an exorbitant amount of time to complete if done manually. However, a case study found that, with AI, TV episodes could be captioned in 45 seconds and a film in less than two minutes. Obviously, the amount of time saved by AI in these situations would be highly beneficial in efficiency for companies, even after human revision. 

Contrary to popular belief, AI has been proving successful in interpreting emotions, something that has been previously seen as a unique human trait. In fact, AI has already been experimented with in terms of understanding emotions. On one occasion, 20th Century Fox partnered with IBM to create an AI-generated horror movie trailer. This was done by analyzing three factors of each scene: visuals, audio, and composition (meaning location of the shoot, framing, lighting, etc.). By identifying scenes that fit certain desirable parameters (in this situation, dark and scary scenes), the AI was able to suggest ten scenes that would best work in a trailer. Interpreting something as subjective as horror films is quite the opposite from what is usually expected from AI, which goes to show the progression of it.

Another place in which AI has a lot of potential is XR, or extended reality, an umbrella term for augmented reality, virtual reality and anything in between. Here, AI has the ability to make characters and backgrounds in games more realistic. Characters will have the capacity to be more intelligent and act as if they were to in a real-life situation, making gaming experiences infinitely more intriguing. With the XR industry already valued at $15.81 billion, the potential for growth is limitless, especially with AI by its side.

As I write this article I am getting word suggestions provided by AI, tangible evidence that AI is playing an increasingly more prominent role in everyday life. The entertainment industry stands as no exception to this. In fact, according to the IDC, the retail and entertainment industry is expected to be one of the top two industries to spend the most money on the implementation of AI. The uses of AI in the entertainment industry are nearly limitless, and will certainly grow within the coming years.

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