AI Summary
5 min readIn a typical London street scene, a woman is handcuffed by police, her face a mask of panic. "I didn't do this," she protests. But there is no woman, no camera, no director. She is Tilly Norwood, an AI-generated performer created from scratch in about four minutes. The same scene filmed on location would have taken half a day and cost upwards of £5,000. This is the new frontier Hollywood is grappling with—a technology that can slash costs and accelerate production, but also one that threatens jobs and risks flooding the industry with what critics call "AI slop."
The quiet infiltration of AI in filmmaking
Despite the public controversy, AI is already quietly embedded across nearly every stage of film production. Henry Triggs, The Economist's U.S. technology editor, describes a "don't ask, don't tell" approach in Hollywood: many are using AI but not shouting about it. Netflix, for instance, said it used AI in about 300 titles in a single year. Director John Irwin, part of a small group of evangelists, used AI in his film Young Washington to create a scene with a raging torrent in a 50-foot trench, allowing him to film on location while sparing his actors a dangerous stunt. He told Triggs he "couldn't leave it at night" because he found the creative potential so exciting.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:57) **The AI-Generated Performer** - The episode opens with a description of a hyper-realistic AI-generated actor, Tilly Norwood, being arrested on a London street, setting up the central question of how AI is reshaping Hollywood.
- 2 (03:06) **The Two Camps: Evangelists vs. Opponents** - Henry Triggs outlines the stark divide in Hollywood over AI, with some embracing its creative and cost-cutting potential while others see it as an existential threat.
- 3 (03:43) **Creating an AI Scene in Four Minutes** - Henry Triggs recounts his directorial debut creating a Tilly Norwood scene, demonstrating the dramatic cost and time savings of AI-generated footage.
- 4 (04:56) **The "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Reality** - Despite public posturing, many in Hollywood are quietly using AI, with Netflix alone deploying it in about 300 titles this year.
- 5 (06:41) **The Threat: Strikes, Slop, and Death Threats** - The opposition to AI is fierce and personal, rooted in the 2023 strikes and recent violent backlash against projects using the technology.
- 6 (07:56) **Big Tech's Quiet Takeover** - Major tech firms are shepherding AI into Hollywood through model development and strategic investments, often in studios whose directors publicly oppose the tech.
- 7 (08:57) **The Inevitable Trajectory: Cost-Cutting and New Revenue** - AI’s momentum is driven by Hollywood’s desperate need to cut costs and find new revenue streams, such as repackaging content for vertical video.
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Show Notes
Behind the scenes, Artificial Intelligence is playing a growing role in every aspect of film-making, from script-writing and production-planning to shot-generation and editing. As the number of people covered by Obamacare falls, our correspondent ponders the future of the healthcare programme. And the secret thrill of American country dancing in France.
Guests and host:
- Henry Tricks, US technology editor
- Stevie Hertz, US public policy correspondent
- Sophie Pedder, Paris bureau chief
- Rosie Blau, co-host of “The Intelligence”
- Jason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence”
Topics covered:
- Hollywood, filmmaking, AI
- Obamacare, healthcare, health insurance
- France, country music, line-dancing
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