Could we, tomorrow, gorge ourselves on popcorn, in a dark room, in front of a film generated via artificial intelligence (AI)? There seems to be no doubt about this, for Thibaud Zamora. “Within five to ten years, I think that in the cinema, a blockbuster will be released, generated largely via AI,” he confides to 20 minutes. This Montpellier resident, who with his partner Claire experienced irresistible success, all over the world, with the series of interactive games Is it love?, has been exploring, since last year, the infinite possibilities of this maddening technology. This “AI Artist” founded the studio Fiction. HAVEwhich produces short films using open source artificial intelligence tools.
Monday (8 p.m.), he organizes, at the Diagonal cinema, in Montpellier (Hérault), theAIFF* (Artificial Intelligence Film Festival), the first festival dedicated to artificially generated films, with screenings and a debate, with creators and specialists in new technologies. It will also be an opportunity, for Thibaud Zamora, to shed some clichés about the current state of this technology. “We sometimes have the impression that we just need to write a short text on Chat GPT, and presto, a film comes out! », smiles the Montpellier resident. “That’s not it at all!” When we create a short film, at Fictions. AI, we use a dozen, even fifteen different tools. »
We are only in the “prehistoric era” of AI, assures Thibaud Zamora
The creators of the Hérault studio use artificial intelligence to generate images, animations, voices, and lip synchronization of the characters. On the other hand, these tools still have too many gaps and require many important details to be worked (or reworked) by hand, including images, animations, storyboards, detachment of shots or even lighting and effects. special. “AI does not replace the artist,” he assures. It’s one more tool in the artist’s palette. It’s a revolution, like when artists moved from 2D drawing to Photoshop, and from Photoshop to 3D. » Certainly, we can generate a short film in a few hours, thanks to this incredible technology. But the result will not necessarily be of the same quality asOracle (see here), one of the Fiction films. AI, which required “three weeks of work, with two people, ten hours a day”.
But that’s today. Because tomorrow, the limitations will be fewer, AI will be more sophisticated, and will make it possible to go much further in the creative process. And technology is progressing at great speed. “We may find that the voices generated via AI, for example, lack emotion,” confides Thibaud Zamora. A month ago, in any case, they were extremely lacking in emotion. But new models have been released recently, and the emotion is much better. It goes quickly, very quickly. » We are only in the “prehistoric era” of AI, assures the Montpellier creator. And, already, the border “between a work which does not use tools of machine learning and a work using AI becomes thinner and thinner, assures Thibaud Zamora. For a photograph, we are almost at traditional photographic quality. » Soon, the Montpellier resident is convinced, all the retouching that keeps his team busy at Fiction. AI, to correct artificially generated films, there will no longer even be a need to make them.
“AI is a rocket. And you can’t stop a rocket”
And that fascinates as much as it terrifies. Particularly artists, who fear seeing their professions disappear. This is also one of the reasons for the anger of actors and screenwriters, which paralyzed Hollywood for several months. The first deplore that one day, the studios will only use AI instead of flesh and blood actors, and the others that the majors come up with scripts cheaply, by typing a few lines in Chat GPT . Finally, at the end of September, the screenwriters returned to the studios, after having obtained, in particular, to be considered as the sole authors of scripts, initially generated by an AI, which they would have reworked. The actors dropped the picket around ten days later, after a deal with the majors: they obtained, in particular, that the actors whose faces will be digitally remade will have to give their consent, and will have to be paid. For the president of the Actors Union, Fran Drescher, the unforgettable headliner ofA nanny from hell, welcomed this historic agreement during a press conference. “A year corresponds to three months in the world of AI,” she assured. So if we hadn’t gotten these safeguards, what would have happened in three years? »
Thibaud Zamora, who is also a video game developer and book author, does not deny that the machine could disrupt the creative sector. “Studies show that AI will cause unemployment in current professions,” he laments. But they also show that it will make it possible to create new ones, and that the balance will ultimately be positive. We are at Fictions. AI, a small team. There are two of us today, and there will be three of us in January. And, we hope, soon more. We create jobs. And then, if we had to do what we do today without AI… We wouldn’t do it. » Regardless, he confides, “AI is a rocket. And you can’t stop a rocket.”
L’AIFF takes place Monday (8 p.m.) at Diagonal, in Montpellier, in the presence of director Bruno Samper, Olivier Pinol (Dwarf Animation Studio), Yoan Fanise (Digixart), Laurent Michaud (Smart Tale Games), the researcher in computer scientist Anne Laurent and AI artist Jean-Baptiste Garry. Free admission. Prior registrations here.