Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1492168
5.12.19 12 COMMERCIAL 9.2.2023 Alexiei Dingli Prof Alexiei Dingli is a Professor of AI at the University of Malta and has been conducting research and working in the field of AI for more than two decades, assisting different companies to implement AI solutions. He forms part of the Malta.AI task-force, set up by the Maltese government, aimed at making Malta one of the top AI countries in the world The rise of AI content: the end of human creativity or a new opportunity for artists? I n the world of technology, where ad- vancements come and go at the speed of light, a new player has emerged with the power to change everything. Artificial Intelligence has taken the world by storm in the last decade, auto- mating tasks that once required human intervention with unparalleled efficien- cy. But now, a new frontier has opened up with the advent of generative AI models, a technological leap that could alter the course of content creation as we know it. ese AI models create new content, such as texts, images and sounds, with- out much human intervention. eir ability to automate content creation, re- duce the cost of production, and create highly personalised content catapulted them to stardom in the past year. Since they are now rivalling human counterparts, these models have the potential to disrupt traditional content creation methods, including influencer marketing, music creation, TV/movie production, and all the creative indus- tries. is technology will profoundly impact content creation as we know it, transforming how we consume and ex- perience content forever. Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard about chatGPT by now. An AI trained on massive amounts of data, allowing it to generate realistic and coherent text that rivals that of human writers. It can write arti- cles, essays, and even poetry with stun- ning accuracy. It even creates computer code, solving complex problems with remarkable speed and efficiency. However, these models are not lim- ited to language generation; they can translate documents, answer questions, and identify the sentiment of text. With their increasing power and versatility, this kind of AI has the potential to revo- lutionise many industries, from journal- ism to education and beyond. e next frontier is, without a doubt, image generation. Filters, Photoshop and other image manipulations are al- ready a thing of the past. Models like Dall-E and Midjourney are revolution- ising the influencer industry by creating high-quality pictures without human intervention. e AI can then write posts using generated text and includ- ing fake images. is content is much more attractive to humans since it's highly optimised for their liking, thus leading to a decline in the popularity of human influencers and the rise of virtual ones. We estimate that the market for virtual influencers will reach $4.6 billion by 2025. Not just that, but it will unleash the realms of hy- per-personalisation. ese AI can change how people con- sume and perceive influencer content, potentially offering unique content tai- lored to individual preferences. e vir- tual influencer can post generated pho- tos taken with its fans in any location or event worldwide. ese models can also be used to cre- ate songs sung by any artist without the need for human musicians. Microsoft's VALL-E can simulate anyone's voice us- ing just 3 seconds of audio as input. Can you imagine Ozzy Ozbourne singing a Lady Gaga song? While it is true that these models lack the human touch and emotional depth of human musicians, they have the potential to change the way peo- ple consume and experience music. For example, anyone can today create personalised music playlists tailored to the individual's preferences and moods, providing a unique and personal music experience. Soon, we'll start seeing songs written and sung by an AI, participating in mu- sic festivals and gaining popularity on Spotify. But that's not all. We have recently ex- perienced the rise of deep fakes, which modify existing videos to depict events or actions that never actually happened. In a few years, the AI will generate high-quality video content entirely from scratch. When this happens, it will rev- olutionise how we produce and experi- ence TV or movies. ese models can generate entire scripts, TV shows, and movies without needing human writers and actors. While this could result in cost savings for producers, it also raises concerns about the loss of creativity and artistry in TV and movie production. On the other hand, they will change how we consume TV and movies since they will create personalised content tailored to individual preferences and interests. Imagine being able to change the ending of Game of rones to your liking, generate a new Harry Potter Movie based upon your ideas, or even take part in a movie as the main Jedi in Star Wars. e impact of generative AI models on content creation is a complex and mul- tifaceted issue. On the one hand, these models can transform how we create and consume content. On the other hand, they also raise sig- nificant concerns about the potential loss of jobs, the impact on creativity and authenticity. It falls upon content crea- tors and policymakers to take action to ensure that the benefits of these models are realised while minimising the po- tential consequences. We must ensure that the quality of content and the well-being of society are at the forefront of our considera- tions as we navigate this uncharted ter- ritory. e future of content creation is in our hands, and it is up to us to shape it in a way that benefits all.