What Are the Applications of AI in Entertainment & Media?

Over the past few years, we have witnessed the rapid growth of artificial intelligence all across the globe and its impact on human life and work, particularly when we are on the verge of digital transformation and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. It is no longer a buzzword but now a new reality, or precisely, the future of technology and, soon, everything else. How can we be so sure about that? It is partially due to the fact that AI technology has evolved and altered so much that we may hardly realize that it has thrived across industries. Typically, artificial intelligence originated from the IT industry, and it has been brought into software development and later into education, healthcare, recruitment, e-commerce, cybersecurity, quality assurance, etc. The media and entertainment industry is not an exception.

What pops into your mind first when asked about AI applications? Just a second, automate tedious, repetitive tasks? It is true, but not enough because AI is capable of heaps more than that. The potential of AI is limitless, and it can flexibly vary and become compatible with the field it is applied and the challenges it is given. So, it is not strange to see it tackles the fields of creativity.

In the media and entertainment space, machine learning and AI-based technologies soon held a solid position. Just like how our daily activities, from small, tiny things to bigger deals, have been gradually intertwined with robots; AI has dominated a wide range of activities in terms of the media and entertainment business. And its applications are only getting more and more advanced over time. By 2023, the global AI in the media and entertainment sector is predicted to reach $8.4 billion. This means a significant number of media and entertainment companies have been utilizing some form of AI technologies and solutions, and we’ll soon find out now:

How Artificial Intelligence Has Been Empowering Media

In the media industry, artificial intelligence plays an indispensable means in accelerating workflow automation, personalization, and marketing. Media companies take advantage of artificial intelligence to streamline their activities on different fronts in exchange for decreased operational costs and increased productivity and revenue.

Automated Content Generation

It is evident that artificial intelligence has transformed the way in which media platforms make content and engage with their audiences. Most noticeably, the development of computing intelligence has paved the way for the advent of many tools that leverage AI techniques to generate audio, writing, and visual content. Using natural language processing (NLP) and text analysis, AI systems can be leveraged to quickly generate content for websites, news stories, blog posts, and any online platforms. This AI-driven technology enables media companies to produce content at a much faster rate, reducing the need for manual labor. This comes in extremely handy when it comes to mass production; however, it does not necessarily mean AI writers always come up with high-quality content as humans do. Therefore, AI-powered content creation should be properly combined with human writers.

Personalized User Experience

It is almost impossible to make personalized content and recommendations per user happen before the implementation of AI. Today social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., use machine learning techniques and deep learning networks to study each individual’s performance and demographics. Based on the users’ behavior, media companies gain in-depth insights into a user’s preferences and interests, allowing them to recommend content more precisely, thus driving higher visit rates and engagement as well as building the user base.

This application works not only perfect for media but also e-commerce as the e-com platforms can somehow “read people’s minds” and appeal to them by offering customer-centric suggestions in terms of products or services. This way, through AI algorithms, e-com businesses can boost sales significantly while making each customer experience unique and ideally pleasant.

AI also helps to limit access to inappropriate content stipulated by the user’s age. With the audience category ratings, broadcasters can filter such content from being seen by those, not in the standard viewing age. It is an advantage for both platforms and viewers, as it helps protect the young from seeing offensive material.

Detecting Copyright Infringement

The explosion of social media has brought along copyright violations with it, which is a big problem for both the media and the music industry. At this point, AI helps to detect and prevent copyright infringement. For your information, YouTube - the largest and most populous video streaming video platform on earth - has been using Google’s machine learning technology to police the copyright. In addition to copyright issues, online music platforms such as Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music are embracing AI-based solutions to deliver a better service and a hassle-free music experience to their users. Or streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc., also has AI assistance in enhanced streaming quality and personalized content recommendation.

Besides, it is evident that people nowadays are more easily confused by information than ever before since everything is disseminated in a flash, including false or fake news. And in such an information-explosive era as today, a lot of websites publish and disseminate unverified information willingly as long as it is able to draw huge attention. That’s why there is a strong belief that AI may be a “potent weapon” to fight fake news; however, it disappointingly turns out to be skeptical.

Predictive Analytics

Guess what? AI can optimize marketing efforts. AI-based predictive analysis can be used to analyze past data and gain insight into future viral media content trends. With the aid of computer vision and valuable insights in their hands, marketers can craft better online content, easily identify the targeted audience, and develop online advertisements that are more likely to convert. More than only advertising purposes, AI somehow now can support search optimization as well when it not only can help you build targeted content but also can assist with SEO for maximum exposure and user engagement.

In addition to these applications, AI has a massive impact on many other activities, such as chatbots, customer service, and virtual assistants.

The Rising Role of AI in Entertainment Business

The role of AI in entertainment seems to be vague at first glance, but it does not mean no. In fact, AI technology has already been used in various ways across the entertainment industry.

Film Production

Artificial intelligence has long become the eternal inspiration for many famous sci-fi movies, such as the Terminator, Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, Wall-E, and so many more. But have you ever imagined that AI one day step out from the scene and make films? That reality is never too far. Actually, AI was put to work in movie production once in 2016 when IBM Watson used AI technology to create the world’s first-ever movie trailer for Fox’s Morgan. This was the time that Fox wanted to wow the audiences and keep them on the edge of their seats with a frightening and suspenseful trailer made by the power of artificial intelligence. And it looks like they have succeeded. This milestone of AI in the film industry has shaped an unpredictable yet promising future in which artificial intelligence will play more different supporting roles in making films and even music videos or reality shows, ranging from writing scripts, scheduling, editing, and even shooting. Typically, the development of CGI, which is extensively used in the film industry, has been greatly influenced by artificial intelligence.

Game Development

Speaking of AI in gaming, we are mentioning the responsive and adaptive video game experiences. AI-powered interactive experiences are usually employed in games via NPCs (non-player characters). With this technology, NPCs can think and act toward players’ behaviors. Even better, they can predict what gamers are going to do next by analyzing their previous actions. In brief, AI comes into video games with the role of making the unrealistic gaming environment vivid. Together with virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), AI can broaden the world of gaming with more creative and immersive experiences.

Music Production

AI-based technology is also touching the music production field. From AI compilers to generate original compositions to intelligent vocal synthesis applying voice recognition technologies or even artificial composers that can be used by people with no musical background but have some basic ideas about producing music, all of these have shown the immense potential of AI in the music industry. People even start wondering about copyright infringement for music content generated by AI. In addition, AI-based voice-over tools are also on the rise.

Subtitle Generation

Subtitle generation is another area where AI-based technology has been successfully applied for quite some time. With the aid of machine learning algorithms and natural language processing, machines are now capable of automatically generating subtitles for videos. The idea behind this application is to make subtitle creation easier, faster, and more accurate than ever before. YouTube is also one of the pioneers in using artificial intelligence in this field. By employing AI technology, YouTube enables video producers or content creators to either manually caption their own videos or leverage auto-generated subtitles, which is beneficial for viewers as well.

Now that we have run through a few of the ways AI is being implemented in the entertainment industry, it is exciting to see what further advances will be made. As technology continues to move forward, there are no doubt more innovative uses for artificial intelligence in the entertainment field.

Final Thoughts

AI vs. human or the fact that AI may replace human beings is no longer strange around here. However, if we put all the gloomy scenarios aside for a while, AI is an extended helping hand for us people. On the bright side, humans should not consider AI and robotics as contenders but as technically smart allies that can aid us in almost anything we can think of, which also means the possibility of artificial intelligence is boundless; so is its future. Therefore, there is no telling how deeply AI will be involved in the media and entertainment industry as well as others in the upcoming time. Until then, stay tuned. At present, a great number of countries from all across the globe have been embarking on the venture of artificial intelligence, and Vietnam is one of them with a lot of potentials.