A.I.'S THREATENING ALL : MASTER PRECIS

 

Screenwriters and actors identify A.I.threat. Unions negotiating salaries have also flagged concerns about emerging technology.

To the mix of computer programmers, marketing copywriters, travel advisers, lawyers and comic illustrators suddenly alarmed by the rising prowess of generative A.I., screenwriters can be added.

Last December, Apple introduced a service allowing book publishers to use A.I. narrators, an innovation that could displace hundreds of voice actors who make a living performing audiobooks.

The company's website says the service will benefit independent authors and small publishers.

'' I know someone always has to get there first, some company,'' said Chris Ciulla, who estimates that he has made $100,000 to $130,000 annually over the past five years narrating books under union contracts. '' But for individuals not to understand how that can affect the pail-carrying narrator out there eventually is disappearing.''

Others actors fear that studios will use A.I. to replicate their voices while cutting them out of the process.

''We've seen this happening - there are websites that have popped up with databases of characters' voices from video games and animation,'' said Linsay Rousseau, an actress who makes her living doing voice work.

On-camera actors point out that studios already use motion capture or performance capture to replicate artists movements or facial expressions.

The 2018 blockbuster ''Black Panther'' relied on this technology for scenes that depicted hundreds of tribespeople on cliffs, mimicking the movements of dancers hired to perform for the film.

Very soon, the studios will be saying : '' We don't need you. We have a bunch of A.I.'s that are creating a bunch of entertainment that people are kind of OK with.''

TO MARK : '' The WORLD is bound to fail to rein in new technologies that enable automation or the replacement of skilled labour.

The Precis and the Alarm to continue World Students Society thanks authors Noam Scheiber and John Koblin.