5/5 (3)

The future of filmmaking.

Directed by: You.

Starring: AI.

 

Agence is mix of a film and a game or it can only be one of those, that is fully up to you. This might sound very confusing, but this blog allows you to catch a glimpse of what the future of AI filmmaking can be. Allow me to explain.

On the 14^th of September, director Pietro Gagliano of the dynamic film Agence received the Venice Award for Best VR Immersive Story. Agence places the faith of its AI characters in your hands. You can either assist them having a happy and peaceful existence or you can create chaos along the way. It is a dynamic film that combines cinematic storytelling, user interactivity and AI (National Film Bond, 2020). The movie just came available on Steam and its clue revolves around a group of AI creatures and their appetite for a mysterious plant that appears on their planet (Graham, 2020).

Agence is not a blockbuster and since it is operating between films and games, it will possibly have a hard time finding an audience. But that is not the aim of this blog. Agence is the first example of a film that uses machine learning to control its animated characters and that could be one of many great examples that can shape the future of filmmaking.

The makers of the movie want to enable their viewers to either have the option of sitting back and enjoying a story unfold, by leaving the AI characters “to create” their own movie, or getting the viewers involved and letting them change the direction of the movie. A lot of you might be familiar with the concept of interactive films, like Netflix’s “You vs Wild” starring Bear Grylls. The concept allows you to make choices at so-called decision moments. In that way you can change the narrative of the movie. However, producer Gagliano wanted to “create something that let you transform the story at any point” (Heaven, 2020).

The required interactivity already starts before the movie does. You have to choose a type of AI for each character. For example, you can choose for a more static AI, that uses simple heuristic that will respond by the “cause and effect principle” (if this, then that). But you can also choose to let the machine learning do its work, by letting the AI figure out how to seek the rewards themselves. This will mostly result in the AI characters fighting the more static AI for a bite of the fruit (the reward). But you can also participate yourself, by using the VR controls and control any AI character by moving them around. The other characters carry on with their usual business around you, seeking their rewards as best they can (Heaven, 2020).

Yet, Agence remains a work in progress, but it is a start. In the long run, AI could be used to generate all parts of a film. Think of character behaviour, conversations or the creation of complete environments. I believe that the developments are promising, however it feels like a very personal experience. Since, watching a movie together with friends or family also contributes to that experience, I think it will not completely change the way we watch movies. In addition, it feels more like a video game, than an actual movie. But again, it is still work in progress. Therefore, I think that AI implementations are able to revolutionize filmmaking soon. If you are interested, check out their 1-minute trailer on https://www.agence.ai/.

 

What do you think? Should future filmmaking merge with AI to this extend?

 

References

Graham, P. (2020). Venice VR Expanded: A Festival Of Immersive Imagination. Retrieved from: https://www.vrfocus.com/2020/09/venice-vr-expanded-a-festival-of-immersive-imagination/.

Heaven, W. D. (2020). A VR film/game with AI characters can be different every time you watch or play. Retrieved from: https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/02/1009254/vr-film-movie-game-ai-reinforcement-learning-venice/.

National Film Board. (2020). News Release. Retrieved from: https://www.canada.ca/en/national-film-board/news/2020/10/the-nfb-makes-a-strong-showing-at-fnc2020-with-five-innovative-productions-and-co-productions-bold-works-that-use-new-technologies-to-push-the-boun.html.

 

5/5 (2)

When walking around a foreign shopping mall, Google is your best friend. Since 2006, it can provide a quick translation of the ingredients of products, restaurant menus and many other examples. Four years later, in 2010, Google introduced the world to Google Goggles, a feature that is now integrated within Google Translate. You basically press the camera button of Google Translate and scan any label or text to get a translation without having to retype a word or being forced to download a certain keyboard to insert letters like the æ, ġ or ř.

This makes me think about certain patterns in (other) technological developments throughout time. For instance, the first passenger airline pilots did not have the same luxuries as modern-day pilots have today, like the autopilot or a radar. In addition, most of us do not use real maps anymore to navigate, since Google Maps will find you the shortest route that will also account for traffic jams. When technology enables people to become more efficient or when it can perform certain actions better than humans do, technology (e.g. robots, AI etc.) will usually assist or replace those actions (Chui et al., 2016). My question is, can this example be translated to the abovementioned situation of learning a foreign language if technology exceeds human capabilities?

Now, a decade later, we have been introduced to many more developments on this area. Hitherto, a lot of new soft- and hardware innovations have been launched to assist us with learning or speaking foreign languages. One promising innovative product is the “Electronic Language Translator”, a handheld device that instantly translates a sentence you speak into it. This development already makes me question if soon a more advance version of such a device (or an application) will just become the standard form of communication between people that do not speak each other’s tongue.

Critics that do think that learning a language will never become obsolete, oftentimes highlight the fact that a culture and a language have a very close connection. Thus, making it a requirement to get a “taste” of foreign cultures. Although, I am not denying this obvious fact, I believe that there are other ways to connect with people and learn more about their culture. For example, through tasting local food, participating in local festivities and holidays or listening to their local music. In addition, others address the counterargument that learning a new language will make you smarter (Mackey, 2014). However, in my opinion there are many other activities that will contribute to your brain development. To me, sticking to the traditional way of learning a new language, is like using real maps to navigate. It might give you a “more real” or a more nostalgic feeling, that is fun for certain occasions. However, I think that the necessity of learning languages will become obsolete.

Furthermore, Elon Musk recently made a prediction about his neurotechnology company Neuralink. With the head implant chips that his company is developing; Musk is aiming to revolutionize humankind as we know it. First, they aim to understand and cure brain related diseases. But more futuristically, he predicted that within five to ten years, we no longer need human language. While referring to the movie The Matrix, he said that with a fully developed Neuralink chip, one will be able to simply download a language and then upload it to your brains (Embury-Dennis, 2020). But Elon Musk also has other plans for the language of the future. Since, language basically is a proxy to interact between brains, directly connecting these brains, will cause language to lose its function in that process.

Since everyone will be able to upload information to their brains, it will change the way we value information for good. Of course, provided that, this device will be available to everyone. Although, the whole AI symbiosis seems to be a bit too farfetched to me, developments on this area will also contribute to the discussed topic in this blog (Brown, 2020; Embury-Dennis, 2020). Who knows what the (far) future holds, but the idea itself is simply mind-blowing.

Do you think learning languages will become obsolete?

Bibliography

Brown, M. (2020). NEURALINK: 3 NEUROSCIENTISTS REACT TO ELON MUSK’S BRAIN CHIP REVEAL. Retrieved from: https://www.inverse.com/innovation/neuralink-neuroscientists.

Chui, M., Manyika, J., & Miremadi, M. (2016). Where machines could replace humans—and where they can’t (yet). McKinsey Quarterly, 30(2), 1-9.

Embury-Dennis, T. (2020). ELON MUSK PREDICTS HUMAN LANGUAGE WILL BE OBSOLETE IN AS LITTLE AS FIVE YEARS: ‘WE COULD STILL DO IT FOR SENTIMENTAL REASONS’. Retrieved from: https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/elon-musk-joe-rogan-podcast-language-neuralink-grimes-baby-a9506451.html.

Mackey, A. (2014). What happens in the brain when you learn a language?. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/sep/04/what-happens-to-the-brain-language-learning.