Will AI Mean The Death Of Creativity?

If AI Replaces Writers, Filmmakers And Artists, Our Shared History And Humanity Will Be In Danger

As a science fiction filmmaker, I envisioned that AI and robots would replace the spot boys first—the so-called ‘non-creative’ workers on the film set. However, when the AI revolution happened, I realised that it is, in fact, primed to replace creators themselves! I wondered if a spot boy’s tasks, like serving a glass of water on a film set, are more irreplaceable than a writer’s, who dreams up worlds, examines human conditions and conceives delicate emotions.

Four years ago, when I was mounting my first film, Cargo (currently playing on Netflix and featuring a spaceship), I encountered several financial roadblocks. One was the cost of creating the CGI for the spaceship, and the other was the expense of obtaining the one song I needed for the film. I utilised tools available today (compared to four years ago) to see what they could do. There was an app—Suno AI—into which I fed the summary of the film’s story for a track that would thematically resonate with it. It spewed out a song, whose AI lyrics are such:

Cargo hawa mein, hum chadhte jaye Aur murdon ko, hawaon se jalaaye

Aakash yatra, hamara humsafar hai Aur duniya, aaj taklifon se bhari hai

(Cargo is in the air, we keep rising We burn the dead with the wind A journey through the skies, is our companion And the world is replete with worries)