THE HUMAN TOUCH: Channeling the awesome power of AI — while also attempting to keep it in check — dominated much of the conversation at the second edition of SXSW London, which began Monday and runs through Saturday in Shoreditch, east London.
The festival gathers experts, speakers and thinkers from the worlds of music, film, TV, tech and culture. During the first two days more than 20 talks, panels or sessions had “AI” in the title.
So far this week, speakers including Nell Daly of Revenge Capital suggested watermarking original writing on platforms such as LinkedIn, which has been inundated with AI-generated “think pieces” and content. During her panel “Chasing the Zeitgeist,” Daly added that brands need more than marketing to be successful.
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“Authenticity and storytelling,” are key, she said.
On Tuesday, the PMC-owned Deadline hosted the panel “Reality of TV — the Future of Entertainment,” with production experts from Fremantle, Twofour, Universal Television Alternative Studio (UTAS), Banijay UK and Studio Lambert.
They talked about the future of reality TV, and the challenges around the relationships between producers, buyers and audiences.
Helen Kruger Bratt, managing director of UTAS who oversees the production team of “SNL UK,” the offshoot of “Saturday Night Live,” said that “particularly in this fake AI world right now, what everybody is craving is authenticity, storytelling, and characters cast in real emotion.”
She added that with regard to making reality TV, “I don’t think people want performative. It’s got to feel really true to the heart, and resonate with the show that you’re making.”
The panelists also said that buyers have become increasingly risk-averse, so producers must consider measures to reduce the financial risk that comes with making unscripted TV shows.
“We’ve got to get smarter, cheaper, and more clever at how we do it, because the ratings just don’t support the big budgets,” said Natalka Znak, chief executive officer of Banijay U.K. companies Remarkable Entertainment and Initial, and the U.S.-based Znak TV. She created “Hell’s Kitchen,” “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here,” and “Love Island.”
In a bid to create richer content, producers stressed the importance of human interaction and having conversations with talent directly, and early on, in the process of creating a show.
David Brindley, CEO of Twofour, mentioned that he and his team spoke to Eugene Levy well before shooting the second season of “The Reluctant Traveler,” and it changed the course of the script.
“I think the important thing is we ensure that we have a really effective conversations with talent directly, face to face, before we start anything,” he said.