BECAUSE WE'VE REACHED THIS POINT!

When I was young – quite a while ago now – the future was presented to us as something rather fabulous. It was going to be a science-fiction world we could dream about.

It didn’t quite turn out that way. Smartwatches that can analyze our blood-oxygen levels, self-driving electric cars, and household robots are now part of everyday life. And for the past few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has been making inroads just about everywhere. We now have to acknowledge that yes, we've indeed reached this point.

In the audiovisual industry, this transformation is particularly striking. Tools for creation, editing, visual effects, and even writing now integrate AI technologies that are reshaping how we work – sometimes at the expense of recognition for human expertise. This raises a major challenge: how do we preserve the value of our know-how while integrating these new tools?

We’re facing an increasingly dematerialized world in which the digital realm tends to replace the real one. With all the biases that entails, we are right to be concerned – and to believe that our children should be introduced to how AI works starting in elementary school.
Yet that’s not what we’re seeing. On the contrary, multinationals are plundering our cultures, imposing their own rules, and escaping any form of public regulation. Governments – which should be setting clear frameworks and establishing standards for ethical issues – too often seem to throw in the towel. We would never allow a thief to walk into a museum and leave with a painting without reacting. So why would we accept our creations being stolen in silence?

Once again, we will have to rely on our own means. That’s precisely why AQTIS 514 IATSE is setting up an AI committee, which will be active very soon. Its mission will be to assess the concrete impacts of AI on our trades, defend the indispensable place of audiovisual technicians, and propose solid guardrails so that this technological revolution proceeds with respect for our skills, our jobs, and our culture. If you’d like to be part of it, write to me at vppostproduction@aqtis514iatse.com.

Claude Collins
Vice President – Postproduction