CES Preview - AI & Media, Entertainment
Plus My Exclusive Interview with Will Kreth, CEO of HAND (Human and Digital) - Digital Fingerprints to Track Personal Identities Used in AI
H-AI-ppy New Year dear readers! Your holiday R&R is now a ghost of 2024 past. We’re now into 2025, and you know what that means — it’s CES time! So grab your Tums and let’s prep for your generative AI, media and entertainment meetings. First, my “mAIn event” features my exclusive interview with Will Kreth, CEO of HAND (Human and Digital) — an AI focused company that tags individual identities (e.g., celebrities) so that they can be tracked when used by AI. Then, it’s a reprise of my 10 Predictions for Generative AI in 2025. My weekly “AI Litigation Tracker” updates — powered by leading IP law firm McKool Smith — take a rest this week but return after CES. Until then, check out the latest case status here.
But First, CES Is Here! Join me TODAY
TODAY, at 2 pm, I moderate an AI-focused panel at Digital Hollywood/CES at the Aria. Join me for my panel titled “AI and the Crisis of Creative Rights: Deep Fakes, Ethics & the Law” which features an A(I)-List expert panel. And reach out to me at peter@creativemedia.biz if you’d like to try to connect.
I. Interview with Will Kreth, CEO of HAND (Human & Digital)
Here’s my exclusive interview with Will Kreth, CEO of HAND (Human and Digital), a company focused on developing the world's first standardized "talent ID" system for generative AI and more.
Here’s a “teaser” excerpt below (before you watch the full enchilada).
And here’s the full interview/video (below).
HAND describes itself as being the first global B2B Talent ID registry platform for efficient discoverability, royalty collection, and revenue tracking of notable legal and natural persons and control of consent-based digital replicas for thousands of Hollywood celebrities and professional sports athletes (NFL, MLB, etc.). Is that clear to you? Just watch the video and it will be. I believe in the AI/talent issues that this startup is trying to address and solve. Those individual talent issues are critical, but still largely “under the radar” (but will bubble up significantly in 2025). That’s why I feature HAND here.
II. My 10 Predictions for AI, Media & Entertainment in 2025
Here are my 10 predictions for what to expect in the world of generative AI as it impacts media and entertainment in 2025. (You can also listen to them on Apple Podcasts and all other major podcast platforms; also, you can watch via YouTube).
#1. Courts Will Make Their First “Fair Use” Decisions (& Media Will “Win” More Than It Loses)
Federal district courts hearing generative AI copyright infringement cases (The New York Times v. OpenAI, Dow Jones v. Perplexity, etc.) will make their first “fair use” decisions, and those initial decisions will be a mixed bag — but will come down mostly on the side of rights-holders (i.e., rejecting fair use). That won’t mean the “fair use” issue will be conclusively resolved, of course. Not all courts will reach the same decision, and generative AI companies on the losing end will certainly appeal. But initial court victories by IP rights-holders will have far-reaching ramifications. Read on.
#2. GenAI Companies Will Accelerate Their Content Licensing Activity
Media’s initial legal victories on the issue of “fair use” will immediately impact and accelerate the market for licensing content for generative AI purposes (i.e., training and output/display) — significantly increasing the dollars and overall economics that flow to rights-holders. 2024 already saw an increasing number of deals between Big Tech and Big Media. But GenAI’s insatiable need for “fresh” content for both fine-tuning and output/display purposes — coupled with these initial court victories — will significantly expand 2024’s deal numbers (and the dollars that flow from them).
#3. Companies Will Embrace “Ethical AI”
“Ethical AI” — i.e., LLMs trained only on licensed content — is already a major “thing” (as it should be). But the prioritization of “ethical AI” will be a leading theme in 2025, fueled by those court cases that begin to beat back Big Tech’s claims of “fair use.” Any company operating in the creative community — i.e., where personal, human relationships matter (studios and streamers for example) — will face mounting pressure only to work with “ethical AI” companies. But the call for “ethical AI” will go well beyond the world of media and entertainment. I recently featured one such highly pedigreed “ethical AI” company, ProRata AI.
#4. The Industry Will Move Toward a 3-Tier Content Licensing System
Yes, 2025 will feature an increasing number of content licensing deals for bigger and bigger dollars between Big Tech and “Tier-1” Big Media. But “Tier-2” mid-tail media companies will begin to join the “fun” too. Expect “content pools” — aggregating the content of multiple media companies — to offer a “strength in numbers” approach that works for both the participating mid-tail media companies and the generative AI companies that need their content. Meanwhile, we will begin to see the first automated “opt in” licensing systems for smaller “Tier-3” rights-holders that boast compelling quality content. Tollbit is a leading start-up that offers that kind of an automated solution, hails out of Silicon Valley, and has been significantly funded.
#5. Media Licensing for AI Will Trigger Scrutiny on Individual Talent Name, Image, Likeness & Voice Issues
If Big Media IP/content rights-holders decide to license their content libraries to Big Tech for generative AI training purposes — which they increasingly will — then individual celebrity talent featured in those licensed films and television series will expect to be paid (as they should). In other words, name, image, likeness and voice issues will need to be solved with consent and compensation. These discussions — which began to bubble up quietly in the latter half of 2024 — are now rising to the top. I know, because I am in the midst of them.
#6. Entertainment Will Need New AI Tracking, Reporting & Payment Systems
Content rights-holders of all stripes will need to be paid when their content is used for LLM training and in connection with GenAI output/display. And licensing contracts and protocols will need to be enforced. For all these reasons, new companies will rise up to offer the content tracking and reporting systems necessary for a new economic model to rise up and take hold. ProRata AI mentioned above in Prediction #3 is one such company. Vermillio is another.
#7. The Entertainment Industry Will More Openly Embrace GenAI in Its Workflows, After Quietly Experimenting in 2024
Shhh. Hear anything? Nothing but crickets so far from the major studios and streamers about GenAI companies scraping their copyrighted works without consent and compensation. And there’s a reason for that. Major entertainment companies want to use generative AI for myriad reasons (e.g., production cost and speed efficiencies), but haven’t done it yet openly due to understandable fear of creative community blowback. But 2025 will force the issue — and entertainment companies will reach initial understandings with individual talent (and their guilds) on how it can and should be done.
#8. The Music Industry Will Continue to Act More Aggressively Towards Big Tech
The music industry faces even more existential questions posed by generative AI than the broader set of entertainment companies (studios and streamers) — and that’s why we saw the major labels sue several GenAI companies for infringement in 2024 (while the studios and streamers remained silent). Music’s more aggressive stance will continue in 2025, and relationships between the major music labels and GenAI companies will remain mostly fractured. They and the artists they represent will expect to be paid — and seek to find ways to stop the flood of endless AI-generated music that has begun to overrun Spotify and all streamers. It’s in both sides’ interests to find workable solutions that will also enhance consumer experiences.
#9. The Broader Creative Community Will Move Past Its Initial AI Shock & Awe — and Begin to Use GenAI at Scale
Generative AI is here to stay and is already transforming the media and entertainment industry. That means this tech-tonic transformation can’t be feared, but instead should be met with stoicism — AI acceptance, education and “ethical AI” experimentation — across all segments of “the business.” The creative community will respond with significantly more widespread use of generative AI for both creative and efficiency reasons. One obvious use case — helping to shatter writer’s block.
#10. Sora & Other Video Generators Will Enable Filmmakers to Create the First “Real” Short Films
OpenAI unleashed ChatGPT just over 2 years ago, and then launched Sora early this past year. Sora’s just-released version — open to us all for the first time — enables 1080p videos up to 20 seconds. Can there be any doubt that AI’s relentless power will be at a significantly higher order of magnitude by the end of next year? So expect Sora — and competing video generators offered by Google, Meta and others — to enable the creation of the first “real” high quality short films of several minutes.
Check out my firm Creative Media and our AI-focused services. Work with us to get to the right senior level decision-makers at the major generative AI companies to explore AI licensing — and to discuss, strategize and solve your overall AI issues, goals and needs. We’re tapped in at all the right levels — and with deep market intelligence not available anywhere else.
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