Weekly Column: AI and Tech advancement in Entertainment, Media, Sports

In his capacity as a Columnist for California Sports Lawyer®, Founder and Managing Attorney Jeremy Evans has written a column about the rise in use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in entertainment, media, and sports.

You can read the full column below.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has its issues. It has the bias issue, which is the result of incorrect or biased information provided to the learning module. Biased machine learning can lead to algorithm or prediction bias that perpetuates biases and bad decision-making.

AI has the ability to deepfake others and brings an entirely new concern with regard to identity theft as actress Scarlett Johansson recently learned. OpenAI’s ChatGPT voice apparently sounded eerily similar to Johanasson. There are also issues in the rush to adopt, or in the alternative, the issues of acceptance or reluctance to adapt to using new technology. There are also privacy law, copyright, and trademark issues in the collection, creation, delivery, and distribution of AI results and data.

However, the growth of AI in entertainment, media, sports, business, and personal use continues its meteoric rise. Many companies are turning to AI to assist with their business planning, software, and development. Netflix, for example, will bring its advertising technology in-house so that it can better manage data for its 40 million ad-based platform users. Surely, AI will be the software that is used or programed to collect and analyze the data of 40 million users. Generative AI also requires a massive amount of energy to run. Yale University estimates that by 2027 the electricity needed to run AI alone will surpass all use in the Netherlands and Japan, while the water used for cooling will be half the use of the United Kingdom.

As generative AI is dependent on collecting data to learn and share information based on prompts, it should come as no surprise that OpenAI, the makers of ChatGPT, DALL-E (text-to-image generative AI creative platform), and Sora (text-to-video generative AI creative platform) have just signed a data and advertising deal with Reddit. Data to generative AI is akin to water and human survival. Therefore, the Reddit deal with OpenAI makes sense as the company is known as a social news platform where content is socially curated and promoted by site members through voting (e.g., more data).

The Hollywood Reporter wrote last week that AI was already in high demand and use in the film and entertainment industry, but some were weary to mention it publicly because of the labor and employment concerns. Major League Baseball (MLB) is already using AI in the minor leagues with umpires on challenged ball/strike calls. Too bad MLB, the National Hockey League (NHL), and the National Basketball Association (NBA) cannot use generative AI to recreate the games that were set to appear on the regional sports networks that has been delayed to due to a carriage dispute between Comcast and Diamond Sports Group (parent company of Bally Sports).

About Jeremy M. Evans:

Jeremy M. Evans is the Chief Entrepreneur Officer, Founder & Managing Attorney at California Sports Lawyer®, representing entertainment, media, and sports clients in contractual, intellectual property, and dealmaking matters. Evans is an award-winning attorney and industry leader based in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, California. He can be reached at Jeremy@CSLlegal.com. www.CSLlegal.com.