The 2023 Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strike was heavily featured in the news for its entire duration, and many thought the deals they struck would resolve key issues, but it seems now that this will not be the case.
Ever since AI began its rise, there have been attempts to slip it into TV shows and movies, such as in Disney+’s “Secret Invasion.”
The SAG-AFTRA was a large-scale strike that, in simple terms, made the use of AI in creative licenses extremely unlikely, clarifying that its rare use must be made public.
So when “What Jennifer Did” a TV show and true crime murder docuseries, is found to be using AI, it sparks concerns about what this means for the entertainment industry and the potential death of creativity.
The Netflix docuseries, “What Jennifer Did,” attempts to tell the story of Jennifer Pan, who was found guilty of attempting to kill her parents. In the process of explaining more about Jennifer and her background, the series featured many pictures of Pan.
The problem is that some of these images were entirely fabricated.
The idea that directors, especially true crime directors, might use AI to further their show or movie horrifies many people due to the potential for extremely damaging images or videos to be fabricated for the purpose of entertainment.
Senior Landon Asta thinks that AI in TV shows and movies can devalue the work. “I just don’t think that it’s a good tradeoff for producers and directors and all of them to be using AI when it usually just comes out worse than a person’s work,” he said.
The topic also became more controversial as people realized that, had the topic not been brought up, the series’ creators never would have acknowledged their use of AI, a very alarming precedent for what films and television could look like.
Junior Riley Rashka believes that it is a real problem when the use of AI isn’t transparent. “In shows or online, when things aren’t labeled as AI it usually creates more confusion and more problems when people mistake the images as truth,” Raksha shared.
“What Jennifer Did” was meant to be a simple true crime docuseries, just like others before it, but instead the series has demonstrated that the entertainment industry, and the world, may never be the same.
